USS Steinaker (DD-863)
_in_the_North_Atlantic_1951.jpg)
USS Steinaker (DD-863) in the North Atlantic, in 1951.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Steinaker |
| Namesake: | Private First Class Donald B. Steinaker (1922-1942), a United States Marine Corps Navy Cross recipient |
| Builder: | Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Staten Island, New York |
| Laid down: | 1 September 1944 |
| Launched: | 13 February 1945 |
| Sponsored by: | Miss Carol Steinaker |
| Commissioned: | 26 May 1945 |
| Decommissioned: | 24 February 1982 |
| Struck: | 24 February 1982 |
| Nickname(s): | "Stinky" |
| Fate: | Sold to Mexican Navy, 24 February 1982; still active as of June 2005[update] as ARM Netzahualcóyotl (D-102); Retired in 2014 and slated to be sunk as an artificial reef |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Gearing-class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 3,460 tons (full) |
| Length: | 390 ft 6 in (119 m) |
| Beam: | 40 ft 10 in (12 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft 4 in (4 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2-screw General Electric geared turbines, 60,000 shp |
| Speed: | 36.8 knots |
| Range: | 4500 nm @ 20 knots |
| Complement: | 336 |
| Armament: |
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The second USS Steinaker (DD-863/DDR-863/DD-863) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Private First Class Donald Baur Steinaker, USMCR (1922–1942) who was killed in action on Guadalcanal and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Steinaker was laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Staten Island in New York on 1 September 1944, launched on 13 February 1945 by Miss Carol Steinaker and commissioned on 26 May 1945.
Steinaker held her shakedown cruise off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and returned to Norfolk, Virginia, her home port, where she acted as a training ship for the remainder of the year. Until 1952, the destroyer alternated her operations between the east coast with the Atlantic Fleet and deployment with the 6th Fleet. She was deployed to the Mediterranean in 1947, 1949, 1950, 1951, and the first five months of 1952.
Steinaker entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 1 July 1952 for conversion to a radar picket destroyer and was classified as DDR-863. The work was completed on 28 February 1953 and shakedown at Guantanamo Bay followed. She made her first deployment to the 6th Fleet as a picket destroyer from 16 September to 3 February 1954. She also served with the 6th Fleet for portions of 1955, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, and 1965. In 1964, the destroyer was converted under the FRAM program and given modern antisubmarine weapons and detection equipment. On 1 July of that year, she resumed the designation, DD-863.
Steinaker was in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean for two months in 1967 as a unit of the Middle East Force. On 26 March 1968, she stood out of Norfolk headed for her first tour in the western Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 31 March and—after calling briefly at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guam, and the Philippine Islands—arrived off Vietnam.
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