Gearing (DD 710) - Naval Cruise Book

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Grafx pa, Mb 'f USS BEARING DD-710 MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE 1966-1967 :vii L3 lf.. gg nc. 2 pf! YP, 2 7 Q F Q '- wma 27 196ELj 6

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THE GEARING---A BRIEF HISTORY The USS GEARING CDD-7103 is one of the best known ships of the Navy, not because of her war record Cshe has nonej b he was the prototype of what became known as the Gearing Class destroyer, a svelte product of late World War II naval: because s I architecture designed for longer cruising range and greater f1I'eP0W9.I'- n . g The keel was laid without fanfare on August 10, 1944, and working with speed which will never again be witnessed in a shipyard I the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company sent the GEARING down the ways at Port Newark, New Jersey on February 18, 1945 in just 192 days. I , ' For 17 years the GEARING bore and used efficiently her anti- submarine and anti-air weapons-two ahead thrown weapon mounts depth charges, torpedoes, three 5-inch 38 caliber twin gun mounts and five 40 millimeter machine gun mounts. In the early 19601, however, GEARING and other ships in her class began to show signs of age and obsolesence, and in the extensive Fleet Rehabilitatioi and Modernization Program she was reborn and saved from razor blades for an estimated eight more years, Today she sports only two 5-inch 38 caliber gun mounts but has been given a greater anti- submarine capability in the form of anti-submarine rockets CASROCD and drone anti- submarine helicopters CDASHD in addition to two three tube torpedo mounts forward of the bridge. The GEARING has spent her entire lifetime in the Atlantic Fleet. Casco Bay, Maine was her first homeport and her early years kept her mainly in Arctic waters. It was not until January of 1951 she sailed to Mediterranean waters for the first time and she returned to at new homeport of Norfolk, Virginia. Always an active participant in allied operations she sailed nine times with the Six h Fleet in he Med since 1951. Out of Norfolk, midshipman training cruises highlighted GEARlNG'S career. Northern European ports and the Red Sea alternated with the Med as cruise routes. In 1954 she became part of the Atlantic Fleet Hunter Killer Force to participate in the now infamous annual affair known as Operation Springboard. Between 1957 and 1959 the GEARING exercised in Operation Novoy-ack with the Canadians, the Joint Civilian Orientation Cruise, and LANTFLEX 2-58 and 2-59. Port visits were concentrated on the East Coast of the U,S, and the Caribbean. As a unit of Destroyer Squadron Four her homeport became Charleston, South Carolina in 1959 d In 1961 wgiilte on a South1Atlantic cruise as flagship for Deputy Commander South Atlantic, GEARING was called upon to intercept an apprehen he hijacke Portuguese liner Santa Maria. The first naval ship in the area GEARING w d - - flagship for ine negotiation Admiral, RADM.A11en Smith. Q ' as use as the negotlatlon In the summer of 1962 the FRAMI conversion gave GEARING a new silhouette and she made Newport, Rhode Island and Destroyer Squadron Twenty her new home. On October 24, 1962 GEARING became the first American ship participating inthe Cuban blockade to intercept a Cuba bound Russian vessel-the BUCHAREST out of Odessa. Two Mediterranean, three Caribbean, and one midshipman cruise to Montreal, Canada, bring us to 10 May 1965 when the ship commenced forty days at sea patrolling the mouth of the harbor at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The ship and ship's compan was awagldedfatlliie Afrmed Forces Expeditionary medal for their part in the operation. y n e o 1965 GEARING deployed for four months of a Mediterranean and Red Sea cruise during which the shi ' ' . . p stationed lglegsmeelgd cgiistgle coast of Karachi, Pakistan for eleven days ready to evacuate American citizens from that politically upset city had After a brief trip to the Caribbean for Operations Spr' b d GEARI G ' Naval Shipyard in the Summer of.1966. Ing Oar , N spent a much needed overhaul period at Boston With almost a completely new crew the ship retrained ' ht k t G - - - the Ships twelfth deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. eig wee s a uantanamo Bay, Cuba prior to embarking on what is Down the waYs....DD-710 is launched on 18 February 1945 at the yards of the MTS. Thomas M. Foley, daughter of the late Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Com- Commander Gearing breaks bottle of champagne pany, POI'tNewark,New Jersey, OH bow Of GEARING at commissioning Cer- emonies 3 May 1945. 2