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USS McCandless (FF 1084)

USS McCANDLESS was the 33rd KNOX - class frigate and one of the eight ships of her class transfered to the Naval Reserve Force serving as Reserve Training Frigates (FFT). Each of the eight Reserve Training Frigates had its own reserve crew, and was also assigned four "nucleus crews" which would man the 32 decommissioned KNOX - class frigates in the case of a reactivation of these ships.

USS McCANDLESS (FFT 1084) was decommissioned on May 6, 1994, and was leased to Turkey the same day. There she was recommissioned as TRAKYA. Stricken from the Navy list on January 11, 1995, the ship was finally purchased by Turkey on February 22, 2002.

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Crew List:

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

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USS McCANDLESS History:

USS McCANDLESS (DE 1084), later USS McCANDLESS (FF 1084) and finally USS McCANDLESS (FFT 1084), was a KNOX-class destroyer escort, frigate, and training frigate of the United States Navy. She was built during the Cold War for long-range anti-submarine warfare, carrier and task-group escort duty, independent surveillance and presence missions, and sustained operations with the Atlantic Fleet, Sixth Fleet, Middle East Force, and later the Naval Reserve Force. She was named jointly for Commodore Byron McCandless and his son, Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless.

The building contract for USS McCANDLESS was awarded to Avondale Shipyards on August 25, 1966. Her keel was laid at Westwego, Louisiana, on June 4, 1970, and she was launched on March 20, 1971. After fitting out, trials, and delivery work, USS McCANDLESS was commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on March 18, 1972. She entered the fleet as a destroyer escort under the hull number DE 1084. As a KNOX-class ship, she was part of the large group of ocean escorts built to counter the Soviet submarine threat and to provide long-range escort capability at a time when the U.S. Navy expected Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean sea control to remain central elements of Cold War strategy.

USS McCANDLESS' first months in commission followed the normal pattern of a newly delivered KNOX-class escort. She completed post-commissioning work, training, correction of deficiencies, and the transition from builder's product to operational fleet unit. Her first extended overseas deployment began in August 1973 and lasted into January 1974. It was a Middle East deployment and took place during the year of the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973 and the associated oil crisis, which made fuel availability and naval presence in the Indian Ocean especially sensitive.

During the late-1973 Middle East deployment, USS McCANDLESS operated in company at various points with other U.S. ships moving between the Atlantic, African, Indian Ocean, and Middle Eastern areas. In December 1973, she and USS CHARLES F. ADAMS (DDG 2) were the subject of a declassified State Department cable from Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, concerning fuel and pilot arrangements. The cable recorded efforts to secure 125,000 gallons of fuel despite the oil crisis and noted local harbor pilot limitations around the New Year period. Three days before Christmas 1973, USS KOELSCH (DE 1049) and USS BRUMBY (DE 1044) joined USS CHARLES F. ADAMS and USS McCANDLESS in the Indian Ocean, and the group refueled from USS WICHITA (AOR 1) before arriving at Port Louis, Mauritius, on December 24.

After returning from her first Middle East cruise in January 1974, USS McCANDLESS settled into the recurring pattern of Atlantic Fleet service: upkeep, training, inspections, local operations, and renewed deployment preparation. Her missions took her into waters that would define much of her career: the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Persian Gulf. She remained an Atlantic Fleet KNOX-class escort whose value lay in sonar performance, helicopter integration, and the ability to operate independently or as part of a carrier, amphibious, or surface-action group. The broader Cold War context was a Navy increasingly focused on Soviet submarine activity, NATO reinforcement routes, Mediterranean crisis response, and the gradual growth of U.S. naval interest in the Middle East and Indian Ocean.

On June 30, 1975, the U.S. Navy reclassified its surviving destroyer escorts as frigates in line with a broader change in naval ship designations, and USS McCANDLESS became USS McCANDLESS (FF 1084). That same year, she deployed to the Mediterranean. On October 10, 1975, she was photographed in the Ionian Sea. The Mediterranean in 1975 remained a heavily watched Cold War operating area. The Sixth Fleet maintained a visible presence amid NATO-Warsaw Pact competition, tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, and the aftereffects of the 1973 Middle East war. For a KNOX-class frigate such as USS McCANDLESS, a Mediterranean deployment meant carrier screening, anti-submarine operations, surveillance, exercises with allied navies, and port calls that supported both diplomacy and routine maintenance.

