Commissioning
The USS Wainwright was the third member of the Belknap class of guided missile cruisers and the third ship to carry the name Wainwright. She was named in honor of five members of the Wainwright family—Commander Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, Master Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright Jr., Commander Richard Wainwright, Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright and the admiral’s son, Commander Richard Wainwright.
The Wainwright was ordered on May 18, 1961, from the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine. Her keel was laid down on July 2, 1962; she was launched on April 25, 1965 and commissioned on Jan. 8, 1966.
Underway
The Wainwright was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and homeported at Charleston, S.C. Still, her first major deployment took her through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean, arriving in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam on June 5, 1967. On June 8, she took over Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone (PIRAZ) duties from the USS Long Beach. The Wainwright was then responsible for the radar surveillance and identification of all aircraft flying over the gulf, both friend and foe. She also served as a platform for search and rescue helicopters, screen commander for two U.S. aircraft carriers and the antiaircraft warfare ship for Task Force 77 before leaving the region on Sept. 28.
It would not be long before the Wainwright returned to Western Pacific, taking up station in the Gulf of Tonkin on June 30, 1968. She spend most of the next six months, with the exception of brief ports of call at friendly ports, on station in the combat zone. The Wainwright would once again serve as a PIRAZ station as well as the air coordinator in the northern Gulf of Tonkin during this tour. She returned to Charleston on Feb. 21, 1969.
In May 1969, the Wainwright took part in a Presidential Seapower Demonstration for President Richard Nixon before heading to the West Indies to take part in the NATO antisubmarine exercise “Sparkplug” with ships from the navies of Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Portugal. On Aug. 18, she returned to Charleston for an overhaul that lasted until February 1970.
In August 1970, after refresher training and intercepting a Soviet task force off the coast of Cuba, the Wainwright headed to the Western Pacific for a third deployment off the coast of Vietnam. She arrived at Yokosuka, Japan on Sept. 21 and spent most of the next two months taking part in anti-submarine warfare exercise with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. She arrived in the Gulf of Tonkin on Nov. 20 and spent most of the next month on search and rescue duties, including support of Operation Ivory Coast, the special operations raid on a recently abandoned North Vietnamese prison camp. She spent most of the holiday season out of the combat zone, returning to the gulf in January 1971 for two weeks before heading back to Charleston.
Her return voyage did not take her back through the Panama Canal, however; instead, the Wainwright steamed through the Indian Ocean and around the Cape of Good Hope to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. Along the way, she stopped at a number of ports in Africa and South America and even hosted then Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie.
In December 1972, the Wainwright made her first deployment to the Mediterranean Sea, arriving on Dec. 11. She would spend much of her cruise taking part in anti-submarine warfare exercises with NATO allies; during one exercise off the coast of Greece, the Wainwright detected and tracked four different Soviet submarines monitoring the NATO operations. The Wainwright returned to Atlantic waters in July 1973, taking part in an exercise in the North Atlantic before returning to Charleston on July 20.
In June 1975, the Wainwright passed through the Straits of the Bosphorous at Istanbul and the Dardanelles to enter the Black Sea. She made a port of call at Constanta, Romania, becoming the first U.S. ship to visit Romania in nearly a half-century. After returning to the Mediterranean, she would briefly stalk the Soviet helicopter carrier Leningrad before heading back to Charleston.
In late June and early July 1976, the Wainwright was sent to New York City to take part in events honoring America’s bicentennial. She served as the flagship for both the International Naval Review and as the reviewing ship for Operation Sail and hosted Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In 1982, the Wainwright would join other American ships and vessels from several other navies in a multi-national peacekeeping force off the coast of Lebanon. She would receive an allied expeditionary medal for her deployment in September and October of that year.
It would be another six years, however, before the Wainwright would see combat action again. During a deployment to the Persian Gulf, she took part in military operations against Iranian targets after that nation seriously damaged the USS Samuel B. Roberts with a mine deliberately placed in international sea lanes. The Samuel B. Roberts had been protecting re-flagged Kuwaiti oil tankers, which the Iranians had been attacking with speedboats and other smaller craft.
Operation Praying Mantis was launched on April 18, 1988 and was the largest U.S. naval surface action since World War II. The operation began when two American destroyers and the amphibious transport dock USS Trenton attacked the Sassan oil platform, which was being used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as an attack platform. The Wainwright and two other other frigates attacked the Sirri oil platform, which was also being used by the Revolutionary Guard, at the same time; the Sirri platform was boarded by a unit of Marines and later destroyed.
