Kidd Class Destroyers & Forrest Sherman class destroyers in World War III

With permission from Matt Wiser over at HPCA, Fact File: the Forrest Sherman class destroyers and what is cannon in Red Dawn + 40.

The Forrest Sherman Class Destroyers in World War III

The Forrest Sherman class destroyers were the first large class of post-World War II destroyers built for the U.S. Navy. Originally numbering eighteen ships, four were converted to guided missile destroyers with the Tartar SAM replacing the aft 5-inch gun mounts (treated separately), while eight were given ASW modifications, with an ASROC launcher replacing the number two 5-inch turret and having an SQS-35 Variable-depth Sonar installed. Except for the Edson (DD-946), serving as a Naval Reserve Force/OCS training ship at Newport, RI, all were in mothballs in 1985, with three having already been stricken. Two were laid up at Bremerton Navy Yard in Washington State, one at Pearl Harbor, while the remainder were laid up on the East Coast. Within days of the outbreak of war in 1985, orders were issued to reactivate the ships. All eleven ships that were reactivated saw war service, with several becoming war losses. Some of the surviving ships are preserved as war memorials.

USS Forrest Sherman (DD-931)

The lead ship of the class, commissioned in 1955 and decommissioned in 1982, she never received the ASW modifications. Laid up at Philadelphia Navy Yard, she was reactivated beginning in September, 1985. Recommissioned in 1986, she mainly served as a convoy escort along the East Coast for much of the war, but accompanied the cruisers Salem and Des Moines for both the Liberation of Iceland and the Kola Raid in the fire-support role. She subsequently served in Operation GULF HAMMER, the Cuba Blockade, and the reduction of the Brownsville Pocket, escorting the cruiser Des Moines. Forrest Sherman also escorted the battleships, escorting Iowa, New Jersey, and North Carolina on occasion, and participated in several bombardment missions along the Cuban coast in preparation for the planned invasion. She served for several years in the Sixth Fleet, frequently on anti-piracy operations off Somalia and Yemen, where her gun power was valued. Decommissioned in 2000, she was moored at Wilmington, Delaware, as a war memorial.

USS Davis (DD-937)

Commissioned in 1957, decommissioned in 1982, and laid up at Philadelphia Navy Yard, she was one of the ships that received the ASW modification package. Reactivated in October, 1985, she was recommissioned in 1986 and assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. With her ASW suite, she was used mainly as a convoy escort, escorting not only Transatlantic Convoys, but Convoys along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. She sank a Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine while on convoy duty north of Bermuda, but she was sunk 20 miles NNE of Cape Hatteras on 12 January 1987 by the Soviet Charlie-I class submarine K-25 (two SS-N-7 “Starbright” SSMs), with 226 fatalities out of a crew of 309.

USS Manley (DD-940)

Commissioned in 1957 and decommissioned in 1982, she, too, received the ASW mission package. Reactivated in October, 1985 and recommissioned in 1986, like her sister Davis, she mainly served as an ASW escort. Manley escorted numerous convoys, and when not on Convoy Duty, she provided ASW cover to destroyers on the Cuba blockade line in 1988-9. Manley also participated in several bombardment missions with other destroyers, After the Castro regime accepted the Armistice, Manley then made a number of deployments with the Sixth Fleet, before being decommissioned in 1999. She was stricken in 2006 and sunk as a target in 2009.

USS Dupont (DD-941)

Commissioned in 1957 and decommissioned in 1983, she, too,was laid up at Philadelphia. Reactivated in September, 1985 and recommissioned in May, 1986, Dupont was one of the ASW modified ships. With her ASW package, she was used on convoy duty, though she also escorted the battleship North Carolina on her Mediterranean deployment, sinking a Libyan Foxtrot-class submarine north of Tripoli with ASROC. Returning to convoy duty, Dupont escorted both coastal and transatlantic convoys, sharing a kill of a November-class SSN with a P-3 Orion 220 miles East of Bermuda on 12 December, 1986. However, she was sunk on 22 July 1987, while escorting a Norfolk-Alexandria/Haifa convoy 400 miles west of Gibraltar by the Soviet Sierra-class SSN K-236. Of her crew of 309, 85 were lost.

USS Bigelow (DD-942)

Commissioned in 1957 and decommissioned in 1982, she was laid up at Philadelphia. Reactivated in 1985 and recommissioned in May, 1986, Bigelow was one of the unmodified all-gun units of the class. Though limited in her ASW capabilities, she was useful in the naval gunfire support role, participating in Libya, Gibraltar, Iceland and Kola operations, She escorted the cruiser Des Moines for Iceland and Kola, and like the cruiser, got in very close to shore to provide close-in fire support to Marines and SEALs on shore. Bigelow also formed part of the NGFS force for Operation GULF HAMMER, before serving on the Cuba Patrol. Bigelow took part in several bombardments of Cuba, as well as sinking a Cuban coastal freighter and an escorting patrol boat. She, too, was tapped for fire-support duties in the planned invasion. After Castro's acceptance of the Armistice, Bigelow transferred to the Pacific Fleet, where she participated in several deployments to Far East and Indonesian waters, escorting convoys and taking part in several anti-piracy operations. She was transferred to the Naval Reserve Force in 1998 and decommissioned in 2003, before being sunk as a target in an exercise off Hawaii in 2008.

