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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Cruise Books Accidents aboard the Ship About the Ship's Name History Image Gallery to end of page |  |
USS BIGELOW was one of the FORREST SHERMAN - class destroyers and the first ship in the Navy named after Water Tender Second Class Elmer Charles Bigelow. Decommissioned on November 5, 1982, and stricken from the Navy list on June 1, 1990, the USS BIGELOW was sold for scrapping in 1993, but was repossessed in October 1996. USS BIGELOW was finally disposed of in a Sinkex on April 2, 2003.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: July 30, 1954 |
| Keel laid: July 6, 1955 | |
| Launched: February 2, 1957 | |
| Commissioned: November 8, 1957 | |
| Decommissioned: November 5, 1982 | |
| Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine | |
| Propulsion system: four-1200 lb. boilers; two steam turbines; two shafts | |
| Propellers: two | |
| Length: 418.3 feet (127.5 meters) | |
| Beam: 45,3 feet (13.8 meters) | |
| Draft: 22 feet (6.7 meters) | |
| Displacement: approx. 4,000 tons full load | |
| Speed: 32+ knots | |
| Aircraft: none | |
| Armament: three Mk-42 5-inch/54 caliber guns, Mk-32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts) | |
| Crew: 17 officers, 275 enlisted |
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageCrew List:
This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS BIGELOW. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageUSS BIGELOW Cruise Books:
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back to top go to the end of the pageAccidents aboard USS BIGELOW:
| Date | Where | Events |
|---|---|---|
| April 20, 1967 | off Vietnam | An explosion occures in one of USS BIGELOW's after 5-inch gun mounts, seriously burning three crewmen. One crewman dies several days later as a result of the burn. At the time of the accident the ship is operating off Vietnam. |
| May 6, 1971 | off Aarhus, Denmark | USS BIGELOW suffers a possible momentary grounding while en route to an anchorage in Aarhus Bay, Denmark, causing minor damage. |
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Ship's Name:
Elmer Charles Bigelow was born in Hebron, Illinois, on 12 July 1920. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve at Chicago in September 1942 and received training at Great Lakes, Illinois, and Lawrence, Kansas, before being assigned as a Fireman Third Class on board the destroyer FLETCHER (DD 445) in June 1943. While serving in that ship, he advanced in rate to Water Tender Second Class. On 14 February 1945, while assisting minesweeping operations prior to landings on Manila Bay's Corregidor Island, FLETCHER was hit by an enemy shell and set afire. Bigelow heroically fought the blaze, contributing greatly to saving his ship, but was badly injured and died the next day . Water Tender Second Class Bigelow was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity".
Citation:
"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving on board the USS FLETCHER during action against enemy Japanese forces off Corregidor Island in the Philippines, 14 February 1945. Standing topside when an enemy shell struck the FLETCHER, Bigelow, acting instantly as the deadly projectile exploded into fragments which penetrated the No. 1 gun magazine and set fire to several powder cases, picked up a pair of fire extinguishers and rushed below in a resolute attempt to quell the raging flames. Refusing to waste the precious time required to don rescue-breathing apparatus, he plunged through the blinding smoke billowing out of the magazine hatch and dropped into the blazing compartment. Despite the acrid, burning powder smoke which seared his lungs with every agonizing breath, he worked rapidly and with instinctive sureness and succeeded in quickly extinguishing the fires and in cooling the cases and bulkheads, thereby preventing further damage to the stricken ship. Although he succumbed to his injuries on the following day, Bigelow, by his dauntless valor, unfaltering skill and prompt action in the critical emergency, had averted a magazine explosion which undoubtedly would have left his ship wallowing at the mercy of the furiously pounding Japanese guns on Corregidor, and his heroic spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of almost certain death enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country."
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS BIGELOW History:
Launched at Bath, Maine, on 2 February 1957 and commissioned on 1 November 1957, USS BIGELOW entered service as one of the FORREST SHERMAN-class destroyers named for Water Tender Second Class Elmer C. Bigelow. After shakedown she joined the Atlantic Fleet. In September-December 1958 she served as flagship of the newly organized U.S. South Atlantic Force, a presence mission that took her to numerous African ports during the decolonization era. In March-September 1959 she made her first Mediterranean deployment with the Sixth Fleet as flagship of Destroyer Squadron Six, operating in the routine Cold War cycle of gunnery exercises, carrier screening, and port calls.
