USS Noa (DD-841) was a 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...

, the second Navy ship named for Midshipman Loveman Noa

Loveman Noa

David Bernard Loveman Noa was an officer in the United States Navy. He was killed while on duty in the United States' newly acquired overseas territory of the Philippines...

 (1878–1901).

Noa was laid down by the Bath Iron Works

Bath Iron Works

Bath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine, United States. Since its founding in 1884 , BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, most of which have been ordered by the United States Navy...

, Bath, Maine

Bath, Maine

Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...

, on 26 March 1945; launched

Ship naming and launching

The ceremonies involved in naming and launching naval ships are based in traditions thousands of years old.-Methods of launch:There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching." The oldest, most familiar, and most widely...

 on 30 July 1945, sponsored by Mrs. James Cary Jones, Jr., wife of Rear Admiral James Cary Jones, Jr., USN; and commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 on 2 November 1945, Commander R. L. Nolan, Jr., USN, in command.

1945 – 1960

After shakedown at Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located on of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba which the United States leased for use as a coaling station following the Cuban-American Treaty of 1903. The base is located on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas...

, Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, Noa departed her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia

Naval Station Norfolk

Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...

 for her first Mediterranean deployment. She called at 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...

, Nice

Nice

Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...

, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

 and Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

. After participating in fleet maneuvers in the South Atlantic in early 1947 Noa returned to the United States. For the next two years she exercised in type training, underwent overhaul and acted as school training ship for the Fleet Sonar School

Fleet Sonar School

The Fleet Sonar School was a United States Navy facility in Key West, Florida for the training of Service personnel in Sonar techniques and equipment, and Anti-submarine warfare....

, Key West, Florida

Key West, Florida

Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...

.

Noa served as rescue destroyer for carrier during June and July 1949. From September 1949 through January 1951 she engaged in extended anti-submarine training in a permanent Hunter-killer Group

Hunter-killer Group

During World War II Battle of the Atlantic, the Allies realized that to combat the threat posed by the U-boats a more aggressive strategy was needed than simply providing convoys with escorts...

 as a unit of Destroyer Squadron Eight (DesRon 8). She also made a second Mediterranean deployment during this period. In early 1951 she participated in Convex II, a large scale convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

 escort exercise, after which she called at Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. The next two years were devoted to upkeep and operational type training along the East coast.

In August 1953 Noa departed Norfolk on a 42,000 mile (78,000 km) around-the-world cruise. She arrived Sasebo

United States Fleet Activities Sasebo

U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a United States Navy naval base, in Sasebo, Japan, on the island of Kyūshū. It provides facilities for the logistic support of forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the United States Pacific Fleet and designated tenant activities.- History :Sasebo...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 on 3 October and spent four months operating in the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

 with Task Force 77. Here she participated in operational readiness exercises while maintaining truce patrol off the Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

n coast.

In November 1953 Noa operated in Japanese waters as part of a Hunter-killer Group. She patrolled the Korean coast together with in late November and early December. From then until her return to the United States in April 1954, Noa engaged in underway training. Upon her return to Norfolk she was reassigned to hunter-killer duty in the Atlantic.

On 7 September 1954 Noa left Norfolk to participate in a joint NATO antisubmarine warfare exercise, "Black Jack". After visiting Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, and ports in the Mediterranean, she was due to return to Norfolk on 12 November 1954. After leaving Gibraltar, the destroyer group was caught in hurricane force winds reaching 64 knots (34.8 m/s). Noa recorded rolls in excess of 50 degree

Degree (angle)

A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...

s, Some of the destroyers sustained heavy damage in the storm. Noa and the other destroyers found safe haven at the port of Ponta Delgada

Ponta Delgada

Ponta Delgada is a city and municipality on the island of São Miguel in the archipelago of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal. It includes 44,403 residents in the urban area, and approximately 20,113 inhabitants in the three central parishes that comprise the historical city: São Pedro,...

 on São Miguel Island

São Miguel Island

São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...

 in the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

. The destroyer group, along with the aircraft carrier , arrived at Norfolk one day late, on 13 November 1954. After returning, Noa reported to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995...

 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, for overhaul.

