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USS Brewton (FF 1086)

USS BREWTON was the 35^th KNOX-class frigate and the first ship in the Navy named after US Navy SEAL Lieutenant John Cooke "Bubba" Brewton. Decommissioned on July 2, 1992, BREWTON was subsequently leased to Taiwan where she was recommissioned as FONG YANG. Stricken from the Navy list on January 11, 1995, the BREWTON was finally sold to Taiwan on September 29, 1999.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Name:

Lieutenant John Cooke "Bubba" Brewton was born in Mobile, Alabama, on September 5, 1943. He grew up in Mobile, attended Murphy High School, and entered the University of Alabama in 1961. At university he was active in student life and athletics, including cross country and cheerleading, and he graduated in 1966. After college, he entered the Naval Reserve, was accepted for Officer Candidate School, and was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy in April 1967.

Brewton had been interested in diving since his youth, and this helped lead him toward underwater demolition and SEAL training. After completing the required training pipeline, he served with Underwater Demolition Team 22 and then with SEAL Team Two. He deployed to South Vietnam, where he operated in the riverine and swamp environment south of Saigon, including areas around Nha Be, the Rung Sat Special Zone, and Long An Province. His missions involved reconnaissance, ambushes, interdiction of Viet Cong routes, and small-unit combat operations in difficult terrain.

On November 24, 1969, while serving as a SEAL platoon officer in South Vietnam, Lieutenant junior grade Brewton led his men in action against a larger enemy force. Although wounded in the arm and back, he continued to direct his platoon, refused treatment until his men had been cared for, and, after being wounded again, continued to guide helicopter attacks against enemy positions from a forward location. He was evacuated to a field hospital in Saigon, but died of his wounds and infection on January 11, 1970, at the age of 26.

For his actions, Brewton was posthumously promoted to lieutenant and awarded the Silver Star. His other decorations included the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" and one Gold Star, the Purple Heart with one Gold Star, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.

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Accidents aboard USS BREWTON:

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USS BREWTON History:

USS BREWTON was a KNOX-class destroyer escort and frigate of the United States Navy. The building contract for USS BREWTON was awarded to Avondale Shipyards, Inc., on August 25, 1966. Her keel was laid at Westwego, Louisiana, on October 2, 1970. She was launched and christened on July 24, 1971. After fitting out, trials, and acceptance work, USS BREWTON was commissioned at Naval Station Long Beach, California, on July 8, 1972, with Commander John W. Kinnier in command. She entered the fleet as USS BREWTON (DE 1086), assigned to Destroyer Squadron 33 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

USS BREWTON's first months after commissioning followed the normal pattern of a new Pacific Fleet escort. After commissioning at Long Beach, she completed initial fitting-out and post-commissioning work, then made the voyage back to Long Beach from October 22 to October 26, 1972. On November 7, 1972, she stood out for San Diego, where she entered the sequence of shakedown, evaluation, and weapons and engineering training needed before full fleet employment. This early period introduced the new destroyer escort to the operating areas of southern California, Hawaii, and the eastern Pacific, which would remain central to her training cycle throughout her U.S. Navy career. During 1973, she completed additional Pacific operations and prepared for her first extended Western Pacific deployment. On September 11, 1974, later in that first operating cycle, she was photographed during an anti-submarine warfare exercise in the Pacific while a P-3B Orion from Patrol Squadron 17 operated nearby, a representative example of the integrated air-surface-submarine training for which KNOX-class ships had been designed.

USS BREWTON's first major Western Pacific deployment placed her in the familiar Seventh Fleet pattern of Subic Bay logistics, regional exercises, and Indian Ocean operations. In November 1973, she took part in a movement from Subic Bay toward the Persian Gulf with USS BADGER (DE 1071) and USS KISKA (AE 35) for Exercise Midlink 73, an exercise connected with the Central Treaty Organization framework and designed to demonstrate and practice allied cooperation around the approaches to the Persian Gulf and northern Indian Ocean. The ships stopped at Singapore while en route and arrived at Bandar Abbas, Iran, on November 23, 1973. They participated in Midlink until December 2, then departed Bandar Abbas on December 3 for the return voyage toward the Philippines, again in company. The return route included another visit to Singapore before the ships reentered Subic Bay on December 21. This deployment reflected the wider U.S. naval posture of the early 1970s, when the Navy was drawing down from the Vietnam War but still maintaining regular presence in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf at a time when regional stability and access to sea lanes were increasingly important strategic concerns.