During the later 1970s, USS McCANDLESS continued in Atlantic Fleet service and took part in deployments and exercises that carried her beyond the Mediterranean. Photographic records and operational references place her in the Caribbean and South American operating environment during UNITAS XX in 1979. UNITAS was the annual multinational naval exercise series that linked the U.S. Navy with Latin American navies and was intended to improve interoperability, seamanship, anti-submarine warfare, communications, and regional maritime cooperation. During UNITAS XX, USS McCANDLESS operated with her LAMPS helicopter capability, and imagery places an SH-2 Seasprite associated with her at Puerto de Hierro, Venezuela.

A separate Sixth Fleet chronology for 1979 records USS McCANDLESS being transferred to Commander Middle East Force control as part of a Middle East Force augmentation. That detail fits the broader late-1970s environment. The Iranian Revolution, the fall of the Shah, and rising instability in the Persian Gulf increased U.S. attention to the region, while the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 would further sharpen the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. USS McCANDLESS' documented movements and assignments during this period therefore belonged to a Navy shifting from the post-Vietnam drawdown environment into the more active Indian Ocean and Middle East posture of the early 1980s.

In 1980 and 1981, USS McCANDLESS completed another Mediterranean deployment. A 1980-1981 Mediterranean cruise book is known for the ship, and the wider Mediterranean deployment cycle of the period placed Atlantic Fleet frigates in support of carrier and Sixth Fleet operations during a period of regional instability. A later image of USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62) shows the carrier returning from a Mediterranean deployment in company with USS FARRAGUT (DDG 37), USS McCANDLESS, USS DETROIT (AOE 4), USS GARCIA (FF 1040), USS MAHAN (DDG 42), USS CARON (DD 970), and USS PETERSON (DD 969).

The early 1980s were years of continuing Atlantic and Mediterranean activity for USS McCANDLESS. In October 1982, USS McCANDLESS visited Devonport, United Kingdom, from October 5 to October 9, with an SH-2F helicopter detachment of HSL-32 embarked. This visit places her within the North Atlantic and NATO operating environment, where Atlantic Fleet frigates routinely trained with allied forces, supported carrier and task-group movements, and maintained a visible U.S. naval presence in European waters. Throughout this period, USS McCANDLESS continued to operate from Atlantic Fleet bases, trained in anti-submarine warfare, supported fleet exercises, and maintained the readiness expected of a frigate assigned to Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean tasking. The Soviet submarine threat remained a dominant planning concern, and frigates such as USS McCANDLESS were used for escort, sonar search, barrier operations, tactical development, and exercises designed to protect carrier groups, amphibious groups, replenishment forces, and transatlantic sea lanes.

By the mid-1980s, USS McCANDLESS was again firmly documented in Mediterranean operations. In 1986, she was associated with the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) battle group during a period that included Mediterranean and Sixth Fleet tasking, operations off Libya, and heightened U.S. concern over terrorism and regional instability. USS JOHN F. KENNEDY's 1986 deployment included Freedom of Navigation operations in the Gulf of Sidra and operations off Lebanon in response to terrorist activity and threats to U.S. citizens. USS McCANDLESS is documented in the Mediterranean environment during this deployment cycle, and later records from early 1987 show her operating with other Sixth Fleet units in real-world anti-submarine activity.

In January 1987, while still in the Mediterranean, USS McCANDLESS participated in Operation Quarterback Sneak with USS LUCE (DDG 38) and USS ROBERT G. BRADLEY (FFG 49). The operation was described in the command history of USS ROBERT G. BRADLEY as real-world anti-submarine warfare activity. During the same January 1987 period, USS ROBERT G. BRADLEY's command history also records participation in National Week war games with the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY and USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) battle groups. USS McCANDLESS' presence in the same operational setting placed her among the frigates supporting large-scale carrier battle-group training and surveillance in a contested Mediterranean environment.

Later in 1987, USS McCANDLESS was documented in the Virginia Capes and Norfolk operating area. On November 18, 1987, imagery showed her underway in the Thimble Shoals area, en route toward the open Atlantic for sea trials. Other late-1980s imagery shows her undergoing overhaul or repair work at Norfolk and on the Elizabeth River. This period marked the continued maintenance burden of older steam-powered KNOX-class frigates. By the late 1980s, these ships remained operationally useful, but their machinery, sensors, and combat systems required significant upkeep to keep them suitable for deployable service.

The ship's late-1980s record included Caribbean, Atlantic, and training operations. The available imagery and crew records point to Guantanamo Bay training, Atlantic operations, and continued use of USS McCANDLESS as a deployable frigate with embarked helicopter capability. In the late Cold War and immediate post-Cold War period, Atlantic Fleet frigates were increasingly used not only for anti-submarine warfare and carrier escort but also for law-enforcement support, drug-interdiction operations, training of midshipmen and reservists, and presence missions in the Caribbean and Latin American waters.

