DDG-4 Lawrence
USS Lawrence, a 3370-ton Charles F. Adams guided-missile destroyer built at Camden, New Jersey, was commissioned in January 1962. She made a shakedown cruise on the Great Lakes and, in the Fall of 1962, took part in Cuban Missile Crisis operations in the Caribbean. In February 1963 Lawrence began the first of more than a dozen overseas cruises, steaming across the Atlantic to join the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Further Mediterranean tours took place in 1964, 1965, 1966-67, 1968, 1969-70, 1971, 1977-78 and 1979. During the latter cruise, in June 1979, she briefly visited the Black Sea. Lawrence also passed through the 6th Fleet area en route to deployments in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf areas that took place in 1974-75, 1980 and 1983.
The much-travelled destroyer made one Vietnam War tour to the Western Pacific in 1972-73, providing naval gunfire suport, dodging enemy return fire and serving as plane guard during aircraft carrier operations. Lawrence also saw frequent service closer to home, in the western Atlantic and Caribbean, and occasionally visited the waters of Northern Europe. In 1986 she steamed around South America as part of Operation Unitas XVII, exercising with Latin American navies and visiting ports in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil. USS Lawrence was decommissioned in late March 1990 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register a few months later. She was sold in April 1994, but was repossessed in October 1996 after the failure of the ship breaking firm. Following over two more years in Navy custody, Lawrence's hulk was again sold for scrapping in February 1999.
USS Lawrence was named in honor of Captain James Lawrence (1781-1813), who lost his life while commanding the frigate Chesapeake in battle with HMS Shannon on 1 June 1813.
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