As of January 1, 1974, USS BREWTON was anchored in the deep-water port of Sattahip, Thailand. Later that month, on January 22, 1974, she got underway on four-hour notice for special contingency operations in the Gulf of Siam. These operations occurred while the Vietnam War and its regional aftermath continued to affect U.S. naval planning in Southeast Asian waters. During the following months, USS BREWTON remained within the Western Pacific and Southeast Asian operating pattern, using Subic Bay as a major support point and conducting escort, surveillance, and anti-submarine tasks. On April 23, 1974, she got underway from Subic Bay bound for Pearl Harbor, making brief refueling stops during the eastward transit before returning to her Hawaiian operating base. Commander Thomas Joseph Marti relieved Commander Kinnier as commanding officer on August 15, 1974. During the latter part of the year, USS BREWTON continued Pacific Fleet operations from Hawaii, including exercises that emphasized the ship's sonar, helicopter, and anti-submarine warfare capability.

USS BREWTON remained active in Pacific operations as the Vietnam War entered its final phase. On January 18, 1975, she was photographed operating off Oahu, Hawaii. From June 17 to June 22, 1975, she conducted special operations with USS BADGER. On June 30, 1975, the U.S. Navy reclassified its destroyer escorts as frigates, and USS BREWTON became USS BREWTON (FF 1086). In July 1975, she operated in company with USS BRONSTEIN (FF 1037) as an escort for USS HANCOCK (CV 19), a carrier whose recent service had been closely associated with the evacuation operations at the end of the Vietnam War. Photographic evidence places USS BREWTON under way in the South China Sea during that period. Her operations in 1975 occurred in the immediate aftermath of the fall of South Vietnam, as the U.S. Navy was still dealing with the consequences of evacuation, refugee movement, and the reorientation of Seventh Fleet activity after the end of the long American war in Southeast Asia.

After reclassification as a frigate, USS BREWTON continued Western Pacific and Indian Ocean work in company with other Pacific Fleet escorts. In mid-1975, she operated in association with USS BADGER and other units assigned to Task Group 75.1 during an Indian Ocean training cruise. The group's itinerary and operating pattern included Southeast Asian waters, the Strait of Malacca, Singapore, the central and western Indian Ocean, and port calls associated with U.S. presence in Mauritius, Kenya, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The cruise belonged to the continuing post-Vietnam shift in U.S. naval attention toward the Indian Ocean, where the Navy increasingly sought to maintain flexible access, allied ties, and visible presence near the main sea routes between the Pacific, the Middle East, and the East African coast. Commander William Henry Dawson relieved Lieutenant Commander Marti as commanding officer on October 5, 1975. During the following years, USS BREWTON continued Pearl Harbor-based training, upkeep, and deployment preparation.

Commander Henderson Alison Hodge III relieved Commander Dawson as commanding officer on October 15, 1977. USS BREWTON remained part of the Hawaii-based Pacific Fleet surface force during a period in which KNOX-class frigates were being updated to remain useful in a broader set of missions. Their original anti-submarine focus remained important, but the addition of Harpoon to many ships of the class improved their anti-surface capability, while helicopter operations and sonar improvements continued to define their escort value.

On March 17, 1979, USS BREWTON departed Pearl Harbor in company with USS BADGER, USS RATHBURNE (FF 1057), USS RAMSEY (FFG 2), and USS LYNDE McCORMICK (DDG 8) for service with the Seventh Fleet. The group refueled at Guam on March 29 and arrived at Subic Bay on April 4. During the first part of the deployment, the ships conducted local operations and upkeep in the Philippines. In May, USS BREWTON operated with USS BADGER and USS RATHBURNE during a round trip from Subic Bay to Hong Kong for a goodwill and liberty visit. On July 1, 1979, USS BREWTON stood out from Subic Bay with USS BADGER, USS RATHBURNE, and USNS MISPILLION (T-AO 105) for the Indian Ocean. The ships reached Singapore on July 4 for a short port visit, then passed through the Strait of Malacca on July 8. Their Indian Ocean operations included visits and operating periods associated with Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Mombasa, Kenya, and later activity in the Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Oman. On August 29, the ships exited the Indian Ocean and returned toward Southeast Asian waters. The deployment then included Exercise Sea Siamex X with the Royal Thai Navy in the Gulf of Siam, followed by a four-day visit to Pattaya Beach, Thailand, after the exercise ended on September 7. USS BREWTON later departed Subic Bay with USS BADGER and USS RATHBURNE for Hawaii, with refueling stops at Guam and Midway, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on October 4, 1979. Commander Owen Carmin Martin Jr. relieved Commander Hodge as commanding officer on November 17, 1979.

