USS Buchanan (DDG 14)

- decommissioned -
- sunk as a target -

USS BUCHANAN was the 13th ship in the CHARLES F. ADAMS - class of guided missile destroyers and the third ship in the Navy to bear the name. Last homeported in San Diego, Ca., the BUCHANAN was stricken from the Navy list on November 20, 1992, and sunk as a target during RIMPAC 2000.

General Characteristics:	Keel laid: April 23, 1959
	Launched: May 11, 1960
	Commissioned: February 7, 1962
	Decommissioned: October 1, 1991
	Builder: Todd Pacific Shipyards Corporation of Seattle, Seattle, Wash.
	Propulsion system:4 - 1200 psi boilers; 2 geared turbines
	Propellers: two
	Length: 437 feet (133.2 meters)
	Beam: 47 feet (14.3 meters)
	Draft: 20 feet (6.1 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 4,500 tons
	Speed: 31+ knots
	Aircraft:none
	Armament: two Mk 42 5-inch/54 caliber guns, Mk 46 torpedoes from two Mk-32 triple mounts, one Mk 16 ASROC Missile Launcher, one Mk 11 Mod.0 Missile Launcher for Standard (MR) and Harpoon Missiles
	Crew: 24 officers and 330 enlisted

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS BUCHANAN. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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USS BUCHANAN Cruise Books:

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About the Ship's Name:

Franklin Buchanan - born at “Auchentorlie,” in Baltimore, Md., on 17 September 1800 - was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 28 January 1815 and initially served in the frigate JAVA under Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry. After tours of duty in a succession of ships, mostly in the Mediterranean, Buchanan obtained permission from the Navy Department to enter the merchant service and worked for five years as a mate in a merchantman on a voyage to China. Following that interval, Buchanan returned to the Navy and spent the next six years in a series of ships engaged in the suppression of piracy in the West Indies. Having been appointed a lieutenant on 13 January 1825, Buchanan delivered the frigate BALTIMORE to the Emperor of Brazil the following July.

Following another Mediterranean cruise in the frigate CONSTELLATION, he then served as first lieutenant in the ship-of-the-line DELAWARE, which bore the United States minister to France, Edward Livingston, to his diplomatic post; and Buchanan was among the officers invited to dine with King Louis Philippe.

Buchanan then went ashore to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to perform duty involving the testing of cannon after which service he commanded the receiving ship at BALTIMORE. He joined the frigate CONSTITUTION in April 1839 and sailed for the Pacific where he later served on board the sloop FALMOUTH. Buchanan returned home to the United States in June 1840. Promoted to the rank of commander on 8 September 1841, he received command of the steam frigate MISSISSIPPI. Shortly thereafter, however, he was transferred to command of the sloop VINCENNES in which he spent almost two years hunting slave traders and pirates.

Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft had ordered Buchanan to submit a plan for organizing a new naval school at Annapolis, and on 14 August 1845, he was appointed the first superintendent of what would become the United States Naval Academy. He occupied that post from the school's formal opening on 10 October 1845 until 2 March 1847. In establishing the academy's high standards of discipline and efficiency, Buchanan earned Bancroft's praise for his "precision and sound judgment," and his "wise adaptation of simple and moderate means to a great end...."

His application for active service in the Mexican War accepted, Buchanan commanded the sloop GERMANTOWN, which, during his time in command, participated in the operations against Tuxpan on 18 April 1847 and at Tabasco on 16 June 1847. After another tour ashore, this time in Baltimore, Buchanan took command of the steam frigate SUSEQUEHANNA, which he commanded when she served as flagship for Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry's expedition to Japan.

Made a member of the Board of Officers to Promote Efficiency in the Navy on his return from Japan, Buchanan soon thereafter became commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. On 14 September 1855, he received promotion to the rank of captain. He was holding that rank when, under the impression that Maryland would secede from the Union, he submitted his resignation from the Navy on 22 April 1861. Soon convinced that North and South could achieve a reconciliation, however, he wrote the Navy Department asking to withdraw his resignation. Nevertheless, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles dismissed Buchanan from the service on 14 May 1861.

Appointed a captain in the Confederate Navy on 5 September 1861, Buchanan served as the Chief of the Bureau of Orders and Detail until 24 February 1862, when he assumed command of the Chesapeake Bay Squadron. Flying his pennant in ironclad CSS VIRGINIA, Buchanan surprised a Union squadron in Hampton Roads on 8 March 1862. VIRGINIA destroyed the frigate CONGRESS, the sloop CUMBERLAND, and three smaller steamers. Late in the action, Capt. Buchanan, enraged at Union troops who violated naval etiquette by firing on his men when they tried to take the surrender of CONGRESS, went topside to return the fire with a Sharps carbine, but a Union sharpshooter’s Minié ball shattered his left thigh. The wound prevented him from exercising command the following day when VIRGINIA met the Union ironclad MONITOR in Hampton Roads.

