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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Cruise Books USS David R. Ray History About the Name "David R. Ray" About the Ship's Coat of Arms Patch Gallery Image Gallery to end of page |  |  |
USS DAVID R. RAY was the ninth SPRUANCE -class destroyer and the fifth ship in that class to join the Pacific Fleet. DAVID R. RAY was last homeported in Everett, Washington. Decommissioned on February 28, 2002, and stricken from the Navy list on November 6, 2002, the DAVID R. RAY spent the following years laid up at the Bremerton Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility. On July 11, 2008, the destroyer was sunk as a target during RIMPAC 2008 off Kauai, Hawaii, by fire from eight US and Japanese ships along with three aircraft using naval artillery and Harpoon missiles.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: January 15, 1971 |
| Keel laid: September 23, 1974 | |
| Launched: August 23, 1975 | |
| Commissioned: November 19, 1977 | |
| Decommissioned: February 28, 2002 | |
| Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, West Bank, Pascagoula, Miss. | |
| Propulsion system: four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine engines | |
| Propellers: two | |
| Blades on each Propeller: five | |
| Length: 564,3 feet (172 meters) | |
| Beam: 55,1 feet (16.8 meters) | |
| Draft: 28,9 feet (8.8 meters) | |
| Displacement: approx. 9,200 tons full load | |
| Speed: 30+ knots | |
| Aircraft: two | |
| Armament: two | |
| Crew: approx. 340 |
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageCrew List:
This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS DAVID R. RAY. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageUSS DAVID R. RAY Cruise Books:
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Destroyer's Name, about Hospital Corpsman Second Class David R. Ray:
The son of Mr. and Mrs. David F. Ray, he was born on 14 February 1945 in McMinnville Tennessee. He graduated from City High School in McMinnville in 1963. David R. Ray was a 1963 University of Tennessee alumni scholarship winner and attended university's Knoxville campus from 1963 to 1966. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy at Nashville, Tennessee on 28 March 1966 and subsequently reported to Recruit Training Command Naval Training San Diego, after which he was assigned to the Naval Hospital in the USS HAVINN (AH 12). Following his tour in the hospital ship, David next served at Naval Hospital Long Beach, California.
In Mays 1968 he requested a tour of duty with the Marines. He reported for instruction at Field Medical Service School, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California in July he joined Second Battalion, Eleventh Marines , First Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force.
David R. Ray was serving as a corpsman with the battalion when he was mortally wounded on 19 March 1969, while treating wounded Marines "For conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty...near An Hoa, Quang Nam Province, in the Republic of Vietnam..." David Robert Ray was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. In addition to the Purple Heart Medal which was awarded for wounds received in action, he also had the Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with star, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
back to top go to the end of the pageHistory of USS DAVID R. RAY:
USS DAVID R. RAY was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, on September 23, 1974, launched on August 24, 1975, and commissioned on November 19, 1977, at Pascagoula. On her delivery voyage she transited the Panama Canal en route to her first homeport of San Diego and, on May 16, 1978, crossed the equator for the first time, marking the crew's initial Shellback ceremony. Early operating months were devoted to post-commissioning trials, combat-systems qualifications for the Mk 29 NATO SEA SPARROW launcher and 5-inch/54 gun, and LAMPS flight-deck certifications in the Southern California operating areas.
On February 19, 1979, the destroyer set a fleet milestone when she became the first ship to intercept a supersonic target drone with the NATO SEA SPARROW missile system, a demonstration of point-defense capability carried out as the Navy refined layered air defense against emerging sea-skimming threats. With readiness certified, DAVID R. RAY sailed on her first Western Pacific (WESTPAC) deployment on September 8, 1979, calling at Pearl Harbor, Guam, Yokosuka, Inchon, Subic Bay, and Hong Kong while screening carrier and amphibious formations and drilling in anti-submarine and anti-air warfare across Seventh Fleet waters. The ship returned to San Diego in early 1980 after a deployment that later drew a Meritorious Unit Commendation for the November 1979-February 1980 window.
Following an inter-deployment training cycle that earned the Battle Efficiency "E" for 1981, the ship underwent her first major overhaul in 1982 in the Puget Sound area (Seattle), resetting hull, mechanical and electrical systems and refreshing combat electronics after high-tempo forward operations. Refitted and worked-up, she deployed again on October 18, 1983, for the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. Port visits during the opening months included Pearl Harbor, Subic Bay, Pusan and Chinhae in Korea, Hong Kong, and Pattaya (Thailand), the latter paired with a bilateral U.S.-Thai naval exercise. In the late phase of the cruise, she spent 54 continuous days underway ranging from the northwest Indian Ocean to the northern Sea of Japan conducting surveillance operations on the new Soviet carrier NOVOROSSIYSK, a blue-water stretch that underscored the late-Cold War reconnaissance contest at sea. She closed the deployment and returned stateside in 1984.
