USS Tucson (CL-98)
USS Tucson (circa late 1940s)
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Tucson |
Namesake | City of Tucson, Arizona |
Builder | San Francisco, California |
Laid down | 23 December 1942 |
Launched | 3 September 1944 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. Emmett S. Claunch, Sr. |
Commissioned | 3 February 1945 |
Decommissioned | 11 June 1949 |
Reclassified | CLAA-98 18 March 1949 |
Stricken | 1 June 1966 |
Identification |
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Honors and awards | battle stars |
Fate | Sold for scrap on 24 February 1971 |
General characteristics (as built)[1][2][3] | |
Class and type | Atlanta-class light cruiser |
Displacement |
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Length | 541 ft 6 in (165.05 m) oa |
Beam | 53 ft (16 m) |
Draft |
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Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h) |
Complement | 688 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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Armor |
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USS Tucson (CL-98/CLAA-98) was a modified
Service history
World War II
Following outfitting at San Francisco and shakedown out of
Tucson joined the fast carriers just in time to participate in their final rampage against the
Post-war service
Though hostilities had ceased in mid-August and the Japanese had surrendered formally on 2 September, Tucson remained in the
On 6 September, she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for a three-month overhaul to get ready for duty under the Commander, Destroyers, Pacific Fleet. For the next two months, Tucson trained out of San Diego in preparation for a fleet exercise to be conducted near Hawaii. On 24 February 1947, the cruiser stood out of San Diego and cruised Hawaiian waters as an element of the force charged with the defense of the islands against an aggressor force moving in from the western Pacific. At the completion of the exercise, the warship put into Pearl Harbor on 11 March. However, she got underway again on 18 March to participate in the fruitless search to the northwest of Hawaii for survivors of the wrecked SS Fort Dearborn.[4]
On 27 March, Tucson returned to San Diego and resumed normal west coast operations until late summer. She again departed the west coast on 28 July and proceeded, via Pearl Harbor, to the Far East, arriving at Yokosuka, Japan, on the 15 August. For the next two months, the warship cruised the waters of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea making observations during the Communist-Nationalist struggle for supremacy in Manchuria and northern China. During that period, she visited Shanghai twice and Tsingtao once. Tucson returned to Yokosuka on 19 October, stayed overnight, and sailed the next day for the United States, arriving at San Diego on 6 November. The cruiser resumed west coast operations and, for the brief remainder of her active career, remained so engaged.[4]
On 9 February 1949, Tucson reported to Mare Island Naval Shipyard to begin preparations for inactivation. Like the other Atlanta-class cruisers, Tucson was reclassified as a light antiaircraft cruiser (CLAA) on 18 March 1949. On 11 June 1949, she was decommissioned and berthed with the San Francisco Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. She remained in reserve at Mare Island until 1 June 1966 when her name was struck from the Navy list. The former warship served as a test hulk until 1970. On 24 February 1971, the hulk was sold to the National Metal & Steel Corp., of Terminal Island, California, for scrapping.[4]
Legacy
The base of one of the rotating gun turrets was later surplussed to be used as the rotating mount of a giant Van de Graaf particle accelerator at the physics department of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.[5][6] The beam line shot out by the accelerator was steered by rotating the entire accelerator assembly mounted on the turret base. It remained in use until the accelerator was decommissioned around 2005. The fact that a turret base of Tucson was surplussed to be used in Tucson, AZ is apparently a pure coincidence.[7]
Awards
Tucson earned one
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- ^ Rickard, J (13 January 2015). "Atlanta Class Cruisers". Historyofwar.org. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ "US Cruisers List: US Light/Heavy/AntiAircraft Cruisers, Part 2". Hazegray.org. 24 April 2000. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- ISBN 0-87021-974-X.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Tucson". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 9 April 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ Donahue, D.; J. McCullen; L. McIntyre (31 October 1968). [NUCLEAR PHYSICS]. Progress Report, January 1967 — December 1967 (Technical report). Arizona Univ., Tucson. COO-1468-2.
Purchased With AEC Funds: Gun mount for magnet . . . Acquisition Cost: 2,000.00
- ^ "New Atom Smasher". Tucson Daily Star. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
- ^ "Stanley Bashkin found new uses for old weapons". Tucson Daily Star. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
External links
- Photo gallery of USS Tucson at NavSource Naval History
- Papers of Harry Sanders, Commander of the USS Tucson (1946), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library