The last major tactical phase of USS McCANDLESS' U.S. Navy career came during the Gulf crisis and the war that followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Public summaries of the ship's service indicate Gulf War-era support and later awards connected with Southwest Asia and Kuwait. In that context, U.S. and coalition naval forces enforced sanctions, protected shipping, supported carrier and amphibious forces, and maintained the maritime pressure that accompanied the air and ground campaigns against Iraq. USS McCANDLESS' later receipt of the Kuwait Liberation Medal confirms that her final tactical record was connected with Gulf War service.

In 1991, USS McCANDLESS also interacted with Fleet Composite Squadron 6 during unmanned aerial target and support operations. A 1991 VC-6 command history records an ASU-618 event involving USS McCANDLESS on June 10. Such records show the ship's continued use in fleet training and weapons-support activity even as the Navy was beginning to reshape the force after the Cold War and Gulf War. The ship's final years also reflected a broader structural change. As the Cold War ended, the U.S. Navy began reducing the number of older steam-powered frigates in regular front-line service. Some KNOX-class ships were decommissioned outright or transferred abroad; others were reassigned to the Naval Reserve Force as training frigates, where they could support reserve training and maintain a mobilization base.

On December 31, 1991, USS McCANDLESS was reclassified as a training frigate, USS McCANDLESS (FFT 1084), and assigned to the Naval Reserve Force, Atlantic, at Norfolk, Virginia. She was one of eight KNOX-class frigates transferred to this reserve training role. Each training frigate had its own reserve crew and was associated with nucleus crews that could help man additional decommissioned KNOX-class frigates in the event of reactivation. This role marked a major shift in the ship's identity. She was no longer primarily a deployable Cold War escort assigned to front-line Atlantic and Mediterranean operations; instead, she became part of the reserve training structure designed to preserve skills, provide sea time, and maintain a limited mobilization option during the uncertain post-Cold War drawdown.

In January 1993, USS McCANDLESS shifted again. Navy News Service reported that she would arrive at Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, on January 30, 1993, becoming the eighth ship overall to be homeported there. Ingleside was then developing as an important homeport for mine countermeasures ships and reserve-force surface combatants. USS McCANDLESS joined other ships there, including former KNOX-class training frigates and mine countermeasures units.

The final U.S. Navy chapter of USS McCANDLESS closed on May 6, 1994. On that date, she was decommissioned and leased to Turkey. The transfer took place during a period when the United States was providing former KNOX-class frigates to the Turkish Navy under security assistance arrangements. Turkish sailors had arrived in Texas before the transfer to prepare for the handover, and the ship was renamed TCG TRAKYA. She departed U.S. service after more than 22 years under the American flag. The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on January 11, 1995. Turkey later purchased her on February 22, 2002. In Turkish naval service she carried the hull number F-254 and served as part of the Turkish group of former KNOX-class frigates, alongside other ex-U.S. Navy ships transferred in the same general period.

TCG TRAKYA remained in Turkish service into the early 2000s. Photographic records place her in the eastern Mediterranean around November 2002, and she was decommissioned by Turkey in 2003. She was subsequently scrapped.

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About the Ship's Name:

USS McCANDLESS was named in honor of Commodore Byron McCandless and his son, Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless, two United States Navy officers whose careers extended across both world wars.

Byron McCandless was born at Endicott, Nebraska, on September 5, 1881, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1905. During the First World War he commanded the destroyer USS CALDWELL (DD 69) on operations in European waters and received the Navy Cross for his service. His later assignments included commands at sea and senior administrative duties ashore. During the Second World War, he directed the naval repair establishment at San Diego, which expanded considerably to support the maintenance, conversion and repair of ships operating in the Pacific. McCandless was also widely known for his study of flags and contributed to the development of designs associated with the flag and seal of the President of the United States. He died on May 30, 1967.

His son Bruce McCandless was born in Washington, D.C., on August 12, 1911, and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1932. He was serving as communications officer aboard the heavy cruiser USS SAN FRANCISCO (CA 38) during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13, 1942. After enemy gunfire killed or incapacitated most of the senior officers on the bridge, the wounded McCandless assumed control of the ship and directed her during the remainder of the action. He received the Medal of Honor for his conduct. Later in the war, he commanded the destroyer USS GREGORY (DD 802) and received the Silver Star after the ship was severely damaged by kamikaze aircraft off Okinawa on April 8, 1945. He left active service in 1952 and was advanced to rear admiral on the retired list. Bruce McCandless died on January 24, 1968.

By naming the frigate for both father and son, the Navy commemorated two generations of the McCandless family and their service during the First and Second World Wars.

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