Through early 1962, BIGELOW again deployed to the Mediterranean at a time of mounting regional crises. After months with the Sixth Fleet she was ordered south in late October 1962 to the Caribbean to help enforce the naval "quarantine" of Cuba. From 24 October 1962 through 21 November 1962 she served in the quarantine screen (Combined Task Group 136.1.1), conducting surveillance and challenge procedures against Soviet-bloc shipping in accordance with Presidential orders during the Cuban Missile Crisis. She received Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal credit for this service.
On 23 March 1965, BIGELOW took station with the Navy's Gemini III recovery force arrayed across the Atlantic re-entry footprint while the prime recovery carrier INTREPID (CVS 11) recovered astronauts Grissom and Young. BIGELOW's role was to assist if the capsule came down near her sector. That same spring, as political violence in the Dominican Republic widened into U.S. intervention (Operation Power Pack), the destroyer was ordered on short notice from Mayport on 8 May 1965 to join Task Force 124 for patrol and contingency duties off Hispaniola. By November-December 1965 she was in the central Mediterranean - the photographic record shows her med-moored in Naples with the destroyer tender EVERGLADES (AD 24) and the destroyer NORRIS (DD 859) - before completing that cruise and returning to the United States. Yard work and upkeep followed in mid-1966.
BIGELOW's first Western Pacific/Vietnam deployment began in early 1967. By April she was operating off the I Corps coast on naval gunfire support and contingency plane-guard duties, using Subic Bay as a logistics hub. She moored at the Da Nang pier on 19 April 1967. The next day, 20 April 1967, an explosion in after 5-inch Mount 52 during a fire-support mission off Thua Thien Province killed GMG2 James W. Hamilton and injured several shipmates, forcing the destroyer to break off operations for repairs before resuming duties. She completed the WESTPAC tour and returned to the Atlantic later in 1967.
The ship's tempo returned to peacetime cycles with a Mediterranean deployment during 1968 in the shadow of the escalating war and broader East-West naval competition there, followed by training and Atlantic operations in 1969-1970. In January 1971, BIGELOW worked up in the Caribbean and from January to July 1971 served with NATO's Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), conducting multinational exercises and Northern European port visits. On 6 May 1971 she suffered a brief, low-speed grounding while proceeding to anchorage in Arhus Bay, Denmark; damage proved minor and she continued scheduled operations.
After stateside operations - including a U.S. Navy photo showing her underway off Florida on 15 June 1972 - BIGELOW again joined STANAVFORLANT from June to December 1972. Contemporary Royal Navy documentation lists the force that summer as including BIGELOW alongside partners such as the West German destroyer FGS SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN and the Dutch support ship HNLMS AMSTERDAM, reflecting NATO's continuous at-sea readiness amid detente's uncertainties.
From October 1974 to May 1975 the destroyer made a composite cruise that spanned the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean - part of the U.S. Navy's increased presence east of the Suez Canal as superpower competition shifted toward the Arabian Sea - then returned for a shorter Mediterranean tour from September 1975 to January 1976.
Beginning in November 1976, BIGELOW embarked a pre-production PHALANX Mk 15 close-in weapon system for at-sea trials. She completed the weapon's Operational Test and Evaluation in 1977, the milestone demonstration that led to PHALANX production approval the following year. From November 1977 to July 1978 she was back with the Sixth Fleet.
A major overhaul followed from February 1979 to May 1980 at East Boston, after which the ship rejoined fleet operations. Her final extended deployment ran from April 1981 to October 1981, a Mediterranean-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf swing shaped by heightened tensions in Southwest Asia. She performed presence and escort duties in cooperation with allied navies and U.S. Middle East Force units before returning to the Atlantic coast.
USS BIGELOW decommissioned on 5 November 1982 after twenty-five years of service. She was stricken on 1 June 1990. Ultimately selected for use as a target to support fleet training, she was disposed of in a SINKEX event on 2 April 2003 off the Virginia Capes.
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