During overhaul in the summer of 1955 Noa was outfitted with experimental sonar

Sonar

Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...

 equipment that she tested in the Key West area. She departed Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Norfolk Naval Shipyard

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling, and repairing the Navy's ships. It's the oldest and largest industrial facility that belongs to the U.S. Navy as well as the most...

 in February 1956 for her third Mediterranean deployment. Upon return to homeport the following summer she trained in the eastern Atlantic. In the spring 1957 she steamed to the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 for Operation Springboard 1–57 and Desairdex 1–57.

After completion of a three-month overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in August 1957 she steamed for five weeks of refresher training at Guantanamo and for shore bombardment exercises at Culebra Island, Puerto Rico

Culebra, Puerto Rico

Isla Culebra is an island-municipality of Puerto Rico originally called Isla Pasaje and Isla de San Ildefonso. It is located approximately east of the Puerto Rican mainland, west of St. Thomas and north of Vieques. Culebra is spread over 5 wards and Culebra Pueblo...

. In winter of 1957–8, Noa served as test ship for experimental radio equipment and in spring 1958 she was again taking part in Springboard exercises in the Caribbean.

March 1957 saw Noa as a participant in Lantphibex 1–58, an exercise designed to test the latest amphibious warfare concepts. During the summer 1958 Noa participated in 6th Fleet operations during the Lebanon crisis. After a short tour in the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 she returned to Norfolk and joined the 2nd Fleet for Lantphibex 2–58.

In February 1959 Noa again deployed to the Mediterranean. She participated in Sixth Fleet exercises through 1 April when she steamed for the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 via the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

. She called at Massawa

Massawa

Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...

, Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

; Bombay, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

; Bahrein, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

; Bandar Shahpur, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

; and Aden

Aden

Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...

. Late June Noa rejoined the Sixth Fleet after having gone eighty-three days without replenishment. She returned to Norfolk on 1 September, and transferred from Destroyer Squadron Six to Squadron Fourteen, with a new homeport at Mayport, Florida

Naval Station Mayport

Naval Station Mayport is a major United States Navy base in Jacksonville, Florida. It contains a military airfield with one asphalt paved runway measuring 8,001 x 200 ft. ....

. Through spring 1960 she operated off the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean, She entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995...

 on 25 May for a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization

Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization

The Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization program of the United States Navy extended the lives of World War II-era destroyers by shifting their mission from a surface attack role to that of a submarine hunter...

 (FRAM), and received the latest in anti-submarine warfare

Anti-submarine warfare

Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....

 (ASW) weapons.

1961 – 1973

Noa completed her FRAM I overhaul on 2 May 1961 and rejoined the Atlantic Fleet. After a four-week Ready-for-Sea period and ASROC

ASROC

ASROC is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed on over 200 USN surface ships, specifically cruisers, destroyers, and frigates...

 qualification trials she reported to Fleet Training Command, Guantanamo, for six weeks refresher training. Noa returned to Mayport on 23 July for a two week tender period alongside .

Type training followed and Noa steamed for the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, for combined exercises in the Eastern Atlantic with the British Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She arrived at Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, 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...

 on 6 November, and also called at Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 and Dublin before standing in to homeport on 20 December. After leave and upkeep Noa resumed ASW training on 29 January 1962 in the western Atlantic.

Noa returned to Mayport on 6 February for modifications to her boat davit

Davit

A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....

s and briefings in preparation for the recovery of America's first astronaut

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

 to orbit the Earth and his space capsule. Preparations completed, she steamed on 11 February for the 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 area in the southwestern Atlantic, she reported on station on 14 February as part of the 24-ship recovery task force.

After two reschedulings of the space flight, Noa put in at San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

 for two days. She was underway on 19 February for the recovery station, located 200 miles WNW of San Juan. On 20 February, at precisely 14:40, five hours and 53 minutes after launch, Friendship Seven

Mercury-Atlas 6

Mercury-Atlas 6 was a human spaceflight mission conducted by NASA, the space agency of the United States. As part of Project Mercury, MA-6 was the successful first attempt by NASA to place an astronaut into orbit. The MA-6 mission was launched February 20, 1962. It made three orbits of the Earth,...

 reentered the atmosphere with a loud sonic boom

Sonic boom

A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion...

 that was clearly audible in Noa. She sighted and recovered Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC, Project Mercury astronaut, after he had completed his three orbits of the Earth and splashed down three miles from the destroyer. Enthusiastic crewmen used white paint to draw circles around Glenn's footsteps when he stepped onto the ship's deck. Col. Glenn remained aboard Noa for three hours before a helicopter transferred him to , the designated prime recovery ship.

