USS Spruance (DD-963) was the lead ship of the United States Navy's of destroyers and was named after Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Spruance was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi, and launched by Mrs. Raymond A. Spruance. Spruance served in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, assigned to Destroyer Squadron 24 and operating out of Naval Station Mayport, Florida. Spruance was decommissioned on 23 March 2005 and then was sunk as a target on 8 December 2006.
History
1960s
Bath Iron Works, General Dynamics and Litton Industries submitted proposals for production of DD-963 on 3 April 1969. Of the $30 million assigned, $28.5 million has been provided to three contractors. Eventually, Litton's bid won the competition.
1970s
Spruance was the first of a highly-successful class of anti-submarine warfare and anti-ship destroyers, and was the first destroyer powered by gas turbines in the U.S. Navy. At first she was armed with two 5-inch naval guns, an ASROC missile launcher, and an eight-cell NATO Sea Sparrow missile launcher. Spruance received one Mark 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) during the late 1980s. This replaced the original Mark 16 ASROC launcher. Also added to Spruance after several years of service was an eight-cell launcher for Harpoon antiship missiles.
Spruances first operational deployment was in October 1979 to the Mediterranean Sea, as a member of the Carrier Battle Group. The other warships in this task force included , , , and . During this deployment, Spruance made a transit into the Black Sea to conduct surveillance on the new Soviet helicopter carrier, , as she steamed from her building shipyard to the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet. Spruance suffered a malfunction in one of her LM2500 Gas Turbine Main Engines and had to replace the engine while deployed. This was done successfully in port.
Spruance, being the first gas-turbine powered ship in the U.S. fleet, had an underway replenishment breakaway flag (flown while pulling away from receiving supplies and fuel from a logistics ship at sea) that was a replication of the large yellow warning seen on the side of aircraft carriers, with red block letters saying "BEWARE JET BLAST" on a large yellow background. Upon "breaking" (unfurling) the flag on the halyards, they would play the theme song from the 1976 film Rocky as they increased speed and sailed ahead of the logistics vessel.
1980s
Spruance entered her first major overhaul in 1980 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. During a brief shipyard period in 1983, she received the Phalanx CIWS and the TAS Mk 23 radar system.
Spruance steamed to the Arabian Sea in 1983 including a port visit to Mombasa, Kenya, in May 1983. She briefly took station off Beirut in June 1982 before being relieved. In 1982, she transited both the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal during the same summer.
Spruance deployed for a six-month period in January 1983 to the Persian Gulf where she spent four and one-half months conducting observations in company with during the Iraq-Iran War. She also conducted operations with Teamwork '84 in the northern Atlantic and in the Arctic Ocean in 1984. She deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in November 1984 and conducted her second Black Sea Operations over Thanksgiving 1984. She returned from her deployment in May 1985 and shortly thereafter entered her second overhaul period during which she received VLS, Towed Array, and the SH 60. She deployed for a six-month period on 26 May 1993 to the Red Sea where she spent over three and a half months conducting visit and board and search operations in support of United Nations sanctions against Iraq. While attached to the U.S. Sixth Fleet, Spruance conducted a brief stop for fuel in Rota, Spain, followed by a liberty port visit in Palma, Spain. Additional stops in the Mediterranean consisted of a brief stop in Augusta Bay, Sicily, then to Souda Bay, Crete, for a maintenance period (IMAV) with . Spruance passed through the Suez Canal on 29 June.
Admirals Vern Clark and Gary Roughead (who would later go on to become the 27th and 29th Chiefs of Naval Operations, respectively), were Spruances commanding officer and executive officer, respectively, from 1984 to 1985.