USS Willard Keith (DD-775)
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Willard Keith |
Namesake | Willard Keith |
Builder | Bethlehem Shipbuilding, San Pedro |
Laid down | 5 March 1944 |
Launched | 29 August 1944 |
Commissioned | 27 December 1944 |
Decommissioned | 1 July 1972 |
Stricken | 1 July 1972 |
Motto | Per Angusta Ad Augusta, Latin for "By Narrow Paths to High Places" |
Fate | To Colombia 1 July 1972 |
Colombia | |
Name | Caldas |
Acquired | 1 July 1972 |
Stricken | 1977 |
Identification | DD-02 |
Fate | Scrapped 1977 |
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 |
|
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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USS Willard Keith (DD-775), an
Willard Keith (DD-775) was
Cancelled ships
The US Navy had two previous contracts for
Service history
World War II
After shakedown training out of San Diego, California, Willard Keith operated temporarily out of the Pre-commissioning Training Center at San Francisco, California, as training ship for engineering personnel. During that time, she made weekly trips from San Francisco to San Clemente Island and back.
It is rumored that, during one of these runs from San Clemente to San Francisco, Willard Keith encountered, depth-charged, and supposedly destroyed a sonar contact of unknown origin or nationality. The matter was allegedly suppressed by the ship's officers, save the eyewitness accounts of some crew members. However, no documentation or physical proof of this alleged encounter has been discovered. A few remaining crew of Willard Keith have formed a non-profit organization (The Marine War Memorial Association of Half Moon Bay, California) with the mission of finding and memorializing this alleged sunken wreck.[1]
Completing that tour of training duty in mid-April 1945, Willard Keith sailed for the
Willard Keith then joined a
Williard Keith was the
1946
Subsequently, Willard Keith proceeded down the west coast; transited the
After operations in the British West Indies area, Willard Keith returned to Norfolk, Virginia, from whence she escorted the battleships Washington and North Carolina to Culebra, Puerto Rico, for shore bombardment exercises. The destroyer then returned to Norfolk as part of the screen for the battlewagons, before she drew another escort assignment, this time with the aircraft carrier Philippine Sea. Conducting exercises and maneuvers en route, the carrier and her consorts reached Guantanamo Bay for training before returning northward and putting into Newport.
1947-1949
The destroyer operated locally between Pensacola, Florida and Key West. She sailed to Mobile, Alabama, on 13 February 1947 as one of the Navy's official representatives to the Mardi Gras festivities. For the remainder of the spring months, Willard Keith cruised routinely between Newport and Key West, carrying out training duties off the eastern seaboard.
Arriving at Norfolk on 20 June 1947, Willard Keith was assigned to the
1950-1952
Recommissioned on 23 October 1950, Willard Keith was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. After her activation was completed on 27 November, the ship departed Charleston, shaping course for Norfolk, Virginia. Subsequently, pushing on to Guantanamo Bay, acting as plane guard for the fleet carrier Intrepid en route, Willard Keith reached her destination on 13 January 1951 to commence her shakedown soon thereafter.
Completing that training phase on 22 February 1951, Willard Keith stopped briefly at Culebra for gunnery exercises before proceeding on to Norfolk and upkeep. After a three-month overhaul, the destroyer returned to the Guantanamo region for further refresher training. She then returned to Norfolk for a tender upkeep.
On 3 September 1951, Willard Keith departed the east coast, bound for the Mediterranean and duty with the
.From November 1951 to February 1952, Willard Keith operated in company with John W. Weeks as a unit of the Northern European Force under the overall command of Rear Admiral W. F. Boone. During that period of time, the destroyer visited Plymouth, Copenhagen, Bornholm, Bremerhaven, Bordeaux, and Derry. While operating out of the last-named port, she conducted exercises jointly with British destroyers.
While in northern European waters, Willard Keith joining the efforts to save the crippled SS Flying Enterprise before it broke apart and sank in heavy seas; the two-week incident gaining international attention. The owners of the lost ship, the Isbrandtsen Lines, later presented a plaque to Willard Keith in appreciation for her assistance rendered to their vessel.
