USS Newman K. Perry

	USS Newman K. Perry underway in late 1950s
History
United States
Name	Newman K. Perry
Namesake	Newman Kershaw Perry
Builder	Consolidated Steel Corporation
Laid down	10 October 1944
Launched	17 March 1945
Commissioned	26 July 1945
Decommissioned	27 February 1981
Reclassified	DDR-883, 1950
Stricken	27 February 1981
Identification	Callsign: NNKP; ; Hull number: DD-883;
Motto	Pacem et Bellum Gerens Vigilans ; (Occupied in War and Watchful in Peace);
Fate	Transferred to South Korea, 1981
Badge
South Korea
Name	Gyeonggi; (경기);
Namesake	Gyeonggi
Acquired	1981
Commissioned	1981
Decommissioned	1997
Fate	Scrapped, 1999
General characteristics
Class and type	Gearing-class destroyer; Kangwon-class destroyer;
Displacement	2,425 long tons (2,464 t)
Length	390 ft 6 in (119.02 m)
Beam	40 ft 10 in (12.45 m)
Draft	18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Propulsion	Geared turbines, 2 shafts
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Complement	345
Armament	6 × 5"/38 caliber guns; 12 × 40 mm AA guns; 10 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 6 × depth charge projectors; 2 × depth charge tracks;

USS Newman K. Perry (DD-883/DDR-883), was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy.

Namesake

Newman Kershaw Perry was born on 28 November 1880 in South Carolina. He was appointed Naval Cadet on 9 September 1897 and commissioned Ensign on 7 June 1903. Stationed on the USS Bennington, he was killed by a boiler explosion on that ship at San Diego on 21 July 1905.

Construction and commissioning

Newman K. Perry was laid down by the

launched on 17 March 1945 by Mrs. Laura P. Gunter, sister of Ensign Perry and commissioned

on 26 July 1945.

Service history

1945–1949

Following shakedown, Newman K. Perry served briefly with the Atlantic Fleet. On 7 November 1945, she got underway for Pearl Harbor, whence she traveled to Japan for three months' occupation duty. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 28 March 1946 and was assigned to Joint Task Force 1 for "Operation Crossroads", the 1946 atomic bomb test series at Bikini. Sailing for the Marshall Islands on 27 May, she witnessed tests "Able" and "Baker" and, in August, steamed for the United States.

On 18 August she arrived at

Okinawa. Relieved on 5 May 1948, she returned to San Diego, trained naval reservists through the summer, and in October entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard

for overhaul.

The destroyer departed San Francisco on 15 January 1949 and until April conducted exercises off the west coast. On 4 April, she departed San Diego with DesDiv 182 for Newport, Rhode Island, her new homeport, arriving 21 April.

1950–1968

After her return to Destroyer Forces, Atlantic Fleet, she rotated tours with the

Boston Naval Shipyard until February 1965. The most visible alteration were the new bridge, the addition of a hangar and landing deck aft for the Gyrodyne QH-50 DASH drone and the addition of an ASROC

launcher between the funnels. Modernized into a "regular" destroyer again, she resumed the designation DD-883.

In August 1965 she collided with the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La in the Mediterranean, killing one, Fred Greene, and injuring another, John Ryals. A change in operations in 1959 took her to Charleston, South Carolina, which served as her homeport for several years before she resumed operations out of Newport.

A second change in operations took her to the Western Pacific for her overseas deployment in 1966. Departing Newport with Destroyer Division 201 on 4 October, she transited the

Special Forces units for five days, returning to the Delta area in December. Other assignments on that tour with the 7th Fleet took her along the coast to the DMZ and then to the Gulf of Tonkin for plane guard and search and rescue missions. On 8 March 1967, she departed the combat zone for Hong Kong before returning to Subic Bay

for the last time. On the 27th she departed the Philippines for the Mediterranean and Newport, arriving on 8 May.

After overhaul at Boston, Newman K. Perry began 1968, with Caribbean exercises and on 4 April departed Newport for the Mediterranean to resume her annual deployments with the 6th Fleet.

1969–1981

In the 1971 Newman K. Perry was assigned to the Naval Reserve Force (NRF) as a unit of

decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register

on 27 February 1981.

ROKS Kyong Ki

Newman K. Perry was transferred to South Korea in 1981 for service in the Republic of Korea Navy and renamed ROKS Kyong Ki. South Korea decommissioned Kyong Ki in 1997. She later was damaged by fire and scrapped in 1999.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

External links

Photo gallery of USS Newman K. Perry at NavSource Naval History