See also USS Young for similarly named ships.
USS John Young (DD-973)
USS John Young in the Persian Gulf on 28 March 1998
History
United States
NameJohn Young
NamesakeJohn Young
Ordered26 January 1972
BuilderIngalls Shipbuilding
Laid down17 February 1975
Launched6 January 1976
Acquired1 May 1978
Commissioned20 May 1978
Decommissioned30 September 2002
Stricken6 November 2002
Identification
Motto
  • Prends La Mer Avec Courage
  • (Set Sail With Courage)
FateSunk as target, 13 April 2004
Badge
General characteristics
Class and typeSpruance-class destroyer
Displacement8,040 (long) tons full load
Length529 ft (161 m) waterline; 563 ft (172 m) overall
Beam55 ft (16.8 m)
Draft29 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Speed32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range
  • 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
  • 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi) at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement19 officers, 315 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems
Electronic warfare
& decoys
Armament
Aircraft carried2 × Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.
Aviation facilitiesFlight deck and enclosed hangar for up to two medium-lift helicopters

USS John Young (DD-973), named for Captain John Young, USN, was a Spruance-class destroyer of the United States Navy. The ship was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Service history

In 1987, John Young deployed off the coast of Iran in support of Operation Earnest Will and participated in Operation Nimble Archer. John Young deployed with Battle Group Echo, which included the aircraft carrier Ranger, battleship Missouri, cruisers Long Beach, Bunker Hill, destroyers Leftwich and Hoel, frigates Curts, Harold E. Holt, Robert E. Peary, Schofield and auxiliaries Shasta, Wichita, Kansas City, Hassayampa.

John Young, following appropriate Congressional notification, became one of eight combat ships that began receiving women as crewmembers in 1994.

As part of a reorganization by the Pacific Fleet's surface ships into six core battle groups and eight destroyer squadrons, with the reorganization scheduled to be completed by 1 October 1995, and homeport changes to be completed within the following, year, John Young was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 23.

John Young departed San Diego on 9 February 1996 enroute to the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment as part of the Middle East Force (MEF). This deployment was remarkable because a main engineering space was completely gutted and refitted following a major fuel oil leak just days before that trapped several crew members in thirty thousand gallons of fuel. The ship was having extensive last-minute pre-deployment repairs, requiring most of the installed firefighting systems to be disabled. Also, the fire-proof escape doors in all the engineering spaces were temporarily removed for repairs. Had the fuel ignited, it would have been catastrophic to not only John Young, but the many ships nearby in port.

On 28 April 1998, Navy and Coast Guard inspectors aboard John Young boarded a merchant ship thus marking the 10,000th such boarding in support of United Nations sanctions against Iraq. As part of a multinational maritime interception force, operating in the Persian Gulf, the team boarded an Indian flagged dhow in the Persian Gulf to make the milestone boarding. The vessel was empty and permitted to proceed.

John Young departed San Diego on 18 November 1997 en route to the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment as part of the Middle East Force (MEF).

John Young teamed up with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) in late March 2001 for a major drug bust at sea. She was last stationed at San Diego, California.

Fate

John Young was decommissioned on 30 September 2002, and stricken 6 November 2002, laid up at Bremerton, Washington NISMF. On 13 April 2004, John Young was sunk during exercise RIMPAC 04 by a Mark 48 torpedo fired by the submarine Pasadena, which broke her in half.[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Destroyer Photo Index DD-973 USS JOHN YOUNG".
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