Dewey Deployment’s

We know very little bits and pieces from USS Dewey History. But this will be my History page from 1960 to 1993. So here is your chance to Help. If you were Ships Company, embarked Staff, Aircrew or were serving aboard another ship in company with the USS Dewey and can add or contribute to history please Submit. Either through guest book/deck logs entry or by email to me. As I receive I will try to modify by adding data here.

1960-1965

Dewey proceeds to homeport of Norfolk, Virginia.

Cdr Elmo Zumwalt is Dewey’s 1^st C.O.

“61”North Atlantic (goodwill) shake down, The Cuban missile crises

Cdr. Mark Tremaine- Dewey’s 2^nd Commanding officer1961/1962

Cdr. Owen A. Roberts 3rd C.O., relieved Cdr. Mark Tremaine 8/10/62

Deployment to Med when president Kennedy was assonated,1963

14 November 1963 Dewey would host Change of Command for Desron 26. Change of command took place in Toranto, Italy. Where Capt. Elmore F. Higgins Jr. relieved Capt. Means Johnson Jr.

1964 Cdr. Claiborne Sheldon Bradley Dewey's 4th C.O.

The 1965 Med. cruise from 2/65- 7/65 was cut short an the ship received orders to return from cruise early due to low fuel supply in the Mediterranean

Capt. Tazewell was the division (DESDIV 262) commander for 65 cruise.

1966-1970

CDR Reid Stringfellow Dewey's 5th C.O.15 June 66 - 1 April 1968

Capt. John T. Tice III Destroyer Division 42 embarked 11/15/67-7/68

for 67/69 cruise. It was suppose to be a cruise around the world but the USS Pueblo changed that. With a schedule change that had us return home going back through the Panama Channel.

Cdr. Virgil C Snider Dewey's 6th C.O. 1 April 1968 - 1971

I should be able to complete this section the best, as this is the period that I served onboard the Dewey. In 1966 while Dewey was in overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard I went T.A.D. to Desron 26 evaluation team, to conduct full power, economy runs and engineering casualty control drills. The major difference in Dewey after overhaul was the Helo Deck installed on the fantail. And a virtrep station on the foscel , Several new antenna’s and I think there was a sonar upgrade. We made numerous trips to the Caribbean, with stops in Saint Thomas, St. Crox, Jamaica, and Getmo. Guantonomo Bay, Cuba. There were stateside visits to Charleston, S.C., Galveston, TX., Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville, Florida. The Dewey bowling team was tops in the fleet for the three years in a row (64,65,66). In late 66 or early 67 Dewey was involved with Cape Canaveral (later named Cape Kennedy) with Mercury & Mars recover mission and Dewey was a surface evaluation team for the Posident missile undergoing testing at Cape Canaveral. There was a lot of special equipment on board for monitoring and filming Missile launches. There was some north Atlantic ops and I remember being in Newport for the folk festival. There were more Caribbean ops like 66 with visits to Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Getmo again. These were work ups to what was to be a world cruise. That did not take place. A November 1967 depart on cruise that was suppose to sailing west to the Med. with operations in Viet Nam along the way. Dewey sailed from Norfolk bye our self, Met up with Two ships from Charleston and later four ships from Mayport, Florida. With Desron 42 embarked onboard the Dewey. Any Desron 42 sailors that can shed light on the cruise. We transited to the west coast Via the Panama Cannel. There was a port call and refueling after exiting the cannel. What was the port? On to San Diego for another port call, then on to Hawaii. I think we arrived in Pearl Harbor on December 7^th or right after it. Anyway it was a 9^th Birthday party for Dewey. Next up was midway and we spent Christmas in Okinawa, Japan. Then New Years, at Naval Station Subic, Alongapo City, P.I.. Then on to the gun line and radar picket station. Then our Detour to North Korea. Then on to Japan to await a schedule change, proceed west and return via the Panama Cannel. I think there were two options under review before our detour. One had us transit the Suez to the med to come home. The other was we would go to Austrian and go around the Cape Horne to come home. We did neither. So it went on our 1968 Deployment. 1969 Dewey would head for the North Atlantic and Med. Sea. On this cruise there a snag of the sonar dome in Brest, France that would lead to a dry-dock repair. A September 4^th boiler explosion and shipboard fires would lead to USS Dewey being decommissioned December 1969 for repairs at the Naval Shipyard Philadelphia, Pa..

