USS Noa (DD 841)

- decommissioned -

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USS NOA was one of the GEARING - class destroyers and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. Decommissioned on October 31, 1973, the NOA was transferred to the Spanish Navy and recommissioned as BLAS DE LEZO (D 65). She remained in service until 1991 and was subsequently scrapped.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: 1943
	Keel laid: March 26, 1945
	Launched: July 30, 1945
	Commissioned: November 2, 1945
	Decommissioned: October 31, 1973
	Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
	FRAM I Conversion Shipyard: Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, PA
	FRAM I Conversion Period: May 25, 1960 - May 2, 1961
	Propulsion system: four boilers, General Electric geared turbines; 60,000 SHP
	Propellers: two
	Length: 391 feet (119.2 meters)
	Beam: 41 feet (12.5 meters)
	Draft: 18.7 feet (5.7 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 3,400 tons full load
	Speed: 34 knots
	Aircraft after FRAM I: two DASH drones
	Armament after FRAM I: one ASROC missile launcher, two 5-inch/38 caliber twin mounts, Mk-32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts)
	Crew after FRAM I: 14 officers, 260 enlisted

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS NOA. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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USS NOA Cruise Books:

Mediterranean Cruise Book 1958

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USS NOA History:

USS NOA was laid down by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, 26 March 1945; launched 30 July 1945, sponsored by Mrs. James Cary Jones, Jr., wife of Rear Admiral James Cary Jones, Jr., USN; and commissioned 2 November 1945, Comdr. R.L. Nolan, Jr., USN, in command.

After shakedown at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, NOA departed her homeport of Norfolk, Va. for her first Mediterranean deployment. She called at Gibraltar, Nice, Naples, Malta, Venice, Piraeus and Lisbon. After participating in fleet maneuvers in the South Atlantic in early 1947, NOA returned to the United States. For the next two years she exercised in type training, underwent overhaul and acted as school training ship for the Fleet Sonar School, Key West, Fla.

NOA served as rescue destroyer for USS MINDORO (CVE 120) during June and July 1949. From September 1949 through January 1951 she engaged in extended anti-submarine training in a permanent Hunter-Killer Group as a unit of Destroyer Squadron Eight. She also made a second Mediterranean deployment during this period. In early 1951 she participated in Convex II, a large scale convoy escort exercise, after which she called at Baltimore, Md. The next two years were devoted to upkeep and operational type training along the East coast.

In August 1953, NOA departed Norfolk on a 42,000 mile around-the-world cruise. She arrived Sasebo, Japan, 3 October and spent four months operating in the Sea of Japan with Task Force 77. Here she participated in operational readiness exercises while maintaining truce patrol off the Korean coast.

In November 1953, NOA operated in Japanese waters as part of a Hunter-Killer Group. She patrolled the Korean coast together with USS CONE (DD 866) in late November and early December. From then until her return to the United States in April 1954, NOA engaged in underway training. Upon her return to Norfolk she was reassigned to hunter-killer duty in the Atlantic.

During overhaul in the summer of 1955, NOA was outfitted with experimental sonar equipment that she tested in the Key West area. She departed the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in February 1956 for her third Mediterranean deployment. Upon return to homeport the following summer she trained in the eastern Atlantic. In the spring 1957 she steamed to the Caribbean for operation Springboard 1-57 and Desairdex 1-57.

After completion of a three month overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in August 1957, she steamed for five weeks of refresher training at Guantanamo and for shore bombardment exercises at Culebra Island, Puerto Rico. In winter of 1957-58, NOA served as test ship for experimental radio equipment and in spring 1958 she was again taking part in Springboard exercises in the Caribbean.

March 1958 saw NOA as a participant in Lantphibex 1-58, an exercise designed to test the latest amphibious warfare concepts. During the summer 1958 NOA participated in Sixth Fleet operations during the Lebanon crisis. After a short tour in the Persian Gulf she returned to Norfolk and joined the Second Fleet for Lantphibex 2-58.

In February 1959, NOA again deployed to the Mediterranean. She participated in Sixth Fleet exercises through April 1 when she steamed for the Middle East via the Suez Canal. She called at Massawa, Ethiopia; Bombay, India; Bahrain, Saudi Arabia; Bandar Shapir, Iran; and Aden. Late June, NOA rejoined the Sixth Fleet after having gone eighty-three days without replenishment. She returned to Norfolk 1 September, and transferred from Destroyer Squadron Six to Squadron Fourteen, with a new homeport at Mayport, Fla. Through spring 1960 she operated off the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean. She entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 25 May for a FRAM I, and received the latest in ASW weapons.

