A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History
USS POWER DD-839
The Tin Can Sailor, April 2010
The GEARING-class destroyer POWER (DD‑839) was launched 30 June 1945 by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, and commissioned 13 September 1945 at Boston. After shakedown out of Guantanamo Bay, she sailed in January 1946 on the first of many deployments with the Sixth Fleet. Subsequently, she operated in the western Atlantic and Caribbean until late 1948 when she again sailed for Mediterranean waters. There, she patrolled the coast of Palestine under the direction of the U.N. Mediation Board.
Early in 1950, the POWER operated with units of the British Royal Navy and visited ports in Northern Europe, then steamed to the Mediterranean for another tour with the Sixth Fleet. In the summer of 1952, she completed a South American cruise, after which she returned to the East Coast where her schedule consisted of reservist and midshipmen training cruises, fleet and type exercises, and Mediterranean deployments.
The POWER served with the Sixth Fleet during the 1958 crisis in Lebanon. After her return to the East Coast, she participated in the first Project Mercury launches. From November 1960 to January 1962, the POWER underwent her FRAM I overhaul, giving her the ASROC system and DASH capability. By September 1962 she was back in the Mediterranean.
During her 1963 overseas deployment, the POWER served with the Middle East Force in the Persian Gulf region. By early 1964, she was operating off Florida with the Polaris program. Another Mediterranean cruise and further East Coast exercises took her into late 1965, when she steamed in the mid‑Atlantic with the recovery teams for Gemini 6 and 7. During 1966 and 1967, she again served with the Sixth Fleet and the Middle East Force. In August 1968, however, she transited the Panama Canal for a WestPac tour. With the Seventh Fleet, beginning in September 1968, she served on the Yankee Station and provided gunfire support and SAR off South Vietnam.
She was back in Mayport, Florida, on 9 July 1969 to resume operations with the Atlantic Fleet into 1970. That year and in 1971, she visited ports in South America, Africa, and the Persian Gulf. She was again deployed to the Mediterranean in late 1972 and 1973. There she participated in gunnery, amphibious, and anti‑submarine exercises, and visited ports along the Riviera and in Greece and Turkey. On 2 September 1973, the POWER left her long-time home port at Mayport, for Fort Schuyler in New York City, to assume duties with the Naval Reserve Force. There, reserve crews joined the ship’s nucleus crew for annual week-end and two-week training sessions. During 1974, the POWER underwent a $5.5 million overhaul to update her engineering, electronics, and hapitability. Following her overhaul, she returned to Fort Schuyler and continued training reserves into 1977. In September 1977, she was decommissioned and, in October 1977, was sold to the Taiwanese government. Renamed the SHENG-YANG (DDG-923) she served in the Taiwan navy until 26 November 2005 when she was decommissioned.