USS Blandy (DD-943)

Commissioned in 1957 and decommissioned in 1982, she was laid up in Philadelphia, before being reactivated in September, 1985. Recommissioned in May, 1986, she was one of the ASW optimized ships, and was assigned to convoy duty. She escorted numerous convoys between East Coast Ports and the Mediterranean, and Blandy was among the ships escorting Convoy A/HN-30 when the convoy came across a Soviet convoy bound for Cuba. She engaged and sank a Koltin-class destroyer with her 5-inch guns, before sinking two freighters (one Soviet, one Polish) with her guns. Blandy was involved with convoy duty right up to the end of the war, and sank the Juliett-class SSG K-78 on 11 November, 1987 off of Delaware Bay. After the war, she made regular deployments to the Caribbean and the Sixth Fleet, before being decommissioned in 1999. She was sold for scrap in 2007.

USS Mullinix (DD-944)

Commissioned in 1958 and decommissioned in 1983, she was laid up at Philadelphia. Reactivated in October, 1985 and recommissioned in April, 1986, she was one of the all-gun destroyers. Mullinix accompanied her sister Bigelow on the gun line for Libya, Gibraltar, Iceland, but at Kola, she was engaged by a Soviet Nanchuka-class missile corvette and hit by a single SS-N-9 SSM in the bow. The missile explosion set off the forward 5-inch magazine in a sympathetic detonation, which destroyed the forward part of the ship. The ship had to be abandoned, and after the survivors were rescued, the hulk was sunk by 5-inch gunfire from the cruiser Salem. Of 326 crew, there were 185 fatalities.

USS Edson (DD-946)

Commissioned in 1958, she was the only active unit of the class at the beginning of the war, being used as an NRF/OCS training ship, home-ported at Newport, RI. One of the all-gun destroyers, she was active in local patrols from Newport from the outbreak of war until June, 1986, when she joined the North Carolina Surface Group. She was sunk by the Soviet Victor-II class submarine K-488 (Type 65 wake-homing torpedo) on 15 September, 1986, during an attack on a Soviet Convoy while escorting the battleship North Carolina, with the loss of 195 crew.

USS Morton (DD-948)

Commissioned in 1959 and decommissioned in 1982, she was moored at Bremerton Navy Yard in Washington. One of the ASW modified ships, she was reactivated in September, 1985 and recommissioned in April, 1986, she mainly served as a convoy escort for the Trans-Pacific and Australia runs, She engaged Soviet submarines on three occasions, sinking the Juliett-class SSG K-63 on 17 December 1986 425 miles north of Midway Island, the Echo-II class SSGN K-23 on 4 July 1987, 800 miles SSW of San Francisco, and the Echo-I class SSN K-122 375 miles SSW of Pearl Harbor on 23 March, 1988. Morton also provided ASW escort to the Kamchatka Raid, escorting the cruiser Salem as a close-in ASW escort, while also adding her 5-inch guns to those of the NGFS force bombarding Petropavalosk. She also participated in the raid on Itirup Island, before resuming convoy duty. Morton was at sea when hostilities ended with the Soviet Union in 1989, but continued convoy duty until 1990. She made several WestPac deployments in the '90s on anti-piracy duties, before being decommissioned in 2001. Morton was put on display as a war memorial at San Francisco's Pier 41, alongside the WW II submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383).

USS Richard S. Edwards (DD-950)

Commissioned in 1959 and decommissioned in 1982, she was laid up at Pearl Harbor. Reactivated in September, 1985 and recommissioned in March, 1986, Edwards was one of the ASW-modified ships. She mainly served as a convoy escort on the Yokohama-San Francisco route, and shared in the sinking of the Echo-I class SSN K-45 on 12 October, 1986, while escorting Convoy SFY-26, 700 miles West of San Francisco. Edwards was sunk on 19 March, 1987, 700 miles northwest of Midway Island by AS-4 (Kh-22) Kitchen Anti-ship missiles fired from a Soviet Naval Air Force Backfire bomber. Only twelve of 324 crew survived the sinking.

USS Turner Joy (DD-951)

Commissioned in 1959 and decommissioned in 1982, she was one of the ships involved in the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident. She was laid up at Bremerton Navy Yard, and was reactivated in September, 1985, with her recommissioning in March, 1986. She was the last of the all-gun units of the class, and she mainly operated in Puget Sound and in Canadian waters, providing NGFS to the defenders of Vancouver. Turner Joy was in Puget Sound during the failed Soviet amphibious operation in 1986, and though only armed with her 5-inch guns, her captain charged into the Soviet force, using the confusion of air strikes and the numerous islands in Puget Sound as cover. She managed to get into the Soviet amphibious force, sinking an Alligator-class LST and a captured Alaska car ferry, while forcing another Soviet freighter to run aground on Sinclair Island, where the freighter was later destroyed by air attack. Turner Joy participated in mopping-up operations, escorting ships carrying elements of the 3rd Marine Division to secure islands where Soviet survivors-many of whom were armed, had come ashore, and she provided NGFS on several occasions. After Puget Sound, Turner Joy resumed support of the Canadian defense of Vancouver until the Soviet surrender in February, 1987. After the arrival in the Pacific of the heavy cruiser Salem, Turner Joy escorted the cruiser, and participated in both the Kamchatka and Kurile Islands raids, and also sank a Soviet Poti-class ASW corvette with gunfire during the Kamchatka raid. Turner Joy remained in the Pacific, participating in operations along the coastlines of British Columbia and Alaska, and she was the first U.S. Navy ship to enter the port of Juneau to accept the surrender of Soviet forces there on 17 October, 1989. Turner Joy remained active after the war, making a number of WestPac deployments in company with the cruiser Salem. She bombarded a number of pirate strongholds in Indonesian waters, and did the same along the South China Coast, in cooperation with elements of the Royal Navy. Turner Joy was decommissioned in 1998, and she is currently moored at Bremerton Navy Yard as a war memorial.