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USS John R. Pierce (DD-753)
Encyclopedia
USS John R. Pierce (DD-753), an Allen M. Sumner-class
destroyer
, is the only ship of the United States Navy
to be named for Lieutenant Commander
John Reeves Pierce
, who commanded , a transport submarine, which was lost during battle in January 1943. Lieutenant Commander Pierce was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross
.
John R. Pierce was laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Staten Island, New York on 24 March 1944; launched on 1 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Mary Taylor Pierce, widow of Lieutenant Commander. Pierce; and commissioned on 30 December 1944 at Brooklyn Navy Yard
, Commander
C. R. Simmers in command.
, John R. Pierce operated out of Norfolk during the spring of 1945, training destroyer crews and conducting antisubmarine warfare (ASW) patrols along the eastern seaboard. She sailed on 17 June for duty in the Pacific, arrived Pearl Harbor
on 6 July. Departing on 12 August as escort for a carrier-cruiser striking force sent to attack Wake Island
, she was ordered to cease offensive operations on the 15th. She then proceeded via Eniwetok to Japan and arrived Wakayama, Honshū on 15 September as escort for a convoy of occupation troops.
Arriving San Francisco on 27 March, she deactivated 16 September. Pierce then sailed for San Diego 17 January 1947, decommissioned 24 January and entered the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, 1 May.
Pierce recommissioned on 11 April 1949, Commander O. W. Goepner in command. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, she departed on 11 July for Norfolk. Arriving on 5 August, she commenced 12 months of Atlantic operations that extended from Greenland
to the Panama Canal Zone
. Under the command of Commander J. R. Wadleigh, she cleared Norfolk on 8 August 1950 for duty with the 6th Fleet. Before returning to the United States on 23 January 1951, she operated in the Mediterranean from Gibraltar
to Crete
and along the western coast of Europe from England
to Norway
.
On 1 October 1956, 75 miles south of Ville Franche, the ship was on aerial gunnery exercise firing at a towed aerial target, when at 0950, a shell exploded in the breech of mount 53, killing a member of the mount and seriously wounding nine others. Three of the injured were in grave condition and later died. Doctors from were taken by helicopter to the destroyer, and then transferred the wounded to the cruiser at sea. Then, Salem took the men to Ville Franche to be transported to Nice Airport, France, where a C-119 Flying Boxcar
waited to fly them to a military hospital in Frankfort, Germany. One of the seriously wounded was Ensign
John T. Pierce, son of John R. Pierce, for whom the ship was named. After the wounded were transferred, Pierce went to Cannes, France and arrived on the 2nd of October. She stayed there until the 15th and then got under way for the states. She refueled at San Miguel in the Azores on the 20th and again in Bermuda on the 25th, arriving in Norfolk on the 27th. From there, she went to the Philadelphia naval yard for repairs.
Engaged primarily in conducting ASW barrier patrols and screening carrier flight operations, Pierce responded quickly to international crises that threatened world peace. When the Syrian Army threatened King Hussein's pro-Western government of Jordan
during August and September 1957, destroyers, including Pierce, patrolled the ancient sea lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea to guard against possible intervention by Nasser's Egypt. She returned to the same area in December 1958 to bolster the security of Lebanon, recently threatened by the Soviet-backed United Arab Republic. Following the assassination of General Trujillo on 27 May 1961, this versatile destroyer patrolled off the Dominican Republic
, thus helping to stabilize a potentially explosive situation.
Returning to Norfolk 1 April 1962 from her seventh Mediterranean cruise, she sailed 15 May to participate in Project Mercury
recovery operations following Lt. Commander M. Scott Carpenter's scheduled three-orbit flight in Aurora 7. On the 24th she steamed 206 miles at flank speed from her designated position in the Atlantic Recovery Area east of Puerto Rico and recovered the floating space capsule. After delivering it safely at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, the next day, she returned to Norfolk 28 May before resuming duty in the Caribbean.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis
, under the command of Commander J. W. Foust, Pierce departed Norfolk 22 October; joined the quarantine force on the 24th; and during the next 5 days, investigated 13 ships. On 28 October, the Soviets agreed to the American demands, thus alleviating a tense and crucial crisis. Pierce departed from her assigned position the following day, but she continued a Caribbean sea-vigil from Jamaica to the Canal Zone until returning to Norfolk 14 December.