The 1979 deployment had placed USS BREWTON in the Indian Ocean during a period of rising strategic concern. The Iranian Revolution had transformed the political setting of the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Union was expanding its naval activity in distant waters, and before the end of the year the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan would further intensify U.S. attention to the Indian Ocean and northern Arabian Sea. Although USS BREWTON's deployment preceded the full development of the crisis posture that followed those events, her movements through Singapore, the Strait of Malacca, the Gulf of Aden, and the Gulf of Oman show the pattern of U.S. naval presence that would become increasingly significant in the early 1980s.

In 1981, USS BREWTON conducted South Pacific operations. On March 7, 1981, she got underway for Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, via the River Tamar for a five-day port visit. On March 14, she stood out with USS RATHBURNE and steamed to Auckland, New Zealand. On March 23, 1981, she arrived at Auckland for a port visit. The South Pacific deployment provided regional presence and allied contact in Australia and New Zealand at a time when U.S. Pacific Fleet units regularly used visits, exercises, and port calls to maintain relationships across the Pacific. Commander Robert Kevin Bolger relieved Commander Martin as commanding officer on May 26, 1982.

USS BREWTON's early 1980s service included continued Pearl Harbor operations, training, and participation in major fleet exercises. On April 20, 1982, while operating in the Pacific, a casualty to a service diesel generator curtailed her participation in Rim of the Pacific Exercise 82. The RIMPAC series was a major multinational exercise centered on Hawaii and designed to improve interoperability among U.S. and partner navies across the Pacific. USS BREWTON returned to readiness and continued the normal operating cycle of a Pearl Harbor-based frigate, combining local training, maintenance, and forward-deployment preparation.

Commander Ronald D. Horner relieved Commander Bolger as commanding officer on March 19, 1984. That year included one of USS BREWTON's most visible ceremonial assignments. On May 17, 1984, a designation and departure ceremony was held at Pearl Harbor for the Unknown Serviceman of the Vietnam Era. USS BREWTON transported the remains from Pearl Harbor to Naval Air Station Alameda, California, as part of the sequence that ultimately led to interment at Arlington National Cemetery. During the Pearl Harbor ceremony and departure, USS OUELLET (FF 1077), the harbor tug WAXAHATCHIE (YTB 814), and USS JASON (AR 8) were visible in the harbor area, while USS BREWTON served as the transporting ship for a solemn national mission connected with the Vietnam War and its memory.

On May 29, 1984, USS BREWTON got underway for RIMPAC 84. After participating in the exercise, she returned to Pearl Harbor on June 14. Her 1984 schedule thus combined ceremonial duties, multinational fleet training, and continued Pacific operations. On August 1, 1984, she was photographed under way at sea in a configuration that showed the Phalanx close-in weapon system, part of the defensive modernization that many U.S. frigates received as the missile threat to surface ships became a central concern.

USS BREWTON continued Pacific operations in 1985 and 1986. On April 9, 1986, USS BREWTON was photographed in Coronado Roads, California, an indication of operations or training connected with the southern California fleet operating areas. She participated in RIMPAC 86, and on June 1, 1986, she was photographed under way off Pearl Harbor during the exercise. On June 7, 1986, she operated alongside USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70) for an underway replenishment and transfer-at-sea evolution. This placed the frigate in the support and escort environment of a nuclear-powered carrier battle group during one of the Navy's major Pacific exercises. Commander Paul Douglas Mallett relieved Captain Horner as commanding officer on June 27, 1986.

