CHARLESS F. ADAMS USS

The full index of our ship stamp archive
Post Reply
shipstamps
Posts: 0
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 8:12 pm

CHARLESS F. ADAMS USS

Post by shipstamps » Sun Sep 28, 2008 4:59 pm

Given by Mr. Peter Crichton as the USS CHARLES F. ADAMS, when looking careful to the blow-up of the stamp you see a 2 on the bow, the pennant No of USS CHARLES F. ADAMS.

Built as a guided missile destroyer by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine for the US Navy.
16 June 1958 laid down.
08 September 1959 launched under the name USS CHARLES F. ADAMS (DDG-2), she was the first of her class of which 23 have been built. Her sponsor was Mrs. Robert Homans a sister of her name sake.
Displacement 3.227 tons standard, 4.526 tons full load, dim. 133.2 x 14.3 x 6.4m.(draught).
Powered by two geared General Electric turbines, 70.000 shp., twin shafts, speed 33 knots maximum.
Range by a speed of 20 knots, 4.500 miles.
Armament: One twin Tartar SAM missile launcher. One ASROC launcher 6 x 12.8 inch ASW. Two single mounts 5 inch guns. Two triple Mark 32 ASW torpedo tubes.
Crew 24 officers and 330 enlisted.
10 September 1960 commissioned at Boston, Mass. at the Charlestown Shipyard, under command of Commander William R. Munroe.

The USS CHARLES F. ADAMS is named for the great grandson of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the United States, and great, great grandson of John Adams, second President of the United States.
Charles F. Adams was noted for his untiring efforts to keep the Navy a power in international affairs while Secretary of the Navy in 1929-1933 in spite of an apathetic and economy-minded public. A fine yachtsman, Charles F. Adams captured the 1920 America’s Cup as the master of the yacht RESOLUTE.

These ships of this class are of a modified Forrest Sherman hull class design and the USS CHARLES F. ADAMS first classified as (DD-952), then reclassified as (DDG-952 on 16 August 1956, and on 26 June 1957 (DDG-2).

Between September 1960 and November 1961, CHARLES F. ADAMS conducted intensive technical evaluations, final outfitting, sea trials, crew type training, and extensive missile test firing at Roosevelt Roads, Porto Rico and she visited St Thomas, US Virgin Islands and San Juan PR many times.

29 July 1961 for the first time she steamed up the Cooper River to her homeport of Charleston, SC.
She joined then the Destroyer Squadron SIX (DESRONG6)

She made her first overseas deployment as a US Navy show ship on a good will tour leaving on 13 November 1961 to Northern Europe as a member of Destroyer Squadron SIX where she visited Brest, France; Gothenburg, Sweden; Aarhus, Denmark; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Portsmouth, U.K. and Lisbon, Portugal.
The squadron were the first US warships since World War II to visit these countries, and the squadron transit the Kiel Canal to visit Kiel, Germany.

06 January 1962 she was officially assigned to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and she arrived together with the Sixth Fleet in the spring of 1962 in the Mediterranean. During her time there she performed in many fleet exercises and visited the beautiful cities of La Spezia, San Remo and Genoa in Italy, and Toulon, France, before returning to Charleston, SC on 03 March 1962.

10 March 1962 Capt. Munroe was relieved by Commander Scott E. Terrill.
09 April 1962 she sailed from Charleston to rendezvous with other fleet units off Norfolk where she participated in a Presidential review on 14 April 1962.
Thereafter she became a unit of Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla TEN. The remainder of April and early May she participated in a Fleet Amphibious Exercise, firing missiles in the Caribbean Sea and Roosevelt Roads areas.
On 06 May she returned to Charleston, SC to commence her interim yard period until 1 July 1962. During July and August she was in and out of her home port conducting various type training. In September she returned to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and went through Fleet Training at Guantanamo Bay where she was prepared for participation in the fall of 1962 in Project Mercury manned space flights as a recovery ship.

CHARLES F. ADAMS participated in project Mercury manned space flight recovery operations in October 1962. Following Commander Wally Schirra’s six orbital flights on 3 October 1962 and the successful recovery, she proceeded to Norfolk, Virginia to commence duty as Surface-to-Air TARTAN Missile school ship. This was a first, both for the CHARLES F. ADAMS and the Navy. While engaged in the duties of being the first Surface-Airmissle-School ship, the Cuban missile crisis broke out on 24 October 1962, and she was assigned to be actively involved in the quarantine and surveillance operations. Her first active duty stop in October 1962 was the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Blockade.
Then she returned to Charleston where she arrived on 02 December 1962.
She worked then out of Charleston the next years.
During Operation Springboard in 1964, she worked with USS SARATOGA (CV-60) to evaluate a new concept in tactical formation, the fast carrier task group.
In November 1964 she made her first Mediterranean deployments.

In 1968 the CHARLES F. ADAMS became only the second DDG in history to hit a surface target ship with a TARTAR missile.