1971-1975

Cdr. Conrad J. Rorie became USS Dewey's 7th C.O. relieving Capt.. Virgil C Snider.

Dewey re-Commissioned, 13 March 1971. Was assigned to Newport for ships new homeport. In 1972, a 2^nd West Pac deployment. USS Dewey’s 2^nd tour of Duty in Viet Nam, and North S.A.R. (surface and air rescue) and gun line operations.

Cdr. John A. Mack 8th C.O. relieving Capt. Conrad J. Rorie

Deployed 6/73-2/74 another Mediterranean deployment.

Cdr. Joe P. Harrison became Dewey's 9th C.O. relieving Cdr. John A. Mack.

Change of homeport from Newport, R.I. to Charleston, S.C. after returning from Med. cruise in 1974.

Dewey went into dry-dock in Charleston as DLG-14

Hull Number changed 30 June 1975

She came out of the dry-dock as DDG-45

1976-1980

IN 1976 Cdr. Michael P. Kellorers became Dewey's 10th C.O. relieving Cdr. Joe P. Harrison, (first DDG45 change of command).

Reclassified, Dewey DDG-46 a Farragut Class Destroyer

1976 Bicentennial Med. deployment. The 4 July 76 Dewey celebrated the Bi-Centennial in Everglades, FL.. Before headed to Getmo1976 for more training.

1977 and1978 there were deployments to Mediterranean.

Cdr. Charles L. Terry became Dewey's 11th C.O. in 1978 .

Competed in UNTITAS XX 1979 a Panama and South America cruise.

Ships nickname ”Dewdrop Inn”

1981-1985

Cdr. Harlan L. Morrison became Dewey's 12th C.O. in 1980

“82” C.O. is Capt. Ronald L. Lassiter

Ships slogan “Dew Da”

Summer "83" NATO Cruise

1985 Med. Cruise

1895 Cdr Joel B. Heaton becomes Dewey's 13th C.O.

1986-1990

Cdr. Heaton

Cdr. Richard L. Coleman Dewey's 14th C.O. in “86”

Cdr Ronald A. Route Dewey's 15th C.O. in "89"

1989 Last OPPE exam board

Cdr. Kalleres “90” final decom C.O.

Gulf war 1989

Decommissioned 08/30/1990

1991-1993

Sold as scrap on 11/20/1992

Towed to Wilmington S.C. ship yard for scraping

1993 explosion and fire while scraping

The yards waste little time on training. Lorenzo Lopez, an illegal immigrant hired in Wilmington, said:
"They didn't explain anything. They told me to look at what the others are doing."

On Oct. 14, 1995, Lopez and another worker were told to cut steel pipes in the engine room of a

destroyer, the USS Dewey. A flame from one of their torches ignited vapors that had accumulated

overnight in a condenser.

The explosion was felt three miles away. Lopez was knocked down. He was temporarily blinded,

broke his leg, and burned so badly he spent six weeks in a hospital burn center. His eyesight was

permanently damaged and he was disfigured.

"My eyes bother me," Lopez said. "I have problems with my legs. They hurt. I can read a little. ...

If a friend asks me about taking the job I am going to answer, 'Don't take it. Just look at me.'"
A soft-spoken 28-year-old who doesn't speak English, Lopez came to this country from Guanajuato, Mexico, in search of opportunity, picking oranges, apples, and tobacco across the Southeast before

finding work in the shipbreaking yard. Before the accident, he said, he would send $1,000 home so

that he might someday be able to return to a better life. Now, unable to work, he has few prospects.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the yard for safety violations. The company

failed to have an experienced employee check that no gases were present before any cutting began.
Lopez's was the second serious accident at the North Carolina yard in less than a year. On

Feb. 24, 1995, worker Daniel Contreras was killed when a piece of metal flew out of a pipe-splitting machine and tore through his skull. OSHA determined that the accident could have been prevented it

the machine, called an alligator shear, had the required safety guards. Like most efforts to enforce

safety and environmental laws in the shipbreaking industry, the OSHA actions were taken only after the

harm was done

Note: ship in background