Previously Held NEC 00E-Unknown NEC/Rate
DC-0000-Damage Controlman
HT-4955-Non-Nuclear High Pressure Components Welder
HT-4956-Nuclear Power Plant Components Welder
NEC HT-4955-Non-Nuclear High Pressure Components Welder
Base, Station or City (D&S) Piers Norfolk
State/Country Virginia
Patch
USS Lawrence (DDG-4) Details
USS Lawrence (DDG-4), was the fifth ship named for Captain James Lawrence USN (1781-1813).
Lawrence was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporationat Camdenin New Jerseyon 27 October, 1958, launched on 27 February 1960by Mrs. Fernie C. Hubbard, great-great-granddaughter of Captain James Lawrence and commissioned on 6 January 1962, Comdr. Thomas W. Walsh in command. Lawrence served on blockade duty during the Cuban Missile Crisisin October 1962.
After a shakedown cruise on the Great Lakes, Lawrence proceeded to Naval Station Norfolk for duty in the Atlantic Fleet. Following the rapid development of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the warship deployed with Task Group 136.1, a surface quarantine group of cruisers USS Canberra (CAG 2), USS Newport News (CA 148), three guided-missile destroyers including Lawrence and twelve escorts. The group took up a blocking position north of Cuba on 24 October, two days into the crisis. On Friday the 26, Lawrence and MacDonough (DLG 8) began shadowing Grozny, a tanker proceeding towards Cuba. The next day, the Soviet Union agreed to defuse the crisis and military forces on both sides began standing down.
After returning to Norfolk on 6 December 1962, Lawrence began the first of many Mediterraneancruises on 6 February 1963, steaming across the Atlantic to join the Sixth Fleet for operations in European waters, where she remained until 1 July. Following a second Mediterranean deployment between April and August 1964, the warship received an extensive overhaul in Norfolk over the ensuing winter. Before the end of the decade she conducted four more cruises; a Sixth Fleetdeployment in 1965 (24 August to 17 December), a NATOexercise in the North Atlanticin 1966 (3 August to 5 September), another Mediterranean tour in 1966-67 (27 September to 1 February) and a third Sixth Fleet cruise in 1968 (10 January to 4 May). During her fourth Mediterranean deployment, Lawrence helped rescue crewmen from the sinking merchant vessel New Meadow, in distress off the coast of Crete.
Following two additional Mediterranean deployments, one in 1969-70 and another in 1971, the much-traveled destroyer made one Vietnam War tour in the Western Pacific in 1972-73, providing naval gunfire support, dodging enemy return fire and serving as plane guard during aircraft carrier operations. Two more Sixth Fleet cruises followed in 1977-78 and 1979, and during the latter she briefly visited the Black Sea. Lawrence also passed through the Mediterranean en route to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, deployments that took place in 1974-75, 1980 and 1983-84.
Lawrence also saw frequent service closer to home, in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, and occasionally visited other waters. In 1986 she steamed around South America as part of Operation Unitas XVII, exercising with Latin American navies and visiting ports in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chili, Uruguay and Brazil.
Lawrence was decommissioned on 30 March 1990, stricken from the Naval Vessel Registeron 16 May 1990, and sold for scrap on 15 April 1994. The scrap contract was terminated on 1 October 1996when she was repossessed after the failure of the ship breaking firm.
Following over two more years in Navy custody, LAWRENCE's hulk was again sold for scrapping in February 1999.
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 and the hull mounted SQQ-23 Pair Sonar for DDG-2 through 19
AN/SPS-40 Air Search Radar
Armament:
1 Mark 11 launcher (DDG2-14) or Mark 13 single arm launcher (DDG-15-24) for Tartar SAM system or later the Standard SM-1 and Harpoon antiship missile
2x Mark 42 5in(127mm)/54
1x ASROC Launcher
6x 12.8in(324mm) ASW Torpedo Tubes (2xMark 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes)