USS Conyngham (DDG-17)
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History | |
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United States | |
Name: | Conyngham (DDG-17) |
Namesake: | Gustavus Conyngham |
Ordered: | 21 July 1959 |
Builder: | New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey |
Laid down: | 1 May 1961 |
Launched: | 18 May 1962 |
Acquired: | 1 July 1963 |
Commissioned: | 13 July 1963 |
Decommissioned: | 30 October 1990 |
Struck: | 30 May 1991 |
Motto: | Ready to Serve |
Fate: | sold for scrap, 15 April 1994 |
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: |
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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: |
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Armament: |
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USS Conyngham (DDG-17), the third ship named for Captain Gustavus Conyngham USN (1744–1819), was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer in the United States Navy.
Conyngham was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 1 May 1961, launched on 19 May 1962 by Mrs. Carl B. Albert, wife of Representative Albert of Oklahoma, House Majority Leader and commissioned on 13 June 1963, Commander Edwin P. Smith in command.
Conyngham was one of a few warships with shamrocks on her stacks (USS Coral Sea (CV-43), USS The Sullivans (DD-537) and others for example). During her 27 years of commissioned service, Conyngham lived up to her motto, Ready to Serve. Her presence exerted a powerful influence during times of crisis and helped maintain peace as a component of NATO seapower throughout the Cold War period. Conyngham made 15 Mediterranean deployments—three to the Persian Gulf, seven to Northern Europe, and 11 deployments to the Caribbean. She distinguished herself during crises in Cyprus (1964, 1974); provided air cover for planes evacuating Americans from an insurrection in Amman, Jordan (1970); took part in contingency operations during the Arab-Israeli Yom-Kippur War (1973); was the escort combatant during the evacuation of Americans from Beirut, Lebanon (1976); and conducted Black Sea Freedom of Navigation operations (1979).
During the 1980s, Conyngham continued to support United States foreign policy when she served off the coast of Libya (1982); was awarded the Navy Expeditionary Medal for providing naval gunfire support of Marines stationed in, and off the coast of, Beirut, Lebanon (1983) and monitored maritime traffic off the coast of Nicaragua (1983). She sailed with the USS America (CV-66) Battle Group in support of U. S. intervention forces in Grenada (1983). While deployed to the Caribbean in 1986, Conyngham was credited with four drug interdictions and was awarded the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal.