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USS Sample (FF 1048)

USS SAMPLE was the seventh ship in the GARCIA - class of frigates. Commissioned as a destroyer escort, the SAMPLE was redesignated as FF 1048 on June 30, 1975. Decommissioned on September 23, 1988, the SAMPLE was leased to Brazil on April 15, 1989, where she was recommissioned as PARANÁ. Brazil officially purchased the SAMPLE on January 24, 2001, and she was stricken from the Navy list the same day.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS SAMPLE. 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 SAMPLE memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS SAMPLE Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1983-84

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About the Ship's Name:

William Dodge Sample was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on 9 March 1898. Following graduation from the Naval Academy in June 1918, he reported for duty in HENDERSON. For meritorious service during a fire on board that ship, he received a letter of commendation from the Secretary of the Navy. Detached in August, he served on several destroyers based at Queenstown, Ireland, during the remainder of World War I. He remained in the European Waters Detachment after the end of the war; and, in December 1921, was transferred to the gunboat, PAMPANGA, on the Asiatic Station. A year later, he returned to the United States for flight training and was designated a Naval Aviator on 23 June 1923.

After duty in several observation squadrons, he served on board the carriers SARATOGA and LEXINGTON, commanding VF-5 on the latter. During 1938 and 1939, he served in RANGER; and, after the outbreak of World War II, assisted in the conversion of SANTEE. Assuming command of that escort carrier on its commissioning, he was awarded a letter of commendation for service during Operation “Torch,” the invasion of North Africa. On 19 April 1944, he assumed command of INTREPID. In May, he was transferred to the command of HORNET; and, in the ensuing months, participated in operations in the Marianas and in strikes against the Volcano Islands. Detached in August, he was promoted to Rear Admiral and successively commanded Carrier Divisions 24, 27, and 22. With the latter from February 1945, he was listed as missing on 2 October 1945 after his plane failed to return from a familiarization flight near Wakayama, Japan. Rear Admiral Sample was officially declared dead on 3 October 1946.

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USS SAMPLE History:

USS SAMPLE was laid down at Seattle, Washington, by Puget Sound Bridge and Dry Dock Company, part of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, on July 19, 1963. She was launched on April 28, 1964, sponsored by Mrs. David M. Abshire, Rear Admiral Sample's daughter. She belonged to the GARCIA-class of ocean escorts developed primarily for anti-submarine warfare during a period when the Soviet Union was expanding both the size and capability of its submarine force. USS SAMPLE was commissioned at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on March 23, 1968, with Commander Ronald T. Kelly in command. Following commissioning, she conducted fitting-out work, trials and shakedown training. She was initially assigned to Destroyer Squadron 29 at Long Beach, California, but before the end of her first year in commission she was reassigned to Destroyer Division 252 of Destroyer Squadron 25 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Pearl Harbor would remain closely associated with the ship for most of her U.S. Navy career.

USS SAMPLE arrived at Pearl Harbor for the first time on October 18, 1968. Her arrival was followed almost immediately by an accident. On October 19, while USS O'BANNON (DD 450) was approaching a berth at Pearl Harbor, strong wind set the destroyer into USS SAMPLE. The collision damaged SAMPLE's bow sonar dome sufficiently to require major repair. Because the sonar was central to her primary anti-submarine mission, the ship returned to the Puget Sound area rather than immediately entering the normal operating cycle from Hawaii. Repairs occupied the closing months of 1968 and continued into 1969.

On January 21, 1969, USS SAMPLE departed Bangor, Washington, to return to Hawaii. She remained in Hawaiian waters during the remainder of the winter and early spring, conducting the training and readiness work necessary before her first overseas deployment. On April 17, she departed Pearl Harbor on her first Western Pacific cruise and entered Seventh Fleet service at a time when U.S. naval forces remained heavily engaged in the Vietnam War.

Toward the end of April 1969, USS SAMPLE arrived at Yokosuka, Japan, and subsequently continued to Okinawa and the Philippines. Early in May, she reached Subic Bay, the principal American naval logistics and repair facility supporting Seventh Fleet operations in Southeast Asia. From the Philippines she proceeded to the Gulf of Tonkin, where she undertook patrol and escort duties in connection with aircraft carriers conducting combat operations in support of American and South Vietnamese forces.

For USS SAMPLE, the deployment combined her primary anti-submarine and escort mission with the broader requirements imposed on Seventh Fleet surface ships. Carrier escorts maintained surveillance around the task force, searched for submarine and surface contacts, helped protect carriers during flight operations and stood ready to assist aircraft or personnel in distress. The deployment occurred while the United States was beginning a gradual transition toward Vietnamization, although American carrier aviation remained heavily involved in Southeast Asian operations.

