USS Forrest Sherman (DD-931)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Forrest Sherman.

History
United States
Namesake	Forrest Sherman
Ordered	10 March 1951
Builder	Bath Iron Works
Laid down	27 October 1953
Launched	5 February 1955
Commissioned	9 November 1955
Decommissioned	5 November 1982
Stricken	27 July 1990
Fate	Sold for scrapping 15 December 2014
General characteristics
Class and type	Forrest Sherman-class destroyer
Displacement	2800 Tons Standard, 4050 Tons full load as built, up to ~4600 Tons later
Length	418 feet (127 meters)
Beam	45 feet (14 meters)
Draft	20 feet (6.1 meters) as built, 22 feet (6.7 meters) later mod.
Propulsion	4 1200 psi boilers, 2 geared steam turbines; 2 shafts
Speed	32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range	4,500 miles at 20 knots
Complement	324
Armament	3x Mk-42 DP 5 in (130 mm)/54 caliber guns in single turrets, 2 Dual 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber AA guns, Dual Hedgehog Launchers, 4 single 21-inch tubes amidships as built. Mk-32 ASW torpedo tubes in two triple mounts later
Aircraft carried	None; DASH planned for DDG conversions

USS Forrest Sherman (DD-931) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer of the United States Navy. She was named for Admiral Forrest Sherman USN (1896–1951).

History

Forrest Sherman was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath, Maine, on 27 October 1953, launched on 5 February 1955 by Mrs. Forrest P. Sherman, widow of Admiral Sherman, and commissioned on 9 November 1955.

After a year of initial training and fitting out, Forrest Sherman arrived at her home port, Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island, 15 January 1957. Two days later she sailed for Washington, D.C., where she was open for public visiting during the week of the second inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. From Newport, Forrest Sherman sailed on training and fleet exercises along the east coast and in the Caribbean, until the summer of 1957, when she took part in the midshipman cruise to South America and the International Naval Review in Hampton Roads on 12 June.

Forrest Sherman shortly after her commissioning in 1955.

On 3 September 1957, Forrest Sherman sailed for NATO Operation Strikeback, screening a carrier striking group in exercises off Norway. She called at Plymouth, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark, before returning to Narragansett Bay on 22 October. In preparation for her first deployment to the Mediterranean, the destroyer took part in amphibious exercises off Puerto Rico in July 1958, and arrived at Gibraltar on 10 August. She patrolled the eastern Mediterranean through the rest of the month, then sailed to join the 7th Fleet in its operations off Taiwan in support of the threatened islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Sailing eastward to complete a cruise around the world, Forrest Sherman returned to Newport on 11 November.

During the summer of 1959, Forrest Sherman joined in Operation Inland Seas, the cruise of a task force into the Great Lakes in celebration of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. She served as escort to the Royal Yacht HMY Britannia with President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II embarked, then sailed on to entertain over 110,000 visitors at Great Lakes ports. Returning to Newport, Forrest Sherman took part in coastal exercises with the Atlantic Fleet, then underwent minor repairs and alterations in the Boston Naval Shipyard.

More training exercises began in 1960 for the destroyer, and on 21 March she sailed on a 7-month cruise to the Mediterranean and duty with the 6th Fleet. En route home in October, Forrest Sherman came to the aid of the Liberian freighter Allen Christensen who had a severely injured man on board. Taking off the patient in a motor whaleboat at night, Forrest Sherman sped him to Bermuda, site of the nearest hospital. The destroyer arrived at Newport on 15 October and some four weeks later entered the Boston Naval Shipyard for major overhaul, lasting into 1961.

Fate

Forrest Sherman was decommissioned on 5 November 1982, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 27 July 1990 and sold for scrap to the Fore River Shipyard and Iron Works at Quincy, Massachusetts, on 11 December 1992. When the company went bankrupt she was resold to N. R. Acquisition Incorporated of New York City by the Massachusetts Bankruptcy Court.

The ship was 'recovered' by the Navy and berthed in the Inactive Ship Facility at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. She was eventually put on a list for donation for museum status. In 2006, Congress passed Pub.L. 109–163, the National Defense Authorization Act 2006, which authorized the transfer of Forrest Sherman to the USS Forrest Sherman DD-931 Foundation Inc, a group that planned on moving the ship to Indian River Inlet, Delaware to restore it as a museum. These plans fell through and the ship was removed from donation hold in 2011. Volunteers from other museum ships were allowed to remove useful parts/equipment in June 2011.

The Forrest Sherman was finally sold for scrapping 15 December 2014, and was scrapped by the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services.

Awards

• Navy Unit Citation
• Navy Expeditionary Medal
• National Defense Service Medal
• Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with star

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
•  This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.