The Iranians responded by sending six speedboats and several larger naval ships into the Gulf to attack U.S. ships, oil tankers and even non-aligned vessels. A6-E Intruder aircraft from the USS Enterprise attacked the speedboats, sinking one and damaging several others. The Joshan, a Kaman-class ship, attacked the Wainwright with a Harpoon missile, which missed. The Wainwright countered by firing four Standard missiles in response, severely damaging it. The Wainwright and the two other ships in Surface Action Group Charlie then sank the Joshan with naval gunfire.
The Iranian frigate Sahand, which had also been deployed, fired on several A-6s, which retaliated by firing two missiles and dropping four bombs on the frigate. These attacks, along with a Harpoon strike from the USS Joseph Strauss, sank the Sahand. At the end of the battle, the Iranians had lost six speedboats and two larger boats; the United States had lost the crew of one AH-1 Cobra helicopter.
Decommissioning
The Wainwright was decommissioned on Nov. 15, 1993 and was later sunk by two Spearfish torpedoes fired by the submarine HMS Tireless during a joint US-British shooting exercise. Ironically, the Wainwright was also destroyed by foreign fire in the fictional world, sunk by missiles fired by Soviet Backfire bombers in Tom Clancy’s book “Red Storm Rising”.
Characteristics of the USS Wainwright (Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Class and type: Belknap class cruiser
Displacement: 8957 tons
Length: 547 feet (167 m)
Beam: 55 feet (17 m)
Draught: 31 ft (9.5 m) (maximum navigational)
Propulsion: Two sets GE or De laval steam turbines. total 85,000 shp (63 MW)
Speed: maximum speed 34 knots (63 km/h)
Complement: 64 officers and 546 enlisted
Sensors and processing systems:
AN/SPS-48E air-search radar
AN/SPS-49(V)5 air-search radar
AN/SPG-55B fire-control radar
AN/SPG-53F gun fire-control radar
AN/SQS-26 sonar
Electronic warfare and decoys:
AN/SLQ-32
Armament: one Mark 42 five-inch / 54-caliber gun, two three-inch (76 mm) guns, one Terrier missile / SM-2ER launcher, six 15.5-inch (394 mm) torpedo tubes, Harpoon missiles, Phalanx CIWS
Career:
Name: Wainwright
Laid down: 2 July 1962
Launched: 25 April 1965
Commissioned: 8 January 1966
Decommissioned: 15 November 1993
Fate: sunk as target (2002)
Notes: participated in the Operation Ivory Coast
Timeline:
July 1962: Keel of USS Wainwright laid
April 1965: USS Wainwright launched
January 1966: USS Wainwright commissioned
June 1967: USS Wainwright deploys to Vietnam for the first time
November 1970: USS Wainwright supports operation Ivory Coast
1971: USS Wainwright circumnavigates the globe
July 1976: USS Wainwright serves as flagship for US bicentennial celebrations
April 1988: USS Wainwright takes part in Operation Praying Mantis
Crewmembers of the USS Wainwright:
An unofficial list of crew members that served on the USS Wainwright can be found on the unofficial navy website at: http://navysite.de. This list is compiled by former crewmembers that voluntarily register. Some quoted comments from former crewmembers are listed below; many more are available on the source website at the following Web address:
http://navysite.de/crew.php?action=ship&ship=cg_27
Marc Crawford (served March 1986—March 1990): “You may remember me as Crawdaddy or Vulgar. I Would like to hear from Trill, Ski, lautrell, Smalls, Maqurcal, Kline, Bagman, or any of the other Qm’s.”
David Braz (served August 1987—August 1989): “Greatest 2 years in the Navy was onboard CG-28. Proud to be there during Operation Praying Mantis. “If it flys, it dies.””
Charles Brichfield (served September 1987—March 1991): “Had a wonderful time and made many new friends.”
Robin Adams (served November 1987—October 1992): “Out of numerous commands in 20 yrs, WWT was by far the best. Would really enjoy hearing from my shipmates from the same time frame. Before sinking her, they should have given her a fighting chance. Or were they afraid of her power? Never know will we?”
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Josephus_Daniels_(DLG-27)
