|
The DD-933 was the
third ship named for John Barry, an officer in the U.S. Navy’s formative
years. The BARRY was launched on 1 October 1955 and commissioned on 7
September 1956. Following her return to Newport from her first
deployment to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1957, the BARRY joined
the escort for the SEAWOLF (SSN-575) carrying President Eisenhower on a
demonstration dive. In July 1958, she was back in the Mediterranean,
patrolling with the carrier SARATOGA (CV-60) as U.S. Marines went ashore
during the crisis in Lebanon. Back home that October, she entered the
Boston Naval Shipyard for the installation of an innovative bow-mounted
SQS-23 sonar system. She cleared Newport in June 1960 to demonstrate her
new sonar equipment to Northern European navies.
ASW exercises, more
tests of her bow sonar, and a Mediterranean deployment took her up to
October 1962 and the crisis over Soviet missiles in Cuba. With the
destroyers BLANDY (DD-943), CHARLES S. PERRY (DD-697), and KEPPLER
(DD-765), she joined the Cuban quarantine force in the Caribbean, where
she relieved the BACHE (DD-470) and EATON (DD-510) who were tracking a
surfaced Foxtrot-class Soviet submarine. The boat maintained a course
well east of the quarantine line and the BARRY ended her surveillance
uneventfully.
The ship and her crew
became more actively involved in the quarantine on 8 November, when they
set out to find a Soviet merchantman reported steaming away from Cuba
with what could be missile parts. For the search, a team of
photographers came aboard to document the Soviet ship’s deck cargo. They
finally sighted the ship and followed her through the night. At
daybreak, the destroyer moved close enough for the investigators to
photograph the mysterious cargo on the ship’s deck. Mission
accomplished, she returned the photographers to the ESSEX.
Routine operations and
an autumn hurricane off Bermuda carried the BARRY through 1963. In the
South Atlantic in March 1964, her fire and rescue party joined in an
18-hour battle to extinguish a fire aboard the ANTARES (AKS-33).
European and Mediterranean deployments followed and then, in 1965, the
BARRY joined the first group of Atlantic Fleet destroyers to deploy to
Vietnam. She set sail late in September with the SAMUEL B. ROBERTS
(DD-823), CHARLES S. SPERRY (DD-697), HAWKINS (DD-873), VESOLE (DD-878),
INGRAHAM (DD-694), HAROLD E. ELLISON (DD-864), and BACHE (DD-470).
Early on 7 December,
the BARRY left the task group screening the carrier ENTERPRISE (CVAN-65)
to steam up the Saigon River. There, for two days, her 5-inch guns fired
on Viet Cong positions, earning praise from army air spotters for
'excellent target coverage.' In the Mekong Delta region on 15 December,
the BARRY’s guns fired some 1,500 rounds, earning her the nickname 'the
Grey Ghost of the Mekong Coast.'
Martha Raye and her
troupe entertained the crew on 21 December easing the gloom of a
Christmas far from home. Forty-eight days of combat operations, three
days in Subic Bay, and the BARRY was off the coast of Vietnam again on
19 January to cover the landing of 5,000 marines in Quang Ngai Province.
For the next five days, the BARRY and the cruiser OKLAHOMA CITY (CLG--5)
provided covering fire, harassed the enemy at night, and directed South
Vietnamese vessels patrolling the coast. She moved south on 5 February,
to support First Cavalry and ARVN operations with over 700 5-inch
rounds. She finally steamed into Newport on 8 April 1966 having
circumnavigated the globe. Installation, testing, and evaluation of a
new Mk 86 gun fire control system occupied her crew into January 1967
when the BARRY was decommissioned for antisubmarine warfare conversion
at the Boston Naval Shipyard. She was recommissioned on 19 April 1968.
Exercises in the North
Atlantic, the rescue the crew of a disabled helicopter off Newport in
December 1969, and routine operations took her up to September1972, when
her home port was transferred to Athens, Greece. That November, while
patrolling during the Arab-Israeli war, a Marine CH-46 helicopter from
the GUADALCANAL (LPH-7) crashed into the BARRY’s ASROC deck, rolled
overboard, and sank. One of the helicopter’s three crewmen was lost. The
destroyer suffered no casualties.
She was on patrol again
for the Cyprus crisis in August 1974 and then left Athens for
Philadelphia in July 1975. Following an overhaul in 1976, she steamed
for her new home port in Mayport, Florida, early in 1977. During her
Mediterranean tour that year, the BARRY’s crew helped rescue the crew of
a plane from the AMERICA (CV-66), and early in 1978, shadowed the KIEV
and other units of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet gathering intelligence.
In 1979, following a
revolution in Iran, she and the SAMPSON (DDG-10) patrolled the waters
off Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., and the Straits of Hormuz. January
1980 found her in the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Boston for a year-long
overhaul. Returning to the Middle East in November 1981, she joined the
screen for the CORAL SEA (CV-42) during exercises in the Arabian Sea and
on 9 December, in company with the CONYNGHAM (DDG-17), escorted units of
the amphibious group of MARG 3-81 through the Bab el Mandeb Straits.
After a visit to Mombasa, Kenya, she left the Persian Gulf and the
Mediterranean for the last time in March 1982. The BARRY was
decommissioned at Newport on 5 November 1982, and towed to the Inactive
Ship Facility in Philadelphia five days later.
Destined for better things, the BARRY was moved to the Washington Navy
Yard early in 1984, to become a ceremonial ship. Manned by volunteer
active-duty navy crews, she has hosted a wide variety of
military-related events and has presented a positive image of the navy
to thousands of visitors annually. More than 100,000 visit her each
summer. |
