last Spruance-class destroyer USS Hayler (DD-997) in a hard starboard turn during her Acceptance Trials, circa late February 1983.[3000 x 2384]
All good things come to an end: last Spruance-class destroyer USS Hayler (DD-997) in a hard starboard turn during her Acceptance Trials, circa late February 1983.
😎⚓🏴☠️. I Served on the USS Hayler DD 997 from Pacagola to March of 1985 after our Cruise and Went over to the USS Virginia CGN 38 …. In 1883 We where Sent down to Grenade to assist with the problem down there,, one thing about a Newly Commissioned Ship is all the evolutions We had our of Gitmo Cuba and the Gun Range in Puerto Rico… Shake Downs where rough, yet Fun , testing every system on the Ship.. I believe we where the First to get the .. MK 45 5″/54 MOD 1 Laser Guided Projectile System witch extended our range out to 50 miles instead of 13 miles. This System was ACCURATE.. with a 1 Shot One Kill , instead of the 3 Shot 1 Kill as before , We could HIT a 50 cent piece at 50 Miles with the SEA Fire System… Although the Cost Per Round was $ 30,000 a Piece and the Standard Rounds stated at around $300 a piece but The One Shit One Kill was important if the Russians where the Target with their Ships Loaded with Missles and Guns.. they needed to be Taken out Quickly… Just Saying plus we had an 80 Thousand Gallon Fuel System Combined with 4 Gas Turbine engines .. Could get us to 35 plus Knots Quickly…. Our Sonar System was top of the Line New I have Forgotten the Kilo watts of power it produces..but it was Definitely Earth Rattling.. Combined with the ASRO Launchers and Harpoon Systems we had it all and Least we forgot about the MK 48 Torpedo we had And 2 CIWS System’s which will when we where in the Shipyards where loaned to the British for the Faulkan Island Incident … Enough already I did manage to put that Gold Battle “E ” with a Hashmark on My Guns before I Left her in 1985 for the Virginia … GMG1 SW SSDF retired NAVY 😎….