USS O'Bannon (DD-987)

History
United States
Namesake	Presley O'Bannon
Ordered	15 January 1975
Builder	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down	21 February 1977
Launched	25 September 1978
Commissioned	15 December 1979
Decommissioned	19 August 2005
Stricken	19 August 2005
Motto	Discipline, Pride, Performance
Fate	Sunk as a training target on 6 October 2008
General characteristics
Class and type	Spruance class destroyer
Displacement	Template:Spruance class destroyer displacement
Length	Template:Spruance class destroyer length
Beam	Template:Spruance class destroyer beam
Draft	Template:Spruance class destroyer draft
Propulsion	Template:Spruance class destroyer propulsion
Speed	Template:Spruance class destroyer speed
Range	Template:Spruance class destroyer range
Complement	Template:Spruance class destroyer complement
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; Mark 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 ; & 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	list error: mixed text and list (help); Template:Spruance class destroyer armament VLS 1 × 21 cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile;
Aircraft carried	Template:Spruance class destroyer aircraft

USS O'Bannon (DD-987), a Spruance-class destroyer, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon (1776–1850), an early hero of the US Marine Corps.

O'Bannon was laid down on 21 February 1977 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 25 September 1978; and commissioned on 15 December 1979, Commander Marshall R. Willenbucher in command.

History

Homeport

Originally assigned to Naval Base Charleston, South Carolina; when it was closed by the Congressional BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) committee in 1994 transferred to Naval Station Mayport, Florida.

Deployments and Ports of Call

UNITAS XXXII: Cartagena, Columbia; Rodmin, Panama; Manta, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Valparaíso, Chile; Talcahuano, Chile; Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Puerta la Cruz, Venezuela

Baltops '92: Edinburgh, Scotland; Kiel, Germany (with bus rides to Berlin);^[1]^{[unreliable source?]} Karlskrona, Sweden; Denmark; Norway; Severnmorsk, Russia (with bus rides to Murmansk, Russia)^[2]^{[unreliable source?]}

MEF 3-97 (started 15 July 1997) Lajes, Azores (24JUL97), Palma, Spain (28-30JUL97), Rota, Spain, Kos, Greece (3-5AUG97), Dubai United Arab Emirates (5-7SEP97), ASU Bahrain (18-23SEP, 10-14OCT, 21-22OCT97), Muscat,Oman 30OCT-01NOV97), Dubai, UAE 3-8NOV97), Media, Portugal.

In 1995 the ship was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 14.

UNITAS XL-99: Cartagena Columbia; Rodmin, Panama; Manta, Ecuador; Lima, Peru; Valparaíso, Chile; Viña del Mar, Chile; Coquimbo, Chile; ?Bahia Blanca?,Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Puerta la Cruz, Venezuela.

Fate

Originally scheduled to remain in service through 2010, decommissioning of the Spruance-class destroyers was accelerated as a cost-saving measure, and by June 2005 O'Bannon was the last Spruance destroyer in service in the Atlantic Fleet.

O'Bannon was decommissioned on 19 August 2005 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register the same day. In 2004 O'Bannon was to be sold to Chile, but in 2005 she was scheduled to be transferred via FMS to the Turkish Navy.^[3] In the end she was sunk off the coast of Virginia at 3:23pm on 6 October 2008 in a training exercise by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier group, using missiles, guns and finally a Mk 82 bomb.^[4]

References

^ Personal Account
^ Personal Account
^ "Ship Transfers / Transfer of Naval Vessels". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 18 January 2009.
^ "Eisenhower Strike Group Conducts Sink Exercise". US Navy. 2008-10-06.

1&2 I was there and recall both bus rides and have pictures from the trips. Of note: I recall the Murmansk bus ride as being mandatory liberty.

External links

[1] Personal Account

[2] Personal Account

[3] "Ship Transfers / Transfer of Naval Vessels". Globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 18 January 2009.

[4] "Eisenhower Strike Group Conducts Sink Exercise". US Navy. 2008-10-06.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Spruance-class destroyers
Arthur W. Radford Briscoe Caron Comte de Grasse Conolly Cushing David R. Ray Deyo Elliot Fife Fletcher Harry W. Hill Hayler Hewitt Ingersoll John Hancock John Rodgers John Young Kinkaid Leftwich Merrill Moosbrugger Nicholson O'Bannon O'Brien Oldendorf Paul F. Foster Peterson Spruance Stump Thorn
Preceded by: Charles F. Adams class Followed by: Kidd class
List of destroyers of the United States Navy

v t e Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 2008
Shipwrecks	14 Jan: Ice Prince 31 Jan: Riverdance 29 Feb: Shourav 23 Mar: Alaska Ranger 13 May: Nazimuddin 21 Jun: Princess of the Stars 29 Jun: USS Horne 11 Jul: USS David R. Ray, Simshar 14 Jul: USS Cushing 16 Jul: USS Fletcher 11 Sep: Asgard II 6 Oct: USS O'Bannon 10 Oct: Fedra 18 Nov: Ekawat Nava 5 Unknown date: Lady Davinia
Other incidents	31 Jan: Pride of Canterbury 6 Feb: UND Adriyatik 22 Sep: Lake Explorer II 8 Nov: K-152 Nerpa (accident) 2 Dec: Sea Wind 4 Dec: Ushuaia
2007 2009