July 1969 she left her homeport of eight years, Charleston S.C. and moved to Mayport, Fl. Where she became Flagship for COMDESRON 24 during a 1969 Mediterranean deployment.

In 1972 she served as a member of the Standing Naval Forces Atlantic, STANAVFORLANT, where she operated with ships from Canada, Great Britain, the federal Republic of Germany, Portugal, The Netherlands and Turkey.

In August of 1973, during an eight month Middle East deployment, CHARLES F. ADAMS visited many countries not normally seen by Navy ships. Transiting the South Atlantic, she stopped first at Recife, Brazil, then transited straight across the Atlantic, visiting Angola then rounding the Cape of Good Hope and visited Mozambique, Mauritius, Kenya and many other African countries.

During her regular overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1975, CHARLES F. ADAMS was equipped to conduct twin drop-zone helicopter flight operations. Also during the 1975 overhaul, she gained a new MK 42 MOD 10 5”/54 gun system a new gunfire control system including a forward looking infra-red sensor, a laser ranging unit and an AN/SP5-39 height finding radar.

1976 Deployed as a test platform for the Gunnery Improvements Programs and after making Mediterranean
Deployments in 1977 and 1978, she once again entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard where more changes were made on the weapons systems. This included the addition of a new Twin-Dome Pair Sonar System and Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles. After the overhaul she began her first major deployment in two years, sailing in December 1980 to the Seventh Fleet for Indian Ocean operations with the USS INDEPENDENCE (CV-62) Battle Group.
During the 204 day Indian Ocean deployment CHARLES F. ADAMS steamed over 65.000 miles, crossed the Equator eight times, transited the Cape of Good Hope and Suez Canal and visited Banbury, Australia, the farthest East the ship had ever sailed.

14 June 1982 she departed Mayport for her second STANAVFORLANT deployment. During the sic month tour, she operated with the forces of and visited England, France, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Germany. Upon her return, she once again entered Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for regular overhaul. During this overhaul, the ship received the SLQ-32, a Chaff deployment system, and a major revamping of shipboard air conditioning systems. Additionally, major structural work was accomplished along with other alterations to ensure effective operations during the next operating period.

01 February 1984 the overhaul was completed and she returned to Mayport, Florida. The remainder of 1984 was spent training. She made a Caribbean cruise for weapons systems training and completed refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
After completing pre-deployment build-up, CHARLES F.ADAMS departure for her second Middle East deployment, 4 February 1985. During this deployment, spent mostly in the Persian Gulf, the ship was underway over 85% of the time and visited Palma de Mallorca, Lisbon, Karachi, Bahrain, Jeddah and Djibouti.
From January till March 1986, CHARLES F. ADAMS underwent a Selective Restricted Availability (SRA). Equipment was repaired and replaced throughout the ship and major structural repairs were done. In April 1986, she participated in operation Ocean Venture. During this cruise she stopped in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a two day port visit. While there she was visited by the Head of State of Haiti, Lieutenant General Henry Namphy, along with other top officials. From April through September 1986, CHARLES F. ADAMS underwent training and various inspections including the ship’s command inspection, preventive maintenance system inspection, supply management inspection and nuclear technical proficiency inspection. During that time, she conducted naval gunfire support missions off the coast of Vieques Island and Bloodsworth Island. After all inspections and qualifications were completed, she was awarded the Battle Efficiency “E”.
From December 1986 through June 1987 CHARLES F. ADAMS was deployed in the Mediterranean.

She returned from MED 1-89 after a six month Mediterranean deployment. During the deployment, CHARLES F. ADAMS participated in the 38th Naval on Call Force Mediterranean, NAVOCFORMED, as well as Dragon Hammer 1-89.

After MED 1-89 CHARLES F. ADAMS conducted numerous Caribbean law enforcement operations supporting the war on drugs, during which time she seized eight kilograms of cocaine. Upon her return from her last active underway period, she successfully completed an underway material inspection by the Board of Inspection and Survey and was found fit for further service although scheduled for decommissioning.

Altogether she made ten different Mediterranean deployments, two Middle East deployments and one Indian Ocean Deployment, as well as numerous local operations and Caribbean exercises in her thirty year career.

20 November 1992 decommissioned.

She was held for donation at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania.
The Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum Committee attempted to acquire the ship as a museum and memorial to be located in Bay City, Michigan; however, the cost of preparing the ship for movement through the Saint Lawrence Seaway proved too expensive and the project was abandoned.

As of November 2007, CHARLES F. ADAMS remains at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on Donation Hold status. She is currently scheduled to be preserved by the Adams Class Veteran’s Association in Jacksonville, Florida. An application is due March 31st, 2008.

She is on Marshall Islands 1995 55c sg 603.

Source: Shipsonstamps List. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Charle ... ms_(DDG-2)
De-commissioned leaflet.
Attachments
SG603.jpg

Post Reply