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USS Alfred A. Cunningham (DD-752)

USS Alfred A. Cunningham
History
United States
Namesake: Alfred Austell Cunningham
Builder: Bethlehem Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, New York
Laid down: 23 February 1944
Launched: 3 August 1944
Commissioned: 23 November 1944
Decommissioned: 24 February 1971
Struck: 1 February 1974
Fate: sunk as a target after being hit with five laser-guided bombs on 12 October 1979
General characteristics
Class and type: Allen M. Sumner class destroyer
Displacement: 2,200 tons
Length: 376 ft 6 in (114.8 m)
Beam: 40 ft (12.2 m)
Draft: 15 ft 8 in (4.8 m)
Propulsion:
  • 60,000 shp (45 MW);
  • 2 propellers
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h)
Range:
  • 6500 nm @ 15 kn
  • (12,000 km @ 28 km/h)
Complement: 336
Armament:
  • 6 × 5 in/38 cal guns (12 cm),
  • 12 × 40mm AA guns,
  • 11 × 20mm AA guns,
  • 10 × 21 in torpedo tubes,
  • 6 × depth charge projectors,
  • 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Alfred A. Cunningham (DD-752), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Alfred Austell Cunningham, a USMC officer and aviator.

Alfred A. Cunningham (DD-752) was laid down on 23 February 1944 at Staten Island, New York, by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 3 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Alfred A. Cunningham, the widow of Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham; and commissioned on 23 November 1944, Commander Floyd B. T. Myhre in command.

Following shakedown training out of Bermuda, Alfred A. Cunningham returned to New York on 17 January 1945 for post-shakedown availability. Proceeding to Norfolk soon thereafter, the destroyer spent the next three months operating in the Chesapeake Bay area as a training ship for prospective destroyer crews. Here the ship introduced hundreds of trainees to life on board a destroyer, engaging in gunnery exercises, damage control drills, and maneuvering practice.

Following a brief availability for repairs and alterations at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Cunningham got underway on 7 May, and rendezvoused with the new heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-136) off Brown Shoals, Delaware Bay, and proceeded with that ship to Chesapeake Bay for gunnery exercises. The two warships then steamed to Guantanamo Bay, then Panama, transiting the canal on 18 May, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 31 May. Over the next two weeks, Cunningham remained in Hawaiian waters, undergoing an availability alongside the USS Black Hawk (AD-9) and carrying out training.


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