Tag Archives: USS Norfolk (DL-1)

The mighty Willis

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After covering Unatis LXVI earlier this week, these images from almost 60 years ago to the day seemed appropriate.

Below we see USS John Willis (DE-1027) as she maneuvers in heavy seas while operating with the Unitas VI task force off the Argentine coast on 19 October 1965.

USN 1114319-C

Destroyer escorts USS John Willis (DE-1027) and sistership USS Van Voorhis (DE-1028) steam astern of the destroyer leader USS Norfolk (DL-1) while operating with the UNITAS VI task force off the Argentine coast on 19 October 1965. USN 1114319-A

A Dealey-class destroyer escort, DE-1027, was named for Pharmacist’s Mate First Class John Harlan Willis, who gave his last full measure with the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima in 1945.

Christened by his widow and later commissioned at Philadelphia Naval Yard on 21 February 1957, our DE gave important service off Lebanon in 1958, the Cuban Missile Crisis and intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1961, trained Norwegian Navy personnel to operate their own Dealey-class escorts, clocked in on NASA splash down missions, and sailed on a myriad of deployments and exercises, including at least two of the early Unitas events.

She was stricken from the naval registry on 14 July 1972, and on 8 May 1973, she was sold for scrapping, having served but 16 short but busy years during the Cold War.

The Rat Attack! 1958 edition

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The below drawing shows the use of the U.S. Navy’s latest anti-submarine weapon a rocket-assisted torpedo or “RAT,” which incorporated a rocket for the initial launch, a stabilizer pack with a parachute to slow missile for proper water-entry speed, and finally, a sound operated homing torpedo, all held together by an airframe.

NHHC 330-PS-8786 (USN 710060).  The photograph was released on February 10, 1958.

According to the caption of the project graphic:

Propelled by a rocket motor the “RAT” is launching skyward, and dropped accurately to the surface in the vicinity of an enemy submarine. After dropping the airframe, “RAT” uses a parachute and goes beneath the surface, sheds its torpedo and nose cap, and by sound seeks out and destroys the target. “RAT” can be installed in the majority of U.S. destroyers at relatively low cost by utilizing existing five-inch gun mounts and by a slight modification of search and fire-control systems now in use. No additional personnel are required to handle the missile which is 13 ½ feet long and weighs only 480 pounds.

When fielded, of course, RAT, in its third (Charlie) generation, ballooned up to become the 1,073-pound RUR-5 ASROC, for Anti-Submarine Rocket, an acronym the brass probably thought was a better idea when talking to Congress for money.

ASROC Anti-Submarine Rocket at IOC. “Ready for loading into a launcher aboard the destroyer leader USS Norfolk (DL-1) during the weapon evaluation test at Key West Florida. ASROC was developed by the Naval ordnance test station, China Lake and Pasadena California, with the Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company as prime contractor, 24 June 1960.” USN 710732

The original GMLS and Matchbox-launched ASROC was pulled from service in the 1990s with the needless slaughter of the fleet’s steam-powered cruisers and Spruance-class destroyers, replaced by the more advanced (and VLS-compatible) RUM-139 VL-ASROC, which today carries an Mk.54 ASW torpedo to an undisclosed distance “over 10 miles.”