She departed home port on 29 March 1963 for the Mediterranean and the Middle East. After 2 weeks of maneuvers with the 6th Fleet, she transited the Suez Canal 30 April and commenced an 11-week cruise through the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Returning to the Mediterranean 16 July, she resumed fleet operations. On 14 August she rescued three survivors of a plane that splashed off her starboard bow while attempting an emergency landing on . Departing Palma
, Majorca, 24 August, she arrived Norfolk 4 September.
Pierce spent the next year operating out of Norfolk; and during off-shore surveillance patrols in January 1964 she escorted five Cuban boats, which were illegally fishing in U.S. territorial waters, to Key West for internment. Once again she departed Norfolk for the Mediterranean 8 October. Reaching Naples late in the month, she joined the 6th Fleet and through the remainder of the year operated along the western coast of Italy.
John R. Pierce returned to Norfolk 27 February 1965. She reported to Commandant of the 3rd Naval District in Brooklyn, New York, for duty as a reserve training ship and began a schedule of 2-week training cruises for naval reservists. She continued this duty into 1967.
Allen M. Sumner class destroyer
The Allen M. Sumner class was a group of 58 destroyers built by the United States during World War II. Another twelve ships were completed as destroyer minelayers...
destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
, is the only ship of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
to be named for Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
John Reeves Pierce
John Reeves Pierce
John Reeves Pierce was an officer in the United States Navy.-Biography:Born in Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone, Pierce graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1928. Following flight training and submarine instruction, he served in submarine USS S-29 and studied marine engineering at the...
, who commanded , a transport submarine, which was lost during battle in January 1943. Lieutenant Commander Pierce was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross
Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is the highest decoration that may be bestowed by the Department of the Navy and the second highest decoration given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard, but can be awarded to all...
.
John R. Pierce was laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Staten Island, New York on 24 March 1944; launched on 1 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Mary Taylor Pierce, widow of Lieutenant Commander. Pierce; and commissioned on 30 December 1944 at Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...
, Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
C. R. Simmers in command.
World War II
Following shakedown off BermudaBermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, John R. Pierce operated out of Norfolk during the spring of 1945, training destroyer crews and conducting antisubmarine warfare (ASW) patrols along the eastern seaboard. She sailed on 17 June for duty in the Pacific, arrived Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
on 6 July. Departing on 12 August as escort for a carrier-cruiser striking force sent to attack Wake Island
Wake Island
Wake Island is a coral atoll having a coastline of in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu west to Guam east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior...
, she was ordered to cease offensive operations on the 15th. She then proceeded via Eniwetok to Japan and arrived Wakayama, Honshū on 15 September as escort for a convoy of occupation troops.
Post war
For the next 3 months, she operated in the Japanese Inland Sea, covering occupation landings and assisting in the liberation of Allied POWs. She sailed on 21 December from Kure, Honshū, to Shanghai, China, to support the Chinese Nationalists in their conflict with the Communists for control of the mainland. She also conducted the "North China Omnibus Courier Run" between China and Korea until 6 March 1946, when she departed Tsingtao, China, for the United States.Arriving San Francisco on 27 March, she deactivated 16 September. Pierce then sailed for San Diego 17 January 1947, decommissioned 24 January and entered the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, 1 May.
Pierce recommissioned on 11 April 1949, Commander O. W. Goepner in command. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, she departed on 11 July for Norfolk. Arriving on 5 August, she commenced 12 months of Atlantic operations that extended from Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
to the Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
. Under the command of Commander J. R. Wadleigh, she cleared Norfolk on 8 August 1950 for duty with the 6th Fleet. Before returning to the United States on 23 January 1951, she operated in the Mediterranean from Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
to Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
and along the western coast of Europe from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.