Upon completion of recovery operations, Noa returned to Mayport for ASW operations with Task Group Alpha until on 31 May. Noa has since conducted type training and midshipmen cruises out of her homeport between Mediterranean operational deployments and upkeep. She steamed for the Mediterranean on 3 August 1962 for a seven month tour with the Sixth Fleet and on 8 February 1964 saw her stand out of Mayport for another six month Mediterranean deployment.

Her regularly scheduled overhaul took place at Charlestown from September 1964 through January 1965, followed by a Mediterranean deployment from mid-May through 1 September. Early October 1965 Noa steamed from Mayport for the Gemini VI

Gemini 6A

-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.97°* Period: 88.7 min-Stationkeeping with GT-7:* Start: December 15, 1965 19:33 UTC* End: December 16, 1965 00:52 UTC-Objectives:...

 recovery off the west coast of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The flight was cancelled after the Agena-B rocket

Agena Target Vehicle

The Agena Target Vehicle was an unmanned spacecraft used by NASA during its Gemini program to develop and practice orbital space rendezvous and docking techniques and to perform large orbital changes, in preparation for the Apollo program lunar missions.-Operations:Each ATV consisted of an Agena-D...

 designed to launch a docking vehicle failed to achieve an orbital insertion.

Noa then participated in type training and Atlantic Fleet exercises, including "High Time", an amphibious exercise in the Caribbean from late January through early March 1966. She also served as a unit of the Gemini 8

Gemini 8

-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.91°* Period: 88.83 min-Objectives:Gemini VIII had two major objectives, of which it achieved one...

 recovery forces 14–17 March 1966. Her April–October deployment to the Mediterranean was followed by leave, upkeep and Lantflex (28 November – 15 December).

In January 1967 Noa received two QH-50 DASH drone anti-submarine helicopters. She then served as school ship for the Fleet Sonar School

Fleet Sonar School

The Fleet Sonar School was a United States Navy facility in Key West, Florida for the training of Service personnel in Sonar techniques and equipment, and Anti-submarine warfare....

 at Key West (28 January – 11 February). "Operation Springboard" took her to the Caribbean 3–11 March and she steamed in Mediterranean waters June through November.

Noa stood out of Mayport on 5 January 1968 to conduct a solemn mission — burial at sea of George H. Flynt, YN1 (Ret.). Flynt's last wish was that his remains be consigned to the deep. In honoring his request, made by a man who served his country for 20 years, Noas sailors gained insight into a unique ceremony for men of the sea.

Noa underwent regular availability and overhaul at Charleston commencing 8 January 1968. Work was completed 17 June and the destroyer was in Mayport on 25 June. Because of excessive vibration in her starboard shaft, Noa returned to drydock at Charleston on 8 July for one week. She steamed for Guantanamo for refresher training after which she returned to Mayport on 11 September. Homeported once again the destroyer conducted maintenance and training and began preparation for deployment to the Pacific.

During October she was in restricted availability at Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

 for boiler repairs. She rode out Hurricane Gladys

Hurricane Gladys (1968)

Hurricane Gladys was the most destructive hurricane in the 1968 Atlantic hurricane season, causing over $100 million in damage and ten deaths. The last storm of the season, it caused heavy rainfall along its path through the Western Caribbean Sea, Florida, and up through Atlantic Canada...

 on 19 October and spent the rest of the year in training and in preparation for 1969 deployment to WestPac.

1969-1973

Noa was decommissioned

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

 on 31 October 1973. The ship was loaned to Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, and struck from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

 on 2 June 1975.

SPS Blas de Lezo (D65)

The ship served in the Spanish Navy

Spanish Navy

The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...

 as SPS Blas de Lezo (D65), named after Adm. Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta

Blas de Lezo

Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta , also known as "Patapalo" , and later as "Mediohombre" for the many wounds suffered in his long military life, was a Spanish admiral, and one of the greatest strategists and commanders in the history of the Spanish Navy...

(1689–1741). She was sold by the United States to Spain on 17 May 1978. Blas de Lezo was stricken and scrapped in 1991.