Completing her duty in European waters early in February 1952, Willard Keith sailed home, reaching Norfolk on 6 February for leave and upkeep. The destroyer headed north from Norfolk on 21 April 1952 for
Upon the ship's return to Norfolk, all hands began to make preparations for a scheduled midshipmen's cruise. In early June, the ship sailed to Annapolis, Maryland, and embarked 72 officers-to-be, taking them to Norfolk. Subsequently, Willard Keith sailed to European waters and then to Guantanamo Bay. Ports visited during the midshipmen's cruise included Torquay, England, and Le Havre, France.
Returning to Norfolk via Guantanamo, Willard Keith disembarked her passengers and resumed her routine of training. She conducted two weeks of hunter/killer training in company with the escort carrier Block Island, a task group under the command of Rear Admiral D. V. Gallery. Willard Keith put back into Norfolk at the end of November and spent the remainder of the year there.
1953-1954
She departed her home port nine days into the new year, though, setting sail for Pensacola, Florida, assigned as plane guard for the light carrier Monterey. En route, however, an urgent message from Commandant, 6th Naval District, directed the ship to proceed to a rendezvous with an LST which had a Marine sergeant on board who was stricken with appendicitis. Willard Keith complied and transported the man to Charleston, South Carolina, where he received medical attention. The ship received a special commendation from the Commandant of the 6th Naval District for her fine work in helping to save the man.
Ultimately completing her assigned duties in company with Monterey, Willard Keith returned to Norfolk to prepare for a scheduled 3+1⁄2-month overhaul. After repairs and alterations at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from 11 February to 27 May, Willard Keith conducted refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay after first stopping at Norfolk en route. Returning to her home port on 4 August, the destroyer subsequently sailed for the Far East on 25 September in company with the other ships of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 221.
The division reached Yokosuka, Japan, on 10 November 1953, via Bermuda, Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, and Manila. Willard Keith and her sister ships operated with Naval Forces, Far East, under the overall command of Rear Admiral Robert P. Briscoe. Operating with the hunter/killer group for the initial part of her time in the Far East, the destroyer served with part of the United Nations Blockading and Escort Group. In company with James C. Owens, Willard Keith performed plane guard services for two weeks with the Australian aircraft carrier, HMAS Sydney, as that ship conducted flight operations. During the course of the tour, Willard Keith visited the ports of Sasebo and Yokosuka, Japan; Inchon, Korea; and Buckner Bay, Okinawa.
Completing her WestPac tour in March 1954, Willard Keith and her squadron mates returned to the United States via Midway; Hawaii; San Francisco; Long Beach; the
1955-1977
After spending Christmas, 1954, in her home port, Willard Keith departed Norfolk five days into the new year, 1955, bound for the Mediterranean. She paid goodwill calls at the ports of Algiers, Naples, Genoa, and the Azores in the course of her extended deployment, before she returned to Norfolk on 15 March. Then, after a brief upkeep period, Willard Keith offloaded stores and ammunition and shifted to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a four-month overhaul. Emerging from the shipyard on 8 August, the destroyer conducted refresher training out of the familiar waters of Guantanamo Bay before conducting gunfire support exercises with the rest of her division at Culebra. Returning northward that autumn, she conducted amphibious warfare gunfire support exercises as a fire support unit during Marine Corps amphibious landing exercises off the coast of North Carolina.
For the next seven years, Willard Keith remained with DesRon 22, operating from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. She participated in a variety of goodwill missions, midshipmen cruises, and the usual training assignments in gunnery, ASW, and the like. She also participated in the "quarantine" operations in the autumn of 1962 during the
On 1 October 1963, Willard Keith began a new phase of her career. Reporting to DesRon 34 for duty, the warship soon commenced operating as a Naval Reserve training (NRT) ship. For the next nine years, Willard Keith operated in that capacity, accomplishing reserve training with monthly drill weekend cruises for the reservists permanently assigned to the ship's reserve crew and undertaking two-week active duty training cruises for reservists getting their annual active sea duty training. She ranged from the eastern seaboard to Guantanamo Bay as an NRT destroyer, providing the platform for training necessary to maintain a skilled pool of reservists ready for any eventuality.
Ultimately considered to have capabilities that were not up to modern Fleet standards, Willard Keith was chosen for inactivation and transfer. Decommissioned on 1 July 1972 at Norfolk, Virginia,
Willard Keith (DD-775) earned two
References
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2021) |
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- ^ Nolte, Carl (26 September 2002). "DEEP SECRET / Is there a sunken Japanese sub from WWII off the coast? One veteran is sure of it". San Francisco Chronicle.