USS John Willis
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | USS John Willis |
Namesake | John Harlan Willis |
Builder | New York Shipbuilding Company |
Laid down | 5 July 1955 |
Launched | 4 February 1956 |
Commissioned | 21 February 1957 |
Stricken | 14 July 1972 |
Fate | Sold for scrap 1973 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Dealey-class destroyer escort |
Displacement | 1,877 long tons (1,907 t) full load |
Length | 314 ft 6 in (95.86 m) |
Beam | 36 ft 9 in (11.20 m) |
Draft | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 27 knots (31 mph; 50 km/h) |
Range | 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
Complement | 170 |
Armament |
|
USS John Willis (DE-1027) was a Dealey-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy in service from 1957 to 1972.
Service history
John Willis was launched by the
1950s
John Willis reported to
She steamed from Newport on 12 May 1958, for the Mediterranean; and following her arrival at
1960s
On 29 November she entered the
John Willis returned to Newport 20 October, and resumed coastal operations. On 8 May 1961 she sailed to Guantanamo Bay for patrol duty along the Windward Passage of the Caribbean. Following the assassination of Dominican Dictator
In response to a request for aid by President Balaguer, who feared that supporters of slain Dictator Trujillo would topple the democratic government in the Dominican Republic, President John F. Kennedy ordered units of the Atlantic Fleet into the area to illustrate America's support for the established government. John Willis sailed to the Dominican Republic on 2 December and commenced seven days of patrol duty after which she returned to Newport to prepare for another cruise to Northern Europe.
She sailed for Portsmouth, England on 8 January 1962, and reached the English coast 19 January. While sailing the North Sea on 23 January en route to Horton, Norway, she assisted units of the British Navy during search and rescue operations for stricken Norwegian ship, Eystein. John Willis put into Horton on 24 January and for three weeks sailed to several Norwegian ports while officers and engineers of the Royal Norwegian Navy studied the construction details and operational characteristics of this Dealey-class destroyer escort, which had been selected as the prototype for five new Norwegian warships. Upon completion of her Norwegian cruise, the warship sailed on 15 February for the United States and arrived Newport on 3 March.
John Willis resumed ASW and convoy escort exercises out of Newport and during August received additional ASW equipment. Following 4 months of extensive overhaul, she steamed to the Caribbean on 1 March 1963, for an operational readiness inspection. After returning to Newport on 8 April, she commenced operations on 15 April with a NATO force of 30 ships, engaged in ASW Exercise, "New Broom Eleven," in the North Atlantic. After her return to Newport on 25 April, she began 6 months of intermittent training in preparation for an Atlantic Fleet amphibious Exercise, "Phibaswex," scheduled for December. During this training period she conducted convoy escort and ASW maneuvers from Narragansett Bay to Guantanamo Bay; she attended the ASW Tactical School at Norfolk; and she served as a training ship at the Fleet Sonar School at Key West. While engaging in maneuvers designed to detect and destroy nuclear submarines, John Willis provided search and rescue assistance 23 September for a MATS plane, which was lost in the North Atlantic on a flight from Dover, Delaware, to the Azores.
John Willis steamed from Newport on 2 December with Escort Squadron 10 and joined Task Force 180 for amphibious exercise at
For the next three years John Willis continued to operate along the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean while taking part in squadron exercises and serving as school ship at Key West. During the latter half of 1964 and 1965 she participated in UNITAS V and UNITAS VI and made two cruises along the coasts of South America as part of the U.S. sponsored "People-to-People" Program. Between January and June 1966 she underwent extensive overhaul at Boston, Massachusetts where she received DASH capabilities and communications alterations: thence she resumed refresher and readiness training out of Newport. Assigned to Escort Squadron 8, she deployed to European waters on 29 May 1967. After arriving off the Norwegian coast early in June, she operated along the coast of Western Europe during the next month before sailing to join the ever ready and powerful ships of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.
In 1968 John Willis returned to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean to escort the aircraft carrier Essex. The destroyer escort followed Essex to the North Atlantic and returned to Newport in June 1968. During that cruise John Willis visited France, Italy, Belgium, England, Norway, Northern Ireland, and Malta.
Fate
She was stricken from the naval registry on 14 July 1972, and on 8 May 1973, she was sold for scrapping.[2]
References
- ^ This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- ^ navsource.org: USS John Willis