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USS John S. McCain (DDG 36)

Laid down as DD 928, the JOHN S. McCAIN was redesignated DL 3 in 1951. Again redesignated DDG 36 on April 15, 1965, the JOHN S. McCAIN entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for conversion to a guided missile destroyer in June 1966. The ship rejoined the fleet on June 21, 1969. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on April 29, 1978, the JOHN S. McCAIN was sold for scrap on December 13, 1979.

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Crew List:

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

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USS JOHN S. McCAIN Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1957
• Recommissioning Cruise Book 1969-70
• WestPac Cruise Book 1971
• WestPac Cruise Book 1972
• WestPac Cruise Book 1977

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USS JOHN S. McCAIN's Commanding Officers:

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About the Ship's Name:

John Sidney McCain, Sr., was born in Teoc, Miss., 9 August 1884 and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1906. His first assignments were ships of the Asiatic Squadron. During the American occupation of Vera Cruz in the Mexican revolution he served in SAN DIEGO, and remained on the ship during 1918 while she performed Atlantic escort duty.

In the years between the World Wars, McCain served in many ships, including MARYLAND, NEW MEXICO, and NITRO. His first command was SIRIUS. In 1936, at the age of 51, he was designated a Naval Aviator, and from 1937 to 1939 he commanded carrier RANGER, contributing much to the development of carrier tactics for the war to come. For the first year of World War II he served as Commander of Air Forces for Western Sea Frontier and the South Paciffc Force. In October 1942 McCain became Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics and in August 1943 rose to the rank of Vice Admiral as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air ).

In 1944, he returned to the Pacific Theatre to command a fast carrier task force which for over a year operated almost continuously in support of the great amphibious operations. His exceedingly skillful tactics protecting CANBERRA (CA 70) and HOUSTON (CA 81) in October 1944 earned him the Navy Cross, and the daring forays of his mobile force had much to do with the eventual victory. Vice Admiral McCain died 6 September 1945, just after arriving back in the United States, and was later appointed Admiral effective that date. For his outstanding performance as an air planner and carrier task force commander he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with two Gold Stars, Secretary Forrestal commented: "He was a fighting man all the way through."

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USS JOHN S. McCAIN History:

USS JOHN S. McCAIN began life as the destroyer leader JOHN S. McCAIN (DL 3), launched at Bath Iron Works on July 12, 1952, and commissioned at Boston on October 12, 1953. After a year of trials and shakedown in the Atlantic and Caribbean, she joined the Operational Development Force at Norfolk on May 19, 1955, for equipment and tactics testing before transferring to the Pacific via the Panama Canal and arriving in San Diego on December 4, 1956.

Her first Western Pacific cruise started on April 11, 1957. After a visit to Australia she joined Seventh Fleet's Taiwan Patrol, returning to San Diego on September 29, 1957, as tensions across the Strait ebbed. Early in 1958, she shifted her homeport to Pearl Harbor and spent eight months in fleet maneuvers and antisubmarine training. With the 1958 Quemoy-Matsu crisis intensifying, she deployed in early September to the Taiwan-South China Sea area to deter attack, remaining on station until March 1, 1959, when she returned to Hawaii.

She sailed again on September 8, 1959, for the Far East. During October she stood off Calcutta, India, delivering relief supplies to flood victims, and in January 1960 rescued all 41 crewmen of the Japanese freighter SHINWA MARU in a South China Sea storm before returning to Pearl Harbor on February 25, 1960.

She departed again on March 7, 1961, for six months with Seventh Fleet off Laos and Vietnam during a period of instability ashore, then resumed Hawaiian operations on September 25, 1961. As the United States prepared for Pacific atmospheric nuclear tests following renewed Soviet testing, JOHN S. McCAIN shifted to Johnston Island on April 27, 1962, and for the next six months cycled between Hawaii and the test area in support roles. She sailed on November 28, 1962, for another Far East tour, returning to patrols in the South China Sea and Gulf of Tonkin and rejoining the Taiwan Patrol before arriving back at Pearl Harbor on June 16, 1963.

After antisubmarine warfare drills, she departed March 23, 1964, to operate with a hunter-killer group in Japanese and Philippine waters and to exercise with SEATO navies, returning August 11. In 1965, she deployed again. In autumn she took station off South Vietnam as the war expanded. On November 24, 1965, she delivered naval gunfire against Viet Cong positions before pausing at Hong Kong two days later and finishing the year in Japan. After additional Far East operations in early 1966 she returned to the East Coast for conversion.

Decommissioned for modernization at Philadelphia on June 24, 1966, she received a major rebuild with a Mk 13 guided-missile launcher and updated sensors, and she was reclassified a guided-missile destroyer (DDG 36). Recommissioned on September 6, 1969, she rejoined the fleet and returned to the Pacific. By 1971, she was back in routine operations from Southern California, preparing for renewed Western Pacific employment as the U.S. shifted to Vietnamization while still sustaining heavy naval involvement offshore.

The 1972 war year opened with a focused work-up. On January 24, 1972, JOHN S. McCAIN sailed from San Diego for a week of antisubmarine exercises with TICONDEROGA (CVS 14) and ASW Group Three, then crossed the Pacific to Seventh Fleet. After the North Vietnamese spring offensive began and Operation Linebacker ramped up, she assumed roles that alternated between surface-action gunfire along the I Corps coast, escort duties, and controlling airspace and surface tracks in crowded waters. Deck logs from June show her serving as flagship for Commander, Destroyer Squadron 15, while attached to Task Unit 70.8.9 - the Seventh Fleet gunfire support group - in the waters off the Demilitarized Zone. On June 22, 1972, she was "steaming in vicinity of Point Betsy, South China Sea...OTC is CTU 70.8.9 ComDesRon Fifteen embarked in USS JOHN S. McCAIN (DDG 36)" and maneuvering between Points Betsy and Angela to meet missions and logistics. The logs that week record rendezvous with BENJAMIN STODDERT (DDG 22) for personnel transfer; underway replenishment with the combat stores ship MARS (AFS 1); and rearming from the ammunition ship PYRO (AE 24). On June 29, 1972, she "was relieved on station by USS HIGBEE (DD 806) and detached to proceed to firing station vicinity of Point Angela", then conducted multiple naval gunfire missions, including the destruction of a North Vietnamese artillery site shortly after midnight on June 30. Throughout, senior commanders shifted afloat: PROVIDENCE (CLG 6) and later OKLAHOMA CITY (CLG 5) are logged as senior officers present afloat (SOPA) for portions of these operations as the strike and gunfire campaign surged.

With the January 1973 cease-fire approaching, she completed turnover and returned to the United States later in the year. In the mid-1970s, as combat ended but Pacific presence remained central to U.S. strategy, JOHN S. McCAIN continued West Coast and Central Pacific operations interspersed with Seventh Fleet periods. Photographic records place her underway in the eastern Pacific on June 25, 1976, and alongside for an underway replenishment on April 14, 1977, snapshots of a ship still working up and deploying with carrier and surface groups in the last years of her service life.

She decommissioned and was stricken on April 29, 1978, as the Navy consolidated around newer air-defense combatants, and she was sold for scrap on December 13, 1979.

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USS JOHN S. McCAIN Image Gallery:

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