In June, USS SAMPLE left Subic Bay for Taiwan. During July, she served with the Taiwan Strait Patrol, maintaining an American naval presence between Taiwan and mainland China. This assignment reflected a separate Cold War commitment from the conflict in Vietnam. Although the major Taiwan Strait crises of the 1950s had passed, relations between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan remained hostile and U.S. naval forces continued regular operations in the area. At the end of July, USS SAMPLE returned to Japan, but early in August she was again operating in the South China Sea. In the middle of the month, she resumed Taiwan Strait patrol duties. On August 22, she headed back toward Japan. After another period in Japanese waters, she departed Yokosuka in the middle of September and proceeded south, briefly patrolling off Taiwan before continuing to the Philippines.

At the end of September, USS SAMPLE conducted special operations in the northeastern South China Sea. A visit to Hong Kong followed. She subsequently returned to the Taiwan and Japan areas and on October 18 departed Japanese waters for Hawaii. USS SAMPLE arrived back at Pearl Harbor on November 1, completing her first Seventh Fleet deployment. Following post-deployment maintenance and local training, USS SAMPLE remained in the eastern Pacific through the first half of 1970. She departed Pearl Harbor on July 14 for her second Western Pacific deployment and passed to Seventh Fleet operational control eight days later. On July 28 she arrived at Subic Bay.

USS SAMPLE departed the Philippines on August 1 to join USS ORISKANY (CVA 34) on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. She served with Task Group 77.5 until August 25, operating as an escort for the carrier while ORISKANY's aircraft conducted operations over Southeast Asia. USS SAMPLE then headed for Taiwan and arrived at Kaohsiung on August 27. By September 5, she was again at Subic Bay. USS SAMPLE returned to Task Group 77.5 on September 15 and resumed operations connected with the carrier force in the Gulf of Tonkin. She returned to Subic Bay on September 29, where boiler problems required repairs. The high-pressure steam plants fitted to GARCIA-class ships demanded considerable maintenance, and engineering reliability remained an important consideration throughout the class's service.

USS SAMPLE departed Subic Bay on October 3 and reached Okinawa on October 6 before continuing north to Japan. From October 19 through October 27, she participated in joint American-Japanese exercises in the Sea of Japan. These operations reflected the broader Cold War requirement to maintain interoperability with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and to train against submarine and surface threats in waters close to the Soviet Far East. After completing the exercises, USS SAMPLE made another visit to Hong Kong and then proceeded to Taiwan. She arrived at Keelung on November 13. Two days later, she departed for Sasebo, Japan, and subsequently conducted further exercises in the Sea of Japan before moving to Yokosuka. USS SAMPLE departed Yokosuka on December 6 and headed east across the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor on December 12.

A period of post-deployment leave and upkeep extended into 1971. Unlike the preceding two years, USS SAMPLE spent all of 1971 in Hawaiian waters. Late in January, she began a substantial maintenance availability that included drydocking at Pearl Harbor. The availability lasted until June. Once the yard period ended, she progressed through sea trials, refresher training and anti-submarine exercises in Hawaiian operating areas. The second half of the year was devoted largely to restoring and maintaining operational readiness after the extended maintenance period and preparing for another overseas deployment.

USS SAMPLE departed Pearl Harbor on January 27, 1972, for an extended Western Pacific cruise. This deployment became the most combat-oriented period of her career. During much of 1972, she alternated between search-and-rescue duty, service connected with the Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone and naval gunfire-support missions off Vietnam. The timing placed USS SAMPLE in Southeast Asia during a major escalation of the war. On March 30, 1972, North Vietnamese forces opened the large conventional offensive generally known as the Easter Offensive. The United States responded with expanded air and naval operations, including renewed bombing of North Vietnam, increased carrier activity in the Gulf of Tonkin and extensive naval gunfire support along the Vietnamese coast. In May, American forces also mined the approaches to major North Vietnamese ports during Operation Pocket Money.

Search-and-rescue duty required ships such as USS SAMPLE to maintain positions from which they could assist aviators forced down during combat missions. Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone duty supported the extensive air-surveillance and identification network maintained by Seventh Fleet forces in the Gulf of Tonkin. Naval gunfire support brought USS SAMPLE closer to the Vietnamese coast, where her two 5-inch guns could be used against targets ashore in support of friendly forces. USS SAMPLE continued operating off Vietnam until August 10, 1972, when she departed Vietnamese waters. She crossed the Pacific and reentered Pearl Harbor on August 25, completing nearly seven months away from Hawaii.