Korea
For more than 15 months, John R. Pierce operated out of Norfolk along the Atlantic coast; then she departed on 15 May 1952 for duty in the Far East. Sailing via the Panama Canal, San Diego and Pearl Harbor, she arrived Yokosuka, Japan on 18 June. With Commander O. C. Foote, Jr. in command, she sailed on the 20th for blockade and bombardment operations against Communist forces along the east coast of Korea. From Chongjin to Songjin, she conducted interdiction firing and "anti-mine, anti-junk and anti-fishing" patrols. While engaging enemy shore batteries at Songjin on 6 August, she sustained three hits from enemy fire, but continued interdiction patrols until 11 October. She then departed for the United States via the Indian Ocean, Suez and Gibraltar, arriving Norfolk 12 December.1954-1967
From 5 January 1954 to 1 April 1962 John R. Pierce deployed to the Mediterranean on six cruises of varying duration. When not conducting operations with the 6th Fleet, she operated out of her home port on training exercises and readiness operations in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. When in the Mediterranean, fleet operations carried her the length and breadth of the sea, and deployments in 1954 and 1956 sent her, in addition, to the coast of Western Europe.On 1 October 1956, 75 miles south of Ville Franche, the ship was on aerial gunnery exercise firing at a towed aerial target, when at 0950, a shell exploded in the breech of mount 53, killing a member of the mount and seriously wounding nine others. Three of the injured were in grave condition and later died. Doctors from were taken by helicopter to the destroyer, and then transferred the wounded to the cruiser at sea. Then, Salem took the men to Ville Franche to be transported to Nice Airport, France, where a C-119 Flying Boxcar
C-119 Flying Boxcar
The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar was an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, litter patients, and mechanized equipment, and to drop cargo and troops by parachute...
waited to fly them to a military hospital in Frankfort, Germany. One of the seriously wounded was Ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
John T. Pierce, son of John R. Pierce, for whom the ship was named. After the wounded were transferred, Pierce went to Cannes, France and arrived on the 2nd of October. She stayed there until the 15th and then got under way for the states. She refueled at San Miguel in the Azores on the 20th and again in Bermuda on the 25th, arriving in Norfolk on the 27th. From there, she went to the Philadelphia naval yard for repairs.
Engaged primarily in conducting ASW barrier patrols and screening carrier flight operations, Pierce responded quickly to international crises that threatened world peace. When the Syrian Army threatened King Hussein's pro-Western government of Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
during August and September 1957, destroyers, including Pierce, patrolled the ancient sea lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea to guard against possible intervention by Nasser's Egypt. She returned to the same area in December 1958 to bolster the security of Lebanon, recently threatened by the Soviet-backed United Arab Republic. Following the assassination of General Trujillo on 27 May 1961, this versatile destroyer patrolled off the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, thus helping to stabilize a potentially explosive situation.
Returning to Norfolk 1 April 1962 from her seventh Mediterranean cruise, she sailed 15 May to participate in Project Mercury
Project Mercury
In January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
recovery operations following Lt. Commander M. Scott Carpenter's scheduled three-orbit flight in Aurora 7. On the 24th she steamed 206 miles at flank speed from her designated position in the Atlantic Recovery Area east of Puerto Rico and recovered the floating space capsule. After delivering it safely at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, the next day, she returned to Norfolk 28 May before resuming duty in the Caribbean.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
, under the command of Commander J. W. Foust, Pierce departed Norfolk 22 October; joined the quarantine force on the 24th; and during the next 5 days, investigated 13 ships. On 28 October, the Soviets agreed to the American demands, thus alleviating a tense and crucial crisis. Pierce departed from her assigned position the following day, but she continued a Caribbean sea-vigil from Jamaica to the Canal Zone until returning to Norfolk 14 December.
She departed home port on 29 March 1963 for the Mediterranean and the Middle East. After 2 weeks of maneuvers with the 6th Fleet, she transited the Suez Canal 30 April and commenced an 11-week cruise through the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. Returning to the Mediterranean 16 July, she resumed fleet operations. On 14 August she rescued three survivors of a plane that splashed off her starboard bow while attempting an emergency landing on . Departing Palma
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
, Majorca, 24 August, she arrived Norfolk 4 September.
Pierce spent the next year operating out of Norfolk; and during off-shore surveillance patrols in January 1964 she escorted five Cuban boats, which were illegally fishing in U.S. territorial waters, to Key West for internment. Once again she departed Norfolk for the Mediterranean 8 October. Reaching Naples late in the month, she joined the 6th Fleet and through the remainder of the year operated along the western coast of Italy.
John R. Pierce returned to Norfolk 27 February 1965. She reported to Commandant of the 3rd Naval District in Brooklyn, New York, for duty as a reserve training ship and began a schedule of 2-week training cruises for naval reservists. She continued this duty into 1967.