Late in 1984, DAVID R. RAY became the Navy's primary at-sea test platform for the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) program, embarking the prototype Mk 49 launcher aft and conducting developmental firings that helped carry the close-in anti-missile system to fleet introduction. On January 15, 1986, she deployed with BATTLE GROUP FOXTROT centered on the nuclear carrier ENTERPRISE (CVN 65), which staged via Hawaii, Subic Bay, and Singapore to the Indian Ocean. During this cruise - against the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq War and heightened Gulf tension - the destroyer made world news on May 12, 1986, when she interposed to deter an Iranian SAAM-class frigate's attempt to stop and board the U.S.-flagged container ship PRESIDENT McKINLEY in the Gulf of Oman near Fujairah. The Iranian ship broke off after DAVID R. RAY established identity and asserted the U.S. vessel's freedom of navigation. She completed the deployment later that summer and returned to U.S. waters.
A second major overhaul began in June 1988, coincident with a homeport shift from San Diego to Long Beach, California. During this yard period the ship received the Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS) and associated combat-system upgrades that integrated RIM-7P SEA SPARROW, BGM-109 TOMAHAWK (Block II) and ASROC into her suite while continuing RAM test responsibilities - changes that moved the SPRUANCE-class destroyer from a first-generation ASW escort to a fully multirole combatant with long-range land-attack capacity.
Deploying again on April 27, 1990, DAVID R. RAY was in the Persian Gulf when Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. She contributed to the opening phase of Operation Desert Shield - maritime interception and regional presence in the constrained waterways of the Arabian Gulf - before rotating home as the coalition built up for the 1991 war. After sustainment and training on the West Coast, she sailed on April 22, 1992, for another Middle East Force tour. In this period she served as a flagship within the Maritime Interception Force enforcing U.N. sanctions on Iraq, and returned to Long Beach on October 22, 1992.
A further Gulf rotation followed in October 1994. Serving as flagship for Commander, Destroyer Squadron 50, the ship conducted intensive Maritime Interception Operations - hail, query, and boarding of suspect merchantmen - which led to multiple diversions and detentions of embargo-violating traffic before she returned to the West Coast in April 1995. Between deployments she sustained a demanding public-relations and training schedule with short trips along the Pacific seaboard, including Seattle Seafair and San Francisco Fleet Week, alongside weapons qualification periods on Southern California ranges.
After a nine-month regular overhaul completed in June 1996, DAVID R. RAY changed homeport to Everett, Washington, on July 29, 1996, joining the new surface contingent there. Workups from Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest led to deployment on May 20, 1997, as senior ship of a Middle East Force surface action element for the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf. Across that cruise she logged more than 700 helicopter flight hours and conducted 49 boardings in support of sanctions enforcement before returning in November 1997. Her group's sustained performance drew a Navy Unit Commendation credit covering October 1997-April 1998. A short maintenance availability ran from February 11 to April 15, 1998, followed by preparations for the next tasking cycle.
On March 9, 1999, DAVID R. RAY received no-notice tasking to act as Surface Action Group Commander for the disposal of the wrecked freighter NEW CARISSA off the Oregon coast. After earlier efforts to tow and scuttle the grounded bow section failed, Navy EOD placed charges and the destroyer fired 69 rounds of 5-inch/54 at the waterline. When the hulk still resisted, submarine BREMERTON (SSN 698) delivered a Mk 48 torpedo that sent the section to the bottom, averting a worsening spill. One month later, on April 16, 1999, DAVID R. RAY deployed again to the Gulf (PACMEF 99-2) as a surface action commander, conducting 55 boardings and more than 850 flight hours and even assisting in the emergency delivery of a baby aboard an Iraqi ferry before returning to Everett on October 4, 1999.
Through 2000, the ship balanced weapons testing and fleet events with public-outreach port visits. She escorted the decommissioned nuclear cruiser ex-SOUTH CAROLINA (CGN 37) to Bremerton for recycling and continued anti-air warfare and naval surface fire support qualifications. In May 2001, she sailed on her final operational deployment, a counter-narcotics mission in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific under Joint Interagency Task Force control, and returned to Everett in October 2001 to begin inactivation preparations.
DAVID R. RAY decommissioned at Everett on February 28, 2002, and was towed to inactive status at Bremerton. In June 2008, she was towed to Hawaii for disposal and, on July 11, 2008, was sunk as a target during RIMPAC by combined U.S. and Japanese forces employing naval gunfire, HARPOON anti-ship missiles, and air strikes - closing nearly a quarter-century of commissioned service.
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Destroyer's Coat of Arms:The coat of arms of USS DAVID R. RAY serves as a heraldic reminder of the ship's namesake. Hospitalman Second Class David R. Ray was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for "conspicuous gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" while treating and protecting wounded Marines at a battle near An Hoa, Republic of Vietnam.
The light blue center section and white five-pointed star allude to the Medal of Honor ribbon; the star is inverted in reference to the silhouette of the Medal of Honor pendant. The light and dark blue stripes refer to the courage, perseverance and selfless devotion to duty of Petty Officer Ray.
Ray's unit -- Battery D, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Division -- is indicated by the scarlet and gold embattled border. Blue, gold, and scarlet are the colors of the Navy and Marine Corps.
The blue caduceus is the insignia worn on white uniforms by Hospital Corpsman, United States Navy. This insignia and the howitzer cartridges, in the colors of the Marine Corps, allude to the medical services customarily provided the Marine Corps by the Navy.
The ship's motto, "Determined, Ready, Resourceful", alludes to the initials of the ship's namesake, and epitomizes David R. Ray's legacy to the ship that bears his name.
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back to top go to the end of the pageUSS DAVID R. RAY Patch Gallery:
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