USS SAMPLE spent most of the remainder of 1972 in post-deployment standdown and a restricted availability at Pearl Harbor. The principal exception came from December 4 through December 8, when she returned to sea for Composite Training Unit Exercise 4-72. She then resumed preparations for another overseas assignment.

The ship remained in Hawaii through the first months of 1973. On May 14, she departed Pearl Harbor for another Western Pacific deployment. This cruise took place in a very different political setting from her 1972 deployment. The Paris Peace Accords had been signed on January 27, 1973, direct U.S. offensive combat operations in Vietnam had largely ended, and American naval forces were shifting toward post-ceasefire surveillance, regional presence and the wider Cold War duties of the Seventh Fleet. USS SAMPLE remained in the Far East for approximately seven months. She returned to Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1973. By the conclusion of her Vietnam-era operations USS SAMPLE had earned five campaign stars for service associated with the conflict.

USS SAMPLE remained at Pearl Harbor during the first months of 1974. As the immediate operational demands created by the Vietnam War diminished, the ship's activities increasingly centered on the anti-submarine mission for which the GARCIA-class had originally been designed. The Soviet Pacific Fleet continued to expand, and Pacific Fleet escorts were required to detect, classify and track increasingly capable submarines over greater distances.

During the middle and later 1970s, USS SAMPLE became associated with long-range passive underwater surveillance. By the later part of her U.S. Navy career she carried an SQR-15 Towed Array Sonar System on the after deck. The system used a long passive array streamed astern of the ship to detect submarine-generated acoustic signatures while reducing interference from the frigate's own machinery. The installation gave USS SAMPLE a specialized anti-submarine capability distinct from the configuration of GARCIA-class ships whose after areas were primarily arranged around manned helicopter operations.

On June 30, 1975, a Navy-wide revision of surface-ship classifications changed USS SAMPLE's designation from destroyer escort DE 1048 to frigate FF 1048.

USS SAMPLE returned to the Western Pacific during 1976. A documented phase of the deployment occurred in the middle of June, when she conducted anti-submarine warfare training in Philippine waters with USS BERKELEY (DDG 15) and USS LANG (FF 1060). The exercise formed part of the continuing series of war-at-sea and anti-submarine training periods conducted by Seventh Fleet units in the Philippines. By late 1977, USS SAMPLE was again preparing for a major Western Pacific cruise. Destroyer Squadron 25 departed Pearl Harbor on November 2 in support of the deployment of USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63). Other ships associated with the squadron included USS PREBLE (DDG 46), USS GOLDSBOROUGH (DDG 20), USS BADGER (FF 1071) and USS OUELLET (FF 1077). The deployment combined carrier screening, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and extensive at-sea logistics. The formation moved west toward Japan and subsequently operated throughout the wider Seventh Fleet area. USS SAMPLE remained overseas into 1978. On March 15, she was photographed underway in the western Pacific during operations associated with the KITTY HAWK force.

On March 16, 1978, USS SAMPLE and KITTY HAWK simultaneously received fuel from USS SACRAMENTO (AOE 1) during an underway replenishment. USS SAMPLE completed the 1977-78 Western Pacific deployment and returned to Pearl Harbor during 1978. The remainder of the decade continued the cycle of maintenance, training and anti-submarine operations expected of Pacific Fleet escorts. Her specialized passive-sonar role became increasingly relevant as the U.S. Navy placed greater emphasis on long-range detection and tracking of Soviet submarines.

During 1979, USS SAMPLE continued operating from Pearl Harbor while maintaining readiness for further overseas deployments. By 1980, the strategic situation in the Indian Ocean had changed significantly. The Iranian Revolution had removed one of the United States' principal regional allies, American diplomats were being held hostage following the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and the Soviet Union had intervened militarily in Afghanistan in December 1979. These events prompted the United States to maintain a substantial and sustained naval presence in the Indian Ocean and northern Arabian Sea.

During a 1980 Western Pacific and Indian Ocean deployment, USS SAMPLE became part of the carrier force centered on USS MIDWAY (CV 41). On August 18, the battle group centered on MIDWAY relieved the carrier force centered on USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64) in the Indian Ocean. The turnover maintained continuous American carrier presence in waters from which naval forces could respond to developments surrounding Iran, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. For USS SAMPLE, Indian Ocean operations emphasized anti-submarine screening, surface surveillance and protection of the carrier group during a period in which Soviet naval units were also active in the region.