Commended nonetheless for his "gallant and meritorious conduct," Buchanan was promoted to rear admiral on 26 August 1862. Thus becoming the ranking officer in the Confederate States Navy, he was given command of the South's naval forces at Mobile Bay. Wearing his flag in the ironclad ram TENNESSEE, Rear Admiral Buchanan led a daring single-ship attack against Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut's entire squadron in the Battle of Mobile Bay on 5 August 1864 after all his other ships had been either captured or driven off. Damage to his flagship compelled Buchanan, who had again been seriously wounded, to surrender. He remained a prisoner of war until exchanged in February 1865.

Returning to his home in Maryland's Talbot County, "The Rest," after the war, he later became president of the Maryland Agricultural College (later the University of Maryland) in September 1868. He remained in that post until June 1869, after which time he served as secretary of the Alabama branch of the Life Insurance Company of America. After about a year in that line of work, he once again returned to "The Rest," where he ultimately died on 11 May 1874.

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USS BUCHANAN History:

USS BUCHANAN built by Todd-Pacific Shipbuilding in Seattle, was laid down on 23 April 1959, launched on 11 May 1960, and commissioned on 7 February 1962. Following outfitting at Puget Sound, she shifted south on 25 March 1962, reached her new homeport of San Diego on 5 April, and shortly afterward conducted shakedown out of Pearl Harbor, where she took part in the dedication of the USS ARIZONA Memorial on 30 May 1962. Through late 1962, she alternated local operations with post-shakedown work at Puget Sound, then prepared for Western Pacific duty.

Her first WESTPAC began in April 1963. After a brief dry-docking at Pearl Harbor (9-14 April), she joined a task group around CORAL SEA (CVA 43) for the 21st anniversary commemoration of the Battle of the Coral Sea at Sydney, then detached to visit Melbourne. Through mid-1963 she cycled among Guam, Subic Bay, Manila, Hong Kong, Yokosuka and Sasebo, tested her TARTAR system at the Okinawa range, and completed upkeep in Japan. While she was alongside at Hong Kong on 1 November 1963, the coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem triggered a contingency presence off the Mekong. BUCHANAN sailed on 2 November with HANCOCK (CVA 19) and two other destroyers to cover a possible evacuation, then stood down after the new Saigon leadership signaled stability. She returned to San Diego on 27 November 1963, overhauled at San Francisco Naval Shipyard (7 May-22 September 1964), and closed the year in fleet exercises.

Deploying again on 5 January 1965, BUCHANAN joined Seventh Fleet operations in the South China Sea as the U.S. presence in Vietnam expanded. She patrolled, escorted, and served as plane guard amid the early air-strike campaigns, interspersing periods at Yokosuka, Hong Kong, Subic, and Okinawa. She returned to San Diego on 9 August and entered overhaul at Long Beach (16 September-11 November). In 1966, she redeployed (11 June-21 December), alternating plane-guard duty at "DIXIE Station" off the Mekong delta and "YANKEE Station" off the northern coast, and embarked the Seventh Fleet flag for a port visit to Bangkok (25-29 July). She wrapped up with upkeep at Hong Kong, then worked her way home via Okinawa, Yokosuka, and Pearl Harbor.

Following shipyard work in spring-summer 1967, BUCHANAN returned to sea. On the night of 14 September 1967, she collided with the fishing vessel HOLIDAY while operating in column with SOUTHERLAND (DD 743). A subsequent inquiry held the civilian craft burdened to keep clear, though the ship acknowledged watchstanding deficiencies that contributed to the incident. She resumed Western Pacific service in 1968, rotating between gunline naval gunfire support (NGFS) for forces ashore and carrier plane-guard assignments in the Gulf of Tonkin, and put into Subic Bay for battle-damage repairs after one NGFS period. She returned to San Diego on 11 August 1968.

BUCHANAN sailed west again on 18 March 1969 with BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA 31), CHEVALIER (DD 805), and SOUTHERLAND. She guarded TICONDEROGA (CVA 14) (8-24 May), then shifted to NGFS in I and II Corps, supporting the 3rd Marine Regiment and the 173rd Airborne Brigade around Da Nang (16 June-16 July). Port calls at Subic Bay, Sasebo, and Hong Kong punctuated the tour before she returned to San Diego on 18 September 1969. Through early 1970, she operated locally, then deployed on 13 July 1970, to resume plane-guard work (again for BON HOMME RICHARD) and short periods with SHANGRI-LA (CVA 38), interleaved with NGFS for the U.S. Army's Americal Division, the 1st Brigade/5th Infantry Division (Mech), and the 1st Marine Division in I Corps (15 September-6 October), followed by gunnery in the Mekong delta for ARVN 9th and 21st Divisions (19 November-1 December). She returned to San Diego on 20 December 1970 and spent 1971 in overhaul, refresher training, and local operations.

