Little Rock (CLG 4) - Naval Cruise Book

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This crest depicts the power and strength of the missile cruiser USS LITTLE ROCK (CLG-U). The name USS LITTLE ROCK (CLG-U) appears in ivhite on a field of blazing orange, representing the glory of her history, surrounded by gold, the color of strength. June 17, 1945: Adolf Hitler ' s Germany had been vanquished at last, and the body of der Fuehrer himself had been cremated on a funeral pyre of his own making. On that day, in commissioning cere- monies at Philadelphia, a sleek new cruiser — U.S.S. LITTLE ROCK (CL-92)— joined the most powerful navy the world had ever seen. Within two months, however, all fighting had ceased — after a sudden, astonishing climax: Two new bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leaving more than 152,000 dead, and even the most fanatical Japanese warrior had been forced to admit an inability to cope with the weapon. So no war was left for LITTLE ROCK. After several training cruises, and after visits to 28 nations in Scandinavia, western Europe, the Mediterranean area, and South America, the ship was decom- missioned on June 24, 1949, and sent to the New York group of the Reserve Fleet. But the two deadly bombs, instead of ensuring peace, ushered in a period of increasing world-wide tension. In January, 1957, LITTLE ROCK began undergoing a three-year conversion to give her a new weapon somewhat reminiscent of the bombs that had ended World War II: the Talos missile, which could be fitted with an atomic warhead and hurled at supersonic speed toward a target. On June 3, 1960, the ship was recommissioned at the U. S. Naval Base in Philadelphia, with Arkansas Senator William Fulbright delivering the principal address and with Captain J. 0. Phillips, Jr., assum- ing command. Three months later, in September, the ship departed for a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, and at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, LITTLE ROCK became the first Talos ship to score a direct hit on a drone. Between drills and exercises the ship visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, before returning to Philadelphia in November for a two- month post-shakedown outfitting. On 4 January 1961 the ship got underway for Nor- folk, where Rear Admiral J. W. Davis— Commander Cruiser Division Four— came aboard, just prior to participation in Atlantic Fleet Exercise 1-61. LANT- FLEX completed, LITTLE ROCK returned to Phil- adelphia to prepare for duty with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and to acquire her new command- ing officer, Captain Frederic A. Chenault, who re- lieved Captain Phillips on 25 January. Then on 9 February 1961 LITTLE ROCK departed for seven months of duty with the massive Sixth Fleet — and they were arduous months indeed, full of exercises, drills, maneuvers, gunnery practice. But the months were spiced with visits to Malta, Italy, Turkey, Greece and France. Little more than one year after commissioning— on 26 July 1961 — word was received that the ship had won the Battle Efficiency E for cruisers in the Atlantic Fleet. Five weeks later on 30 August, LITTLE ROCK returned home to Norfolk and her waiting families. She has not needed her missiles but the fact that LITTLE ROCK and other ships like her are manned and ready might mean she never will.