USS John Young (DD-973)

See also USS Young for similarly named ships.
USS John Young in the Pacific, 1 May 1981 after firing its two 5 inch/54-caliber guns during a gunnery exercise.
Career (US)
Namesake: John Young
Ordered: 26 January 1972
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down: 17 February 1975
Launched: 6 January 1976
Acquired: 1 May 1978
Commissioned: 20 May 1978
Decommissioned: 30 September 2002
Struck: 6 November 2002
Fate: Sunk as a target on 13 April 2004
General characteristics
Class and type:Spruance class destroyer
Displacement:8,040 (long) tons full load
Length:529 ft (161 m) waterline; 563 ft (172 m) overall
Beam:55 ft (16.8 m)
Draft:29 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion:4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 80,000 shp (60 MW)
Speed:32.5 knots (60 km/h)
Range:6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi) at 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement:19 officers, 315 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:		AN/SPS-40 air search radar
AN/SPG-60 fire control radar
AN/SPS-55 surface search radar
AN/SPQ-9 gun fire control radar
Mk 23 TAS automatic detection and tracking radar
AN/SPS-65 Missile fire control radar
AN/SQS-53 bow mounted Active sonar
AN/SQR-19 TACTAS towed array Passive sonar
Naval Tactical Data System
Electronic warfare
and decoys:		• AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System
• AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures
• Mark 36 SRBOC Decoy Launching System
• AN/SLQ-49 Inflatable Decoys
Armament:2 x 5 in (127 mm) 54 calibre Mark 45 dual purpose guns

2 x 20 mm Phalanx CIWS Mark 15 guns
1 x 8 cell ASROC launcher (removed)
1 x 8 cell NATO Sea Sparrow Mark 29 missile launcher
2 x quadruple Harpoon missile canisters
2 x Mark 32 triple 12.75 in (324 mm) torpedo tubes (Mk 46 torpedoes)

1 x 61 cell Mk 41 VLS launcher for Tomahawk missiles
1 x 21 round RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile
Aircraft carried:2 x Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.
Motto:Prends La Mer Avec Courage
("Set Sail With Courage")

USS John Young (DD-973), named for Captain John Young USN, was a Spruance-class destroyer of the United States Navy. The ship was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi.

History

John Young, following appropriate Congressional notification, became one of eight combat ships that began receiving women as crewmembers in 1994.

As part of a reorganization by the Pacific Fleet's surface ships into six core battle groups and eight destroyer squadrons, with the reorganization scheduled to be completed by 1 October 1995, and homeport changes to be completed within the following, year, John Young was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 23.

On 28 April 1996, Navy and Coast Guard inspectors aboard John Young boarded a merchant ship thus marking the 10,000th such boarding in support of UN sanctions against Iraq. As part of a multinational maritime interception force, operating in the Persian Gulf, the team boarded an Indian flagged dhow in the Persian Gulf to make the milestone boarding. The vessel was empty and permitted to proceed.

John Young departed San Diego on 18 November 1997 en route to the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment as part of the Middle East Force (MEF).

John Young teamed up with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) in late March 2001 for a major drug bust at sea. She was last stationed at San Diego, California.

Fate

John Young was decommissioned 30 September 2002 and stricken 6 November 2002, laid up at Bremerton, Washington NISMF. On 13 April 2004, John Young was sunk by a Mark 48 torpedo fired by USS Pasadena (SSN-752) during exercise RimPac 2004.

Two computer games, U.S.S. John Young 1 and 2, published for the Commodore 64 in 1990 and 1992, were simulations of combat featuring the John Young.

See also

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS John Young (DD-973).