During the 1972 Easter Offensive, BUCHANAN deployed on 17 February, reached station by 17 March, and on 1 April joined another guided-missile destroyer in covering the withdrawal of the ARVN 57th Regiment from Gio Linh. On 17 April, operating off Vinh with GEORGE K. MacKENZIE (DD 836) and HAMNER (DD 718), she came under coastal artillery fire. An airburst holed the ship, killing Seaman Leonard R. Davis and wounding several others. After repairs and continued picket and plane-guard duty, she supported Operation LINEBACKER (2 May-23 October), paused for rest at Hong Kong (28 August-4 September), and returned to San Diego on 25 September 1972. She redeployed on 25 July 1973, for escort and antiaircraft picket work in the Gulf of Tonkin (13 September-26 October), then stretched her itinerary to Kaohsiung, Mombasa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokosuka, and home (8 March 1974).

From January to June 1975, BUCHANAN overhauled at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, modernizing combat systems and communications and reworking her 5-inch mounts and ASROC launcher, then completed trials and a year of local operations through 1976. She deployed on 11 April 1977 with CONSTELLATION (CV 64) and JOHN S. MCCAIN (DDG 36), briefly suffered propulsion issues during an UNREP with SHASTA (AE 33) that required repairs at Guam, and then rejoined for MAULEX 3-77, a U.S.-Philippine amphibious exercise. She also executed an antisubmarine warfare drill with the Republic of China Navy and acted as an opposing-forces "Soviet" cruiser in MULTIPLEX 5-77. After a largely stateside 1978 - including a short Seattle visit and a community-assistance episode at Mazatlan - she headed west on 20 February 1979, towing the disabled frigate BROOKE (FFG 1) for part of the transit to Pearl Harbor, observing POLARIS missile tests, exercising off Korea and Okinawa, visiting Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Vanuatu, Auckland, Pago Pago, and bringing family riders home on a Tiger Cruise to San Diego in September.

A major modernization followed in 1980 at Long Beach, where BUCHANAN received the HARPOON anti-ship missile and SRBOC countermeasures. West again in autumn 1981 with a small formation that included a supply ship, an ammunition ship, a frigate, and a destroyer, she drilled in the Gulf of Thailand (Sea of Siam), the Sea of Japan, and at the Tabones Island gunnery range, and made liberty calls at Sattahip and Pattaya.

In February 1985, BUCHANAN became a focal point in South Pacific geopolitics when New Zealand's government, pursuing a nuclear-free policy and given the U.S. Navy's practice of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons, denied her request for a port call at Auckland. The dispute precipitated a long chill in ANZUS ties. The United States soon suspended its treaty obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access.

As the Iran-Iraq War's "Tanker War" threatened shipping, BUCHANAN joined U.S. Gulf security operations. Departing San Diego on 14 July 1987, with "Battle Force Echo", she moved via Subic Bay and Singapore to the North Arabian Sea, arriving on 25 August to support convoy protection associated with Operation EARNEST WILL. Her itinerary included Diego Garcia (8-16 September), Mogadishu (20-21 October), and Victoria, Seychelles (25-29 October), with the return leg via Phuket (18-23 November), Penang (24-26 November), Hong Kong (2-6 December), and Subic (9-11 December), back in San Diego on 30 December 1987. After stateside operations through early 1989, she briefly returned to the region in June 1989, before resuming West Coast duties, including Fleet Week at San Francisco (7-11 October 1989). In 1990, she conducted torpedo testing at the Nanoose Range (late February-early March), participated in drug-interdiction patrols along the U.S. West Coast, visited Tacoma for the Daffodil Festival (6-10 April), joined a "Just Say No" community event in Portland (11-13 May), hosted HMS ARIADNE in San Diego (29 May-4 June), and ran a dependents' cruise with RANGER (CV 61) on 4 August.

From 1 January to 1 October 1991, BUCHANAN no longer put to sea under her own power. She served pier-side in San Diego as a boarding-operations training platform for SEAL TEAM ONE and SEAL TEAM FIVE while preparing for retirement. She was decommissioned on 1 October 1991, towed to Pearl Harbor on 15 October, and stricken on 20 November 1992. Kept at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, she was selected for a SINKEX during RIMPAC 2000: on 13 June she absorbed multiple ordnance - reports cite three AGM-114 HELLFIRE strikes, three HARPOON hits, and a 2,400-lb laser-guided bomb - and finally was scuttled on 14 June 2000 by placed charges, settling in deep water off Hawaii.

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Homeports of USS BUCHANAN:

Period	Homeport
commissioned at Bremerton, Wash.
1962 - 1991	San Diego, Calif.

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RIMPAC 2000 - BUCHANAN's final days:

USS BUCHANAN was one of four decommissioned ships that were sunk as targets during RIMPAC 2000. The other three ships were the BELKNAP-class cruiser WORDEN (CG 18), the guided missile frigate RAMSEY (FFG 2) and the USS GENERAL HUGH J. GAFFEY (AP 121).

The sinking of the ships was conducted at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, north of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai, and focused on honing weapons firing skills and proficiency.

Missile firing and torpedo firing exercises to sink the BUCHANAN started June 13. Three Hellfire hits, three Harpoon hits and a 2,400 pound laser-guided bomb hit were not enough to sink the ship. The job was finally done by 200 pounds of explosive charges set by an EOD team so that the BUCHANAN sunk on June 14, 2000.

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USS BUCHANAN Image Gallery

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