During the late 1980s, USS BREWTON continued to combine Pearl Harbor-based training with periodic distant deployments. Commander Kraig M. Kennedy relieved Commander Mallett as commanding officer on August 17, 1988. From June 6 to November 4, 1988, USS BREWTON conducted a South Pacific deployment. In September 1988, she visited Port Adelaide, Australia, where she was berthed at No. 2 Berth while the Hellenic Navy training ship ARIS was berthed nearby. On October 1, 1988, she was photographed at Sydney, Australia, during the Australian Bicentennial celebrations. Her presence formed part of a wider international naval gathering and goodwill program marking the bicentennial year. These visits were part of the U.S. Navy's peacetime presence role in the South Pacific, where port calls and multinational gatherings complemented more traditional tactical training.

USS BREWTON's 1989 and early 1990 schedule included readiness work, surface warfare training, and Pacific exercises. On February 9, 1990, USS BREWTON got underway for ReadiEx 90-5B, followed by a week of surface warfare training. On March 1, 1990, she operated off southern California during a towing exercise in which USS GOLDSBOROUGH (DDG 20) was involved, while USS CIMARRON (AO 177) operated in the same exercise setting. The training was part of the fleet's regular effort to preserve basic seamanship, towing, logistics, and surface-warfare proficiency before overseas tasking. Commander Charlie Anthony Jones Jr. relieved Commander Kennedy as commanding officer on September 18, 1990, but the events that shaped the last major operational chapter of the ship's U.S. Navy career had already begun earlier that year.

In the summer of 1990, USS BREWTON became part of the rapid U.S. naval response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, transforming a regional crisis into an international confrontation and triggering the deployment of U.S. and coalition forces to protect Saudi Arabia, enforce United Nations sanctions, and prepare for the possibility of combat operations. On that same date, USS BREWTON was documented north of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, underway toward the Persian Gulf with USS REASONER (FF 1063), USS JOUETT (CG 29), USS ANTIETAM (CG 54), and USS CIMARRON. The presence of these ships reflected the movement of U.S. naval forces into the region as Operation Desert Shield began. On September 1, 1990, USS BREWTON was operating in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield, with helicopter support activity visible over her flight deck. Her role in this period was linked to maritime surveillance, escort duties, logistics support for the expanding naval presence, and the enforcement of sanctions against Iraq.

One of USS BREWTON's documented Desert Shield actions involved the interception of the Iraqi tanker MV AL FAO. In mid-September 1990, USS BREWTON operated with the Australian frigate HMAS DARWIN as part of the coalition maritime-interception effort. HMAS DARWIN fired a warning shot across the tanker's bow after the vessel failed to comply, and the tanker was stopped. A multinational boarding team, including U.S. Coast Guard law-enforcement personnel, boarded and searched the ship. When no prohibited cargo was found, MV AL FAO was allowed to proceed. The episode became one of the early examples of coalition maritime interception in the crisis, showing the practical cooperation among U.S., Australian, and Coast Guard personnel in enforcing United Nations sanctions. On September 28, 1990, a Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment from USS BREWTON went aboard HMAS SUCCESS and provided briefings to the visit-and-search parties of HMAS SUCCESS, HMAS DARWIN, and HMAS ADELAIDE, further demonstrating USS BREWTON's role in the multinational maritime-interception system. Her service in the crisis was later reflected in campaign and service awards connected with Southwest Asia and Kuwait.

After the Gulf crisis period, USS BREWTON returned to the late-career pattern of an older KNOX-class frigate at a time when the Cold War was ending and the U.S. Navy was beginning to reduce and reorganize parts of its surface force. KNOX-class frigates had been valuable Cold War escorts, but by the early 1990s they were increasingly approaching retirement, transfer, or reserve roles as newer OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class frigates and other surface combatants filled many fleet missions. USS BREWTON was decommissioned at Naval Station Pearl Harbor on July 2, 1992, after 20 years of commissioned U.S. Navy service.

After decommissioning, USS BREWTON was leased to Taiwan on July 23, 1992, and entered the Republic of China Navy as ROCS FONG YANG (FFG-933). In August 1992, Destroyer Squadron 9 assumed responsibility for the ex-U.S. Navy frigates USS BREWTON and USS ROBERT E. PEARY (FF 1073) during the transfer process, supporting the introduction of the ships and the training of Taiwanese crews. USS BREWTON was struck from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register on January 11, 1995, and sold to Taiwan on September 29, 1999.

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