USS Spruance to Decommission at NS Mayport
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS050321-19
Release Date: 3/21/2005 2:37:00 PM
From Naval Station Mayport Public Affairs
MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- After nearly 30 years of honorable service to the fleet, USS Spruance (DD 963) will be decommissioned during a ceremony at Naval Station Mayport, March 23, at 10 a.m.
Assigned to Destroyer Squadron 24, Spruance is the lead ship of 31 Spruance-class destroyers. She was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., and commissioned Sept. 20, 1975.
Adm. Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations, will be the guest speaker.
The ship is named after Adm. Raymond A. Spruance, who had a long and distinguished naval career that culminated in his appointment as Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas in 1945. Adm. Spruance later became President of the Naval War College, and held that post until his retirement July 1, 1948.
Called to the colors once again in 1952, Adm. Spruance served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines until the spring of 1955. He then returned to his home at Pebble Beach, Calif., where he lived until his death Dec. 13, 1969.
For nearly three decades, USS Spruance played a major role in operations in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, the Persian Gulf and European waters. Operation Restore Democracy in Haiti, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom are among the many actions in which Spruance participated. Most recently, Spruance returned Dec. 7 from a USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) Carrier Strike Group deployment in support of the global war on terrorism.
Spruance's crew of 382 is commanded by Cmdr. Jerome F. Hamel.
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