USS Decatur (DD-936)

The Forrest-class destroyer USS Decatur (DD-936) was the fourth U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name. She launched on 15 December 1955 from the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts and was commissioned on 7 December 1956.

Following her shakedown trials, Decatur was stationed out of Newport Rhode Island. On 3 September 1957, she departed to participate in NATO Operation Strikeback.

Between the beginning of 1958 and the spring of 1964, Decatur participated in six-month tours of duty in the Mediterranean (usually from February to August or vice versa), each of which was followed by a 12-month period operating out of her home port. Her overseas deployment in the fall of 1960, however, took her from the Arctic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

The previous summer, she hosted a midshipman's cruise as well as carried out anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercises in addition to routine operations. In September 1961, Decatur became the first United States Navy vessel to participate in the Space Program when she recovered the first Project Mercury vehicle after splashdown.

During an ASW exercise on 6 May 1964 off the Virginia Capes, Decatur collided with the carrier USS Lake Champlain. Amazingly, only one crewman was injured though the destroyer lost both masts and both stacks and the navigation bridge were crushed.

It was determined that Decatur should undergo conversion to a guided-missile destroyer. Entering the Charleston (South Carolina) Naval Shipyard in June 1965, she underwent a complete rebuild, receiving the new TARTAR missile system, a new fire control radar, an anti-submarine rocket (ASROC) system, new sonar equipment and other electronics upgrades. She was reclassified DDG-31 in September 1966 and began post-conversion shakedown trials in April 1967.

Decatur was transferred to Long Beach, California, in August, where several more months of testing and trials were carried out. Decatur was able to return to active duty in June 1968, almost three years after she entered the yard.

Vietnam

Decatur reported to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin on 23 August, commencing a six-month tour of combat duty that included air defense and air traffic control carriers-based aircraft. She returned home on 26 February 1969.

After a year of operations out of Long Beach, she returned to Vietnam on 10 February 1970, visiting ports in Taiwan and Japan before she arrived home on 29 August. This pattern of operations continued through the summer of 1974.

Decatur spent the first half of 1975 in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Although the Vietnam conflict had ended, her deployments to the South Pacific and South China Sea continued. During her 1978-79 deployment, she continued on into the Indian Ocean for operations off the coast of India and Pakistan, followed by a visit to the Persian Gulf. She dropped anchor in San Diego on 8 April 1979 and underwent another overhaul later that year. The vessel did not return to active duty until March 1981.

Final Years

Decatur completed two more deployments to the Far East in late 1981 and again between October and May 1983, during which she guarded oil tankers going through the straits of Hormuz during the war between Iraq and Iran.

Decatur sailed into Pearl Harbor under her own power for the last time on 7 May 1983. Determined obsolete, she was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor on 30 June 1983.

The USS Decatur was struck from the Navy list on 16 March 1988. She was transferred to Naval Sea Systems Command for use as an experimental test platform out of Port Hueneme, California. She was scuttled off the Hawaiian coast during a target exercise on 21 July 2004.

Asbestos Risks

The brave men and women who fought for the United States in the military have always known that their service comes with certain dangers, whether or not they experience time in battle. However, during the 20th century a serious danger was present aboard ships and vessels utilized by the United States Navy, unknown to many of those who served aboard.

On board every American Naval ship through the World War I and World War II era, asbestos, a fibrous mineral, was commonly installed for insulation and fire control since the mineral possesses a natural resistance to heat and fire. Though practically every part of destroyers such as the USS Decatur presented a risk of asbestos exposure, a ship's engine room and engineering sections were generally the spaces where crewmen or dockworkers were in the greatest danger of inhaling asbestos fibers. Even greater risk of undergoing high levels of asbestos exposure resulted when a ship was damaged, often through battle or routine operations, since wear and tear to a vessel could cause asbestos-containing materials to release the toxic fibers into the air where anyone nearby could inhale or ingest them into the body.

Asbestos exposure can cause the development of serious asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma, a rare cancer that typically affects the lining of the lungs. Mesothelioma develops when asbestos fibers enter the body and become lodged in organs and body cavities, causing inflammation or infection. Patients with mesothelioma may not present symptoms of the cancer until 20 to 50 years after initial asbestos exposure occurred. Veterans comprise approximately 30 percent of mesothelioma patients and those who served during the middle of the 20th century continue to be diagnosed with the cancer today. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or served aboard the USS Decatur and wish to learn more, please click here and Asbestos.com will send you a complimentary comprehensive packet.

In addition to those who served aboard ships and vessels, workers who repaired ships or worked on the construction of destroyers may also have been exposed to asbestos. If you served aboard a destroyer like the USS Decatur or worked in a shipyard, you may wish to alert your doctor of your potential exposure to asbestos. Informing your doctor may lead to an earlier diagnosis should an asbestos-related disease be present, which may aid in greater treatment options to combat the illness.

Sources

Destroyers Index