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USS Dewey (DDG 45)

USS DEWEY was the 9^th FARRAGUT - class guided missile destroyer and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Delivered to the Navy on December 2, 1959, the ship was commissioned five days later, Commander E. R. Zumwalt, Jr. - who later became the youngest man ever to serve as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in 1970 - in command.

Commissioned as a guided missile frigate (DLG), the USS DEWEY was reclassified as guided missile destroyer (DDG) on June 30, 1975, changing its hullnumber from DLG 14 to DDG 45. Decommissioned on August 31, 1990, and stricken from the Navy list on November 20, 1992, the DEWEY was sold for scrapping on April 15, 1994.

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Crew List:

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

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• Click here to see which USS DEWEY memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS DEWEY Cruise Books:

• Maiden Cruise Book 1959-61

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Accidents aboard USS DEWEY:

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About the Ship's Name:

George Dewey, born 26 December 1837 in Montpelier, Vt., graduated from the Naval Academy in 1868 and after varied important service assumed command of the Asiatic Station 3 January 1898, with his flag in the protected cruiser OLYMPIA. On the night of 30 April 1898 Admiral Dewey led his squadron into Manila Bay and the next morning in 2 hours destroyed the Spanish fleet without a single American loss. Admiral Dewey was relieved of his command 4 October 1899 and ordered to Washington, D.C., where he was designated President of the General Board. On 24 March 1903 he was commissioned Admiral of the Navy, a rank created for him, which he held until his death 16 January 1917.

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USS DEWEY History:

USS DEWEY (DLG 14) was laid down at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, on August 10, 1957, launched on November 30, 1958, and commissioned on December 7, 1959, with Commander Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., in command. Built from the keel up as a guided-missile ship, she entered the Atlantic Fleet the following year after shakedown training off New England, the Virginia Capes, and in the Caribbean, joining the emerging missile era force that was taking shape at the height of the Cold War.

In 1962, DEWEY operated with the Second Fleet during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when President Kennedy ordered a naval "quarantine" of Cuba from October through December. The ship's role placed her in the ring of surface combatants tasked to identify, track, and - if directed - intercept Soviet-bloc shipping at the quarantine line, a vivid early test of the Navy's missile destroyer/frigate concept in a real confrontation.

Through the mid-1960s DEWEY alternated Atlantic exercises, Caribbean refresher training, and maintenance with periods of independent steaming and combined operations, a routine that reflected the Navy's emphasis on high-end air defense and antisubmarine skills against a growing Soviet blue-water fleet. In 1968, she shifted to the Western Pacific for Vietnam War duty. There she performed plane-guard and anti-air warfare screen tasks for carriers on Yankee Station, provided radar coverage and positive control for air operations, and took turns on search-and-rescue (SAR) support. Her Vietnam experience continued after recommissioning (see below) and is documented in detail on one date in particular: on August 6-7, 1972, DEWEY served as the surface SAR control ship during the rescue of a downed naval aviator deep inland from the Gulf of Tonkin, coordinating the surface and airborne pieces of the recovery while strike aircraft from USS SARATOGA (CVA 60) and USS MIDWAY (CVA 41) supported and an HH-3A "Big Mother 60" helicopter executed the pickup.

In the late summer of 1969, while preparing to sail from Toulon, France, DEWEY suffered a serious boiler-room explosion and fire on September 4, which killed three sailors - an incident that brought her Mediterranean period that year to a grim close. She was decommissioned later in 1969 for modernization.

DEWEY returned to active service on March 31, 1971, and resumed operations with the Atlantic and Sixth Fleets. In 1973-1974 she deployed to the Mediterranean at the time of the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War (October 1973), operating with Sixth Fleet contingency forces during a period of elevated U.S.-Soviet tension and intensive surveillance and readiness postures across the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship's cruise book for that deployment captures the tempo and port routine of a long Sixth Fleet tour in the shadow of the crisis and its aftermath. On June 30, 1975, the Navy reclassified all DLGs as guided-missile destroyers; DEWEY's designation changed from DLG 14 to DDG 45, reflecting her role and capabilities more accurately.

After the reclassification, DEWEY continued the Atlantic-Mediterranean pattern common to her class. In 1977, she made a combined North Atlantic and Mediterranean deployment, followed in 1978 by another Sixth Fleet tour. During an in-port period at Naples on May 3, 1978, a fire damaged portions of the missile control system, an episode that required repair work before she could rejoin task-group operations at full combat readiness. In 1979, she went south to Latin America for UNITAS XX, the annual series of multinational exercises with South American navies. A Navy photo documents DEWEY off the Venezuelan coast on June 1, 1979, highlighting the ship's contribution to hemispheric interoperability and anti-air/anti-submarine training with partner fleets.

The early 1980s kept DEWEY busy with Sixth Fleet and NATO commitments. She deployed to the Mediterranean in 1982 amid a turbulent Eastern Mediterranean security environment shaped by the Lebanese civil war and broader regional instability. In 1983, she joined the NATO Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), the permanent multinational ready force that rotated through Northern European waters and into the Atlantic, exercising complex air defense, replenishment, and multi-ship tactics with allied units.

In 1984, DEWEY operated with USS WILLIAM V. PRATT (DDG 44) and the oiler USNS PAWCATUCK (T-AO 108) off the east coast of Central America, part of the year's U.S. naval posture in the Caribbean and approaches, before cycling back through training and upkeep. She returned to the Mediterranean in 1985 for another Sixth Fleet deployment as the United States and its allies maintained high readiness in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean during a period of recurring crises involving air defense and freedom-of-navigation assertions.

The ship's late-1980s service reflected the Navy's shift toward CENTCOM waters as the Iran-Iraq War wound down and maritime security in and around the Persian Gulf remained a priority. Crew histories and official summaries indicate a Mediterranean cruise in 1987-1988 followed by a deployment that took DEWEY to the Persian Gulf in 1989-1990 for presence and escort-related duties as the region trended toward the Gulf crisis of 1990-1991. After returning to the United States, DEWEY was decommissioned on August 31, 1990, and struck from the Navy list on November 20, 1992. She was sold for scrapping on April 15, 1994.

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USS DEWEY Patch Gallery:

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