USS McCook (DD-496)

	USS McCook off Philadelphia Navy Yard, 12 July 1945
History
United States
Name	McCook
Namesake	Roderick S. McCook
Builder	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	1 May 1941
Launched	30 April 1942
Commissioned	15 March 1943
Identification	DD-496
Reclassified	DMS-36, 30 May 1945
Decommissioned	27 May 1949
Stricken	15 January 1972
Fate	Sold 27 August 1973 and; broken up for scrap;
General characteristics
Class and type	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement	1,630 tons
Length	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft	11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion	50,000 shp (37,000 kW);; 4 boilers;; 2 propellers;
Speed	37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament	5 × DP guns,; 6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) guns,; 6 × 20 mm AA guns,; 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes,; 2 × depth charge tracks;

USS McCook (DD-496), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Commander Roderick S. McCook (1839–1886), who was an officer in the Union Navy during the American Civil War.

McCook was

launched on 30 April 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Reed Knox, granddaughter of Comdr. McCook. The ship was commissioned

on 15 March 1943.

History

Initial operations

After shakedown out of San Diego, McCook sailed for the east coast 22 May 1943. She reported at

Boston

on 27 February.

Further training in

Slapton Sands and at Belfast

.

At Weymouth Roads 28 May McCook was caught in an air raid in which she suffered damage to her radar, sound equipment, range finder, and main battery director in addition to having five guns disabled and losing steering control from the bridge. Luckily there were no personnel casualties. The damage threatened to keep her out of the upcoming invasion for which she had been training for the past month. But the fast and efficient craftsmen on board the destroyer tender Melville quickly had her back in fighting trim.

Normandy landings, Operation Anvil

On 5 June, McCook departed with Destroyer Squadron 18 (DesRon 18) and ships of Assault Force "O" for the coast of

Baie de la Seine and at 03:20 commenced bombardment of the beaches and waterfront of the Pointe du Hoc–Vierville-sur-Mer area. By 06:16 she had neutralized her assigned targets (three pillboxes, 13 machine gun nests and three shore guns) and had begun to take on targets of opportunity. By the end of the day, she had added to her score seven pillboxes, eight gun emplacements and ten stone houses, in which enemy machine guns

and snipers had been placed.

Resupplying and fueling at Portland and Plymouth, McCook continued to operate in the invasion area until 14 July. Four days later she was en route to

Mers-el-Kebir, where she remained until 4 August. She then sailed to Naples to join the forces assembling for Operation Anvil, the invasion of southern France. On 13 August she sailed for France, arriving on 14 August to take up a screening position south of Toulon. For the next 35 days she remained in the assault area providing gunfire support and screen protection to the Allied combatants and to the supply and reinforcement convoys from Corsica

and Naples.

She departed for the United States via

destroyer-minesweeper

. She was reclassified DMS-36 on 30 May.

Her conversion completed on 12 July, she conducted

minesweeping

exercises until 12 August. She then departed for postwar duties in the western Pacific.

Postwar services

McCook arrived at

Okinawa 28 September and, after riding out two typhoons, commenced minesweeping operations in the Yellow Sea toward the end of October. Working with MinRon 1, she cut 77 of the 500 mines

swept by that group during the period 23 October to 15 November.

She arrived at

San Francisco

on 31 March.

McCook remained at San Francisco until 14 January 1947 when she was ordered to

San Diego. Working primarily with the Underwater Training Unit, San Diego, she operated out of that port for the next two years. She also participated in destroyer squadron exercises and battle problems off the California coast and in the Hawaiian Islands. A cruise to the Marshalls and the Marianas

, 7 July to 11 September 1947, was her only oversea deployment during this period.

By January 1949, deactivation had begun aboard McCook and on 27 May she was decommissioned and was berthed at San Diego as a part of the

Pacific Reserve Fleet

. Reclassified DD-496 on 15 July 1955, McCook was stricken from the register on 15 January 1972. She was sold 27 August 1973 and broken up for scrap.

McCook received three

battle stars

for World War II service.

References

^ "Ralph Lester Ramey". militarytimes.com. Retrieved 3 June 2016.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

[1] "Ralph Lester Ramey". militarytimes.com. Retrieved 3 June 2016.