Talk:USS Hopewell (DD-681)

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USS Hopewell DD-681 Association has moves to www.geocities.com/USSHopewell_DD681/

End section September 2014

I removed the following from the article. If the tone is changed to be more encyclopedic and less like a memorial, it might be fine. It also needs to be be cited with a verifiable reliable source, especially with the very specific numbers. The entire section loses credibility for me when it claims an atomic missile was used to sink the ship. That might be plausible in deep water in the middle of the Pacific during the 1950s, but Hopewell was sunk in shallow water, near San Clemente Island in 1972. --Dual Freq (talk) 22:42, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

“ In 1967 Hopewell prepared and sailed back to the Western Pacific and returned to Vietnam for her fourth tour of duty in that war. During that deployment she earned a reputation for her plane guard duty, SARs and other duties in the Tonkin Gulf and providing shore bombardment and harassment and interdiction fire nightly for many of the days on the firing line. Hopewell returned to San Diego in early 1968 for upkeep, family time and training. Hopewell again deployed to the Western Pacific and Vietnam in November 1968 and arrived in Vietnam in mid December 1968 and commenced the same duties previously described, but the duties of this cruise were further enhanced by being assigned to support the Southern Mekong River Delta Forces from the southern tip of Vietnam to Cambodia. During this time the Hopewell participated in two operations one of which earned her and the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, and Combat Action Ribbon. This then 27 year old destroyer would not quit as she went on to complete that cruise by intercepting 15 Chinese and 12 Russian vessels in the Tonkin Gulf, steaming 44,352 miles, completing 67 fire support missions, expending 5,775 rounds of ammunition, anchored 55 time in very shallow water of the river mouths of rivers of Vietnam to provide support and complete fire missions. In early May 1969 Hopewell and Duncan were selected to represent the United States at the Coral Sea Celebration in Australia before returning home to San Diego to end that 68-69 deployment. During that transit the men and officers of Hopewell also were able to watch the reentry of Apollo 10 and meet the crew in Pago Pago Samoa. Hopewell returned to San Diego on June 7, 1969 never to return to the Western Pacific again. Hopewell was surveyed and finally stricken for the records in 1970 and sunk in 1972 off the coast of CA in 150 of water. Today she sits upright on the ocean floor a living sanctuary for the denizens of the deep, her mission continues into eternity as a refuge for all that choose to live in her. During her sinking they fired an atomic warhead missile into her, she refused to go down, and finally they boarded her to open the sea chests to flood her out to her final resting place. She was 29 years old when the US Navy ended her life to start a new one. ”