USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16)

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Career (US)
USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16)
Name:	Joseph Strauss (DDG-16)
Namesake:	Admiral Joseph Strauss
Ordered:	July 21, 1959
Builder:	New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
Laid down:	December 27, 1960
Launched:	December 9, 1961
Acquired:	March 29, 1963
Commissioned:	April 20, 1963
Decommissioned:	1 February 1990
Struck:	11 January 1995
Fate:	Sold to Greece
Career (Greece)
Name:	HS Formion D-220
Namesake:	Athenian Admiral Formion
Commissioned:	1 October 1992
Decommissioned:	29 July 2002
Fate:	Sold for scrap 19 February 2004
General characteristics
Class and type:	Charles F. Adams class destroyer
Displacement:	3,277 tons standard, 4,526 full load
Length:	437 ft (133.2 m)
Beam:	47 ft (14.3 m)
Draft:	15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion:	2 × General Electric steam turbines providing 70,000 shp; 2 shafts 4 x Combustion Engineering 1275 psi boilers
Speed:	33 knots
Range:	4,500 nautical miles at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	354 (24 officers, 330 enlisted)
Sensors and processing systems:	AN/SPS-39 3D air search radar AN/SPS-10 surface search radar AN/SPG-51 missile fire control radar AN/SPG-53 gunfire control radar AN/SQS-23 Sonar
Armament:	1x launcher for Tartar SAM system 2x Mark 42 5in(127mm)/54 1x ASROC Launcher 6x 12.8in(324mm) ASW Torpedo Tubes (2xMark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes)
Aircraft carried:	None
Motto:	Promptus ad Agendum Ready to act

USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16), named for Admiral Joseph Strauss USN (1861–1948), was a Charles F. Adams class guided missile armed destroyer of the United States Navy.

Joseph Strauss was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden in New Jersey on 27 December 1960, launched on 9 December 1961 by Mrs. Lawrence Haines Coburn, granddaughter of Admiral Joseph Strauss and commissioned on 20 April 1963.

Joseph Strauss served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the conflict in Vietnam.

1 1960s
2 Decommissioning
3 References
4 External links

Joseph Strauss departed Philadelphia 6 June 1963 for a brief cruise to Puerto Rico and Willemstad, Cracao, and then transited the Panama Canal to join the Pacific Fleet on the western seaboard. She arrived in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard 13 July 1963 for alterations, followed by tactics out of San Diego north to Seattle, Wash.

The flagship of Destroyer Squadron 3, Joseph Strauss sailed from Long Beach 30 June 1964. After calling at Pearl Harbor and Midway Atoll, she arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, 18 July. She departed 3 August 1964 to rendezvous off Okinawa 6 August with Constellation (CVA-65). She then patrolled off the Vietnam coast and the South China Sea with task forces built around Constellation, Kearsarge (CVS-33) and Ticonderoga (CVA-14). Brief sweeps were made to the Philippines and ports of Japan. She arrived in Yokosuka 15 December 1964 for upkeep, again sailing 21 January 1965 to support U.S. Forces in Vietnam until 1 March. During this period, she operated with Ranger (CVA-61), Hancock (CVA-19), Coral Sea (CVA-3), and Yorktowm (CVS-10).

Following upkeep in Subic Bay (1-10 March), Joseph Strauss sailed with ships of the Royal Thai Navy for exercises in the Gulf of Thailand. She was briefly flagship of the 7th Fleet (22-26 March) during the official visit of Vice Admiral Paul B. Blackburn, Jr., to Bangkok, Thailand. She departed Yokosuka, 19 April for operations that brought recognition and honor to both the ship and her crew.

Commencing 24 April 1965, Joseph Strauss, together with Ernest G. Small (DDR-838), was part of the first advanced SAR/AAW picket team in the Gulf of Tonkin to support U.S. air strike operations against North Vietnam. From 16 through 21 May, she observed operations of a Russian task unit. She returned to Yokosuka (23 May-4 June), then again sailed for the Gulf of Tonkin. Her ensuing 27 days as flagship of the AAW/SAR picket unit were highly successful, establishing operational procedures and capabilities which remain destroyer standards. On 17 June 1965, two F4B Phantom's from Midway (CVA-41), under Joseph Strauss' advisory control, shot down two MIG-17's, accounting for the first two hostile aircraft downed by U.S. Forces in aerial combat since 1953. Three days later, two propeller-driven Skyraiders, also from Midway and under Joseph Strauss' Combat Information Center team were decorated by the Secretary of the Navy.

Joseph Strauss arrived in Hong Kong 6 July 1965, putting out to sea 14 to 16 July to avoid Typhoon Freda, and again 18 to 19 July to carry the 7th Fleet Salvage Officer to Pratus Reef to assist in refloating Frank Knox (DDR-742). She departed Hong Kong 21 July for Yokosuka. The following day she took a disabled Nationalist Chinese fishing boat in tow and delivered it safely to Keelung the 23d, thence sailed to Yokosuka, arriving 25 July for upkeep.

On 3 September 1965, she successfully fired two improved Tartar missiles off Okinawa. After a 1-day stop at Sasebo, Joseph Strauss proceeded south in the screen of Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31). Upon arrival in the South China Sea, she was detached for picket patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin during the last 3 weeks of September She spent the first 2 weeks of October supporting operations off Vietnam in the screen of Bon Homme Richard and Oriskany (CVA-34). She then returned to Subic Bay for naval gunfire support training which continued off Da-nang, South Vietnam. On 28 October 1965, she fired her first shots in anger, expending 217 5-inch shells in support of a combined ARVN-Marine Corps search-and-destroy operation against the Viet Cong. Throughout November she formed an advanced SAR/AAW picket team with Tucker (DD-875) in the Gulf of Tonkin. She returned to Yokosuka 7 December 1965 for upkeep and preparations to resume operations off South Vietnam. Joseph Strauss returned to the Gulf of Tonkin 10 February 1966 and remained active in the war zone until heading for Hong Kong exactly one month later. Back in the fighting 26 April, she remained in the war zone until returning to Yokosuka 15 June. That day her home port was changed to Pearl Harbor which she reached 26 July.

Joseph Strauss operated in the Hawaiian area until heading back for the Western Pacific 14 January 1967. She remained in the Far East supporting the struggle against Communist aggression until returning to Pearl Harbor 17 June.

USS Joseph Strauss was decommissioned on 1 February 1990, transferred to Greece on 1 October 1992 and renamed Formion, for the Athenian Admiral Formion, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 January 1995. Greece decommissioned Formion on 29 July 2002 and the ship was sold as scrap 19 February 2004.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

v • d • e Charles F. Adams-class destroyer
US Navy	Charles F. Adams \| John King \| Lawrence \| Biddle/Claude V. Rickets \| Barney \| Henry B. Wilson \| Lynde McCormick \| Towers \| Sampson \| Sellers \| Robison \| Hoel \| Buchanan \| Berkeley \| *Joseph Strauss* \| Conyngham \| Semmes \| Tattnall \| Goldsborough \| Cochrane \| Benjamin Stoddert \| Richard E. Byrd \| Waddell
German Navy (Lütjens class)	Lütjens \| Mölders \| Rommel
Royal Australian Navy (Perth class)	HMAS Perth \| HMAS Hobart \| HMAS Brisbane
Hellenic Navy (Kimon class)	HS Kimon \| HS Nearchos \| HS Formion \| HS Themistocles
List of destroyers of the United States Navy List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy