USS Benjamin Stoddert (DDG-22)

History
United States
Name:	Benjamin Stoddert (DDG-22)
Namesake:	Benjamin Stoddert
Ordered:	25 March 1960
Builder:	Puget Sound Bridge and Dry Dock Company, Seattle, Washington
Laid down:	11 June 1962
Launched:	8 January 1963
Commissioned:	12 September 1964
Decommissioned:	20 December 1991
Struck:	20 November 1992
Motto:	Post umbra lux (After darkness, light) Denique decus (Honour at length)
Fate:	sank while under tow, 3 February 2001
General characteristics
Class and type:	Charles F. Adams-class destroyer
Displacement:	3,277 tons standard, 4,526 full load
Length:	437 ft (133 m)
Beam:	47 ft (14 m)
Draft:	15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion:	2 × General Electric steam turbines providing 70,000 shp (52 MW); 2 shafts 4 × Babcock & Wilcox 1,275 psi (8,790 kPa) boilers
Speed:	33 knots (61 km/h)
Range:	4,500 nautical miles (8,300 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	354 (24 officers, 330 enlisted)
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-39 3D air search radar AN/SPS-10 surface search radar AN/SPG-51 missile fire control radar AN/SPG-53 gunfire control radar AN/SQS-23 Sonar and the hull mounted SQQ-23 Pair Sonar for DDG-2 through 19 AN/SPS-40 Air Search Radar
Armament:	1 Mk 11 missile launcher (DDG2-14) or Mk 13 single arm missile launcher (DDG-15-24) for RIM-24 Tartar SAM system, or later the RIM-66 Standard (SM-1) and Harpoon antiship missile 2 × 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 (127 mm) gun 1 × RUR-5 ASROC Launcher 6 × 12.8 in (324 mm) ASW Torpedo Tubes (2 × Mark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes)

USS Benjamin Stoddert (DDG-22), named for Benjamin Stoddert (1751–1813), Secretary of the Navy from 1798 to 1801, was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer in the United States Navy.

She was laid down by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dry Dock Company at Seattle, Washington on 11 June 1962, launched on 8 January 1963; sponsored by Mrs. Nancee Ravenel, a great, great, great, granddaughter of the Honorable Benjamin Stoddert; and commissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 12 September 1964; Commander Walter Megginness in command.

Over the next six weeks, Benjamin Stoddert fitted out at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, preparing for a series of weapon, sensor, and communication system tests. The guided-missile destroyer departed Bremerton for the first time on 7 November and, after brief stops at San Francisco and San Diego, arrived at Pearl Harbor to commence acceptance trials.

Since she was primarily designed to provide long-range antiaircraft cover for task forces at sea, Benjamin Stoddert conducted a two-month evaluation of her TARTAR antiaircraft missile system, concluding with a test firing off Kauai, Hawaii, in early February 1965. Other tests — including gunnery, torpedo, and engineering exercises — helped the crew tie her antisubmarine, antiair, and communications gear into a single integrated system. In May, the warship entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a two-month maintenance period. In July, Benjamin Stoddert’s crew took her through shakedown training, carrying out a variety of operational evolutions — from the complex tracking of aircraft and submarines, to underway refueling, down through the simple but important tasks of anchoring ship — under the watchful eyes of the Fleet Training Group, Pearl Harbor. Upon completing these exams, the warship officially joined the Pacific Fleet in August 1965.

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