After completing the Indian Ocean phase, USS SAMPLE returned east into the Pacific. On December 1, 1980, USNS MISPILLION (T-AO 105) conducted an underway replenishment with SAMPLE.

USS SAMPLE remained an active Pacific Fleet unit during 1981. One of her best documented domestic visits occurred in October, when she participated in Fleet Week activities at San Francisco. On October 1, she was photographed underway in San Francisco Bay with the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and the city waterfront in the background. The visit combined public representation with the normal training associated with voyages between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.

During 1982, USS SAMPLE remained in Pacific Fleet service and continued the maintenance, training and anti-submarine readiness cycle from Pearl Harbor. On April 15, 1983, USS SAMPLE operated off California as part of a task group that included the recently recommissioned battleship USS NEW JERSEY (BB 62). NEW JERSEY's return to active service formed part of the U.S. Navy's effort to expand its fleet and increase the offensive power of surface formations during the early Reagan administration. For USS SAMPLE, the principal role within such formations remained anti-submarine screening and surveillance.

Later in 1983, USS SAMPLE departed on another Western Pacific deployment that continued into 1984. During the deployment USS SAMPLE continued the escort, surveillance and anti-submarine functions that characterized her later Pacific Fleet service. Following her return to Pearl Harbor in 1984, USS SAMPLE resumed local training, maintenance and readiness operations in Hawaiian and eastern Pacific waters. By this stage the frigate was approaching two decades of service, and maintaining her high-pressure steam propulsion machinery and aging combat systems required increasing effort. Her SQR-15 towed-array installation nevertheless continued to provide a useful passive acoustic capability for coordinated anti-submarine operations.

USS SAMPLE remained active during 1985 and 1986. A particularly well documented operation occurred during the summer of 1986. On July 1, USS SAMPLE was underway during a midshipmen's summer training cruise with a Destroyer Squadron 35 task group. Such cruises combined normal fleet training with practical sea experience for midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy and Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps programs.

USS SAMPLE continued Pacific operations in 1987. Contemporary photographic evidence documents the frigate at Pearl Harbor and during a visit to Vancouver, British Columbia, that year. These operations formed part of the varied training schedule of Pacific Fleet surface ships, which ranged from Hawaiian and Southern California exercise areas to Canadian and North Pacific waters. USS SAMPLE remained operational into 1988. By then, the U.S. Navy had begun withdrawing the remaining GARCIA- and BROOKE-class frigates from active service. Although the ships still possessed useful escort and anti-submarine capabilities, their steam propulsion plants required comparatively large crews and substantial maintenance, while newer frigates and destroyers were increasingly available to assume their missions.

USS SAMPLE was decommissioned on September 23, 1988, ending twenty years and six months of commissioned U.S. Navy service. She remained under U.S. ownership because plans were being developed to make several retired Garcia-class frigates available to foreign navies. Plans to transfer USS SAMPLE to Brazil developed during 1989. The United States authorized the ship's transfer on a lease basis on April 15. In preparation for turnover, the SQR-15 Towed Array Sonar System was removed from the after deck. The original small aviation hangar associated with the earlier DASH configuration had been sealed during her American service. The Brazilian Navy subsequently reopened and modified the aviation facilities and fitted the flight deck for manned helicopter operations.

USS SAMPLE was formally incorporated into the Brazilian Navy at Naval Base San Diego on August 24, 1989, becoming the destroyer PARANÁ (D 29). The acquisition formed part of a Brazilian program to maintain the strength of its surface fleet while older destroyers were being retired and newer locally built ships entered service. The administrative status of the former USS SAMPLE changed again on January 24, 2001, when Brazil purchased the ship outright from the United States. She was removed from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register on the same date, formally ending American ownership. The Brazilian Navy received the transfer certificate in February. By then the ship was approaching four decades since her keel had been laid, and the maintenance burden imposed by her steam propulsion plant and aging equipment had become increasingly significant. PARANÁ nevertheless remained in active Brazilian service into 2002.

On July 26, 2002, PARANÁ was withdrawn from active Brazilian Navy service at the Arsenal de Marinha in Rio de Janeiro. PARANÁ was subsequently retained in a reserve or disposal status rather than being broken up immediately. On December 17, 2003, a further administrative action completed her definitive removal from Brazilian naval service. During 2004, the former PARANÁ was offered for disposal and sold at auction for scrapping. She was subsequently prepared for the long tow from Brazil to a South Asian shipbreaking facility. The former USS SAMPLE and PARANÁ arrived at Alang, India, on May 6, 2005. On May 8 she was beached for dismantling.

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