Dyess (DD 880) - Naval Cruise Book

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FIVE MONTHS OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS by ROBERT FROST MCMILLAN The year 1970, May 5th the day All lines were hauled in, the Bos ' n cried Underway The boilers belched, the screws spun ' round And we never stopped until Portugal was found The first of our ports the crew did it right Escudos flowed freely to the Portugese delight Then onward and upward to Northern Europe they sailed But the USS DYESS, black sheep, never failed Through 12 cities, 8 countries we spread good will (?) With nary an incident, save one man over the hill Then came Northern Wedding, wartime cruising and all Proved NATO ' s seapower our primary goal On the way back when men ' s hearts beat faster The MAN said G.Q. was the training he ' s after Brenton Reef it was spotted, beneath the Bridge we did steam Seven men tossed their hats, a short- timers dream Next to pier two, over line one Moored cried the BOS ' N, the cruise it was done

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5 S S OYESS Oo 6 6 . 1945-1970 4 . % Atlantic C

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£«•-, ' ' ■I y u SHIP ' S HISTORY DD-880 is named in honor of Lt. Col. Aquilla J. DYESS, USMCR, who was post- humously awarded our nation ' s highest award, the Congressional Medal of Honor, for con- spicious gallantry above and beyond the call of duty during the invasion of Kwajalein Atoll during World War II. DYESS was constructed by the Consoli- dated Steel Corporation in Orange, Texas and was commissioned DD-880 on 21 May 1945. In July of that same year she underwent the first of two conversions designed to enable her to better meet her fleet commitments. She be- came a radar picket destroyer; her primary mission, long-range detection and destruction of hostile aircraft. This she remained until 1964, when she under went a FRAM I conversion in Boston Naval Shipyard. There, with the instal- lation of high-powered sonar, the ASROC (Anti- submarine Rocket) Weapon System and new tor- pedo tubes, her capabilities became primarily oriented toward anti-submarine warfare. The year following her first conversion, DYESS served in the western Pacific but was soon transferred back to the Atlantic Fleet, where she has served ever since. After her FRAM conversion, DYESS spent seven months off the coast of Vietnam in support of U.S. troops in 1966 and was stationed in the Persia Gulf and Red Sea during the 1967 Suez Crisis. DYESS was the last warship of any nation to transit the Suez Canal before its closure on 5 June 1967. In July 1968 DYESS successfully completed refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following a six month overhaul in Boston Naval Shipyard. Most recently, in February 1969, DYESS returned from a five month deployment to the Mediterranean where she participated in several major Sixth Fleet Exercises. Between operation periods she visited Valletta, Malta; Naples and Venice, Italy; Palma de Mallorca; and Golfe Juan, France. It was during this de- ployment that DYESS made her much publicized visit to the Black Sea. DYESS is homeported in Newport, Rhode Island, and is assigned to D estroyer Squadron TWELVE.