USS Mitscher (DL-2)
USS Mitscher (DL-2/DDG-35), named for Admiral
Marc "Pete" Mitscher USN (
1887–
1947), was the
lead ship of
her class of
destroyer of the
United States Navy.
Originally designated
DD-927, she was laid down by the
Bath Iron Works Corporation at
Bath,
Maine on
3 October 1949, reclassified as a
destroyer leader and designated
DL-2 on
2 February 1951, launched on
26 January 1952 by Mrs. Marc A. Mitscher, widow of Admiral Mitscher and commissioned on
15 May 1953, Commander Terrell H. W. Connor in command.
After initial shakedown exercises off
Cuba,
Mitscher returned to
Boston for further modification, followed by another shakedown cruise to
Guantanamo Bay, ending
31 August 1954. Homeported thereafter at
Newport, R.I., she conducted exercises off the east coast until
3 January 1956, when she sailed on a good-will cruise to
England,
Germany, and
France, returning to
Rhode Island 10 February. For the next 5 years, she continued her east coast operations, deploying annually either to the northern or eastern Atlantic for
NATO exercises.
On
9 February 1961, she departed her new homeport,
Charleston, S.C., and steamed to the
Mediterranean for her first 6 month tour with the
6th Fleet. Such deployments over the next 4 years involved her in further NATO exercises as well as 6th Fleet exercises. In August
1964, while in the Mediterranean, she stood off
Cyprus to aid in the evacuation of American nationals, and then steamed through the
Suez Canal to patrol the
Red Sea and the
Persian Gulf.
On
2 March 1966,
Mitscher departed Newport for the
Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. There, she was converted to a
guided missile destroyer at between
18 March 1966 and
29 June 1968 and designated
DDG-35.
Mitscher was decommissioned and stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register on
1 June 1978, and sold for scrap in July
1980.
