USS Stormes
USS Stormes (DD-780) off Hampton Roads, Virginia on 13 November 1968
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Stormes |
Namesake | Max Clifford Stormes |
Builder | Todd Pacific Shipyards , Seattle |
Laid down | 15 February 1944 |
Launched | 4 November 1944 |
Commissioned | 27 January 1945 |
Decommissioned | 5 December 1970 |
Stricken | 16 February 1972 |
Motto | Versatile Vigilant |
Honours and awards | 5 battle stars |
Fate | Sold to Iran on 16 February 1972 |
Iran | |
Name | Palang |
Namesake | Panthera pardus tulliana |
Acquired | 16 February 1972 |
Identification | DDG-9 / D 62 |
Fate | Non-operational since 1994 to be scrapped |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer |
Displacement | 2,200 tons |
Length | 376 ft 6 in (114.76 m) |
Beam | 40 ft (12 m) |
Draft | 15 ft 8 in (4.78 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) |
Range | 6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Complement | 336 |
Armament |
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General characteristics as Palang, 1989 | |
Class and type | FRAM II Allen M. Summner class |
Displacement |
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Length | 376 ft 5 in (114.73 m) |
Beam | 41 ft (12.50 m) |
Draft | 21 ft 4 in (6.50 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) |
Range | 3,740 nmi (6,930 km) at 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h) |
Complement | 290 |
Sensors and processing systems | |
Electronic warfare & decoys |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 1 × Agusta AB 204AS helicopter |
Notes | [1] |
USS Stormes (DD-780) was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer that served in the United States Navy.
Namesake
Max Clifford Stormes was born on 27 July 1903 in Big Flats, New York. He was appointed midshipman at the United States Naval Academy on 15 June 1920 and graduated on 15 May 1924. He was assigned to USS Nevada and subsequently served on USS Chewink and USS S-33. He served with Submarine Division 20 in 1929 and 1930 and then attended a post-graduate course at the United States Naval Academy in 1931 and 1932. His next tour of sea duty was as commanding officer of USS Talbot followed by a tour on USS Chicago as damage control officer.
He became commanding officer of
Construction and commissioning
Stormes was
Service history
World War II
Stormes was fitted out at Seattle and departed there on 14 February for the San Diego Bay area where she held her shakedown training. Upon completion of her shakedown, she sailed on 1 April for Bremerton, Washington for a post-shakedown overhaul. Dock trials were held on the morning of 22 April; and, that afternoon, the destroyer put to sea, en route to Hawaii.
Stormes arrived at
Okinawa kamikaze strike
The destroyer was immediately assigned to the antiaircraft screen. She spent the night in the anchorage and took her position in the screen the next day. The ship underwent her first air raid that evening. The weather was bad on the morning of 25 May with poor visibility and intermittent rain squalls. At 0905, a Japanese plane was sighted as it passed between two US Navy planes and headed for Ammen directly ahead of Stormes. At the last moment, the plane turned and crashed into Stormes's aft torpedo mount. Its bomb exploded in the magazine under her number three 5-inch mount. The ship was on fire, and sea water poured through holes in the hull. By noon, repair parties had extinguished the fires and plugged the holes. Twenty-one members of the crew were killed and 15 injured.[2][3]
The battered destroyer slowly made her way back to
The destroyer held refresher training in the San Diego area and, in January 1946, sailed for the east coast. She arrived at
Stormes arrived at Norfolk on 1 February and spent the remainder of the month preparing for Operation "Frostbite" which was to take place in March.
In January 1947, Stormes participated in an exercise at Guantanamo Bay and returned to the Caribbean the following month for a fleet exercise. The destroyer carried out routine fleet duties from her Norfolk base until 1950. In August, she sailed to Charleston, South Carolina, for inactivation.
Korean War
However, she was reactivated in September due to the Korean War. In December 1950, she began a three-month yard overhaul at Charleston which was followed by a six-week shakedown cruise. In May 1951, the destroyer sailed to the west coast and was routed onward to join the 7th Fleet off Korea.[2]
Stormes operated with Task Force 77, shelling enemy lines, screening large fleet units, rescuing downed pilots, and performing antisubmarine duties until January 1952 when she returned to Norfolk.
While on protection detail in Wonsan Harbor as support for the
Stormes made a midshipman cruise to England and France that summer and then operated along the Atlantic seaboard until June 1953 when she entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for a four-month yard period and its subsequent shakedown.
1954-1965
In February 1954, the destroyer embarked on a world cruise which took her to Naples, Suez, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Yokosuka, Sasebo, Midway, and Pearl Harbor. She reached San Francisco in July and returned to Norfolk in August.
Stormes sailed, on 4 January 1955, for the Caribbean to participate in Operation "Springboard 55." She operated with Valley Forge in Antisubmarine Group 3 from 4 January to August. The destroyer participated in a NATO exercise in early September and then continued local operations until February 1956 when she entered the Norfolk Navy Yard. Stormes left the shipyard in May and sailed to Guantanamo Bay for refresher training which lasted until July. From then to November, the ship participated in local exercises to maintain her state of readiness in anticipation of an overseas tour.
On 7 November, Stormes sailed with Destroyer Division 261 and arrived at
Stormes remained in port until 27 January 1958 when she embarked on a two-week exercise with other ships of DesDiv 261. The remainder of the year and part of 1959 saw the destroyer taking part in local and fleet operations from New York to the Caribbean. On 7 August 1959, she sailed for her third tour with the 6th Fleet which terminated upon her return to Norfolk on 26 February 1960. The ship entered the Navy Yard on 3 June for a
Stormes sailed for Norfolk, via Key West, and arrived there on 1 April. She operated with fleet units on the east coast and in the Caribbean for the remainder of the year. The highlight of the year's activities came in November when Stormes was designated to recover a spacecraft carrying a chimpanzee named Enos, the first chimpanzee to orbit the Earth. The spacecraft landed approximately 30 miles from the destroyer. Stormes, aided by an aircraft which had the capsule in sight, recovered it and Enos who was in good health. The ship spent the next year operating with Task Group Alpha, a hunter-killer group developing the antisubmarine readiness of the fleet.
On 9 November 1962, Stormes joined the Cuban Blockade and continued that duty until the end of the
Stormes continued operating with Task Group Alfa until May 1965 when she was ordered to patrol the coastal waters of the Dominican Republic during the revolution there. When relieved of patrol duty, she returned to Norfolk and prepared for a deployment period. She was with the 6th Fleet from June to August and returned to her homeport in early September. On 1 June 1966, Stormes stood out of Norfolk with DesRon 32 for a six and one-half month deployment to the western Pacific.
Vietnam
While in WestPac, her primary duty was plane guard for
Transfer to Iran
Stormes was removed from active status and placed on the reserve list on 5 December 1970. She was struck from the Navy list on 16 February 1972. Stormes was sold to Iran on 16 February 1972 and served as Palang (Leopard) (DDG-9/62) until 1994.
Awards
Stormes received one
See also
References
Citations
- ISBN 978-0710608864.
- ^ Description of kamikaze attack in Morison, Samuel, Eliot, Victory in the Pacific 1945, (1960), Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, pg. 259
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.