NOA completed her Fram I overhaul 2 May 1961 and rejoined the Atlantic Fleet. After a four week Ready-for-Sea period and ASROC qualification trials she reported to Fleet Training Command, Guantanamo for six weeks refresher training. NOA returned to Mayport 23 July for a two week tender period alongside YELLOWSTONE (AD 27).

Type training followed and NOA steamed for the United Kingdom, for combined exercises in the Eastern Atlantic with the British Navy. She arrived Portsmouth, England, 6 November, and also called at Belfast and Dublin before standing in to homeport 20 December. After leave and upkeep NOA resumed ASW training 29 January 1962 in the western Atlantic.

NOA returned to Mayport 6 February for modifications to her boatdavits and briefings in preparation for the recovery of America's first astronaut and his space capsule. Preparations completed, she steamed 11 February for the Project Mercury Recovery area in the Southwestern Atlantic, she reported on station 14 February as part of the 24 ship recovery task force.

After two reschedulings of the space flight, NOA put in at San Juan for two days. She was underway 19 February for the recovery station, located 200 miles WNW of San Juan. At precisely 1440, five hours and 53 minutes after blastoff, Friendship Seven reentered the atmosphere with a loud sonic boom that was clearly audible 20 February in NOA. She first sighted and recovered Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC, Project Mercury Astronaut, after he had completed his historic three orbits of the earth and splashed down a mere three miles from the destroyer. Col. Glenn remained in NOA for three hours before a helicopter transferred him to USS RANDOLPH (CVS 15), prime recovery ship.

Upon completion of recovery operations, NOA returned to Mayport for ASW operations with Task Group Alfa until 31 May. NOA has since conducted type training and midshipmen cruises out of her homeport between Mediterranean operational deployments and upkeep. She steamed for the Mediterranean 3 August 1962 for a seven-month tour with the Sixth Fleet and 8 February 1964 saw her stand out of Mayport for another six-month Mediterranean deployment.

Her regularly scheduled overhaul took place at Charlestown from September 1964 through January 1965, followed by a Mediterranean deployment from mid-May through 1 September. Early October 1965, NOA steamed from Mayport for the Gemini VI recovery off the west coast of Africa. The flight was cancelled after the Agena-B rocket designed to launch a docking vehicle failed to achieve an orbital insertion.

NOA then participated in type training and Atlantic Fleet exercises, including High Time, an amphibious exercises in the Caribbean from late January through early March 1966. She also served as a unit of the Gemini 8 recovery forces 14-17 March 1966. Her April-October deployment to the Mediterranean was followed by leave, upkeep and Lantflex (28 November-15 December).

In January 1967, NOA received two QH-50 Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopters (DASH). She then served as school ship for the Fleet Sonar School at Key West (28 January-11 February). Operation Springboard took her to the Caribbean 3-11 March and she steamed in Mediterranean waters June through November.

NOA stood out of Mayport 5 January 1968 to conduct a solemn mission-burial at sea of George H. Flynt, YN1 (Ret.). Flynt's last wish was that his remains be consigned to the deep. In honoring his request, made by a man who served his country for 20 years, NOA's sailors gained insight into a unique ceremony for men of the sea.

NOA underwent regular availability and overhaul at Charleston commencing 8 January 1968. Work was completed 17 June and the destroyer was in Mayport 25 June. Because of excessive vibration in her starboard shaft, NOA returned to drydock at Charleston 8 July for one week. She steamed for Guantanamo for refresher training after which she returned to Mayport 11 September. Homeported once again, the destroyer conducted maintenance and training and began preparation for deployment to the Pacific.

During October she was in restricted availability at Jacksonville for boiler repairs. She rode out hurricane Gladys 19 October and spent the rest of the year in training and in preparation for 1969 deployment to WestPac.

Beginning on 30 January 1969, USS NOA cleared Mayport as the flagship for Commander Destroyer Division 142, bound for WestPac and combat service off Vietnam. She transited the Panama Canal on 4 February 1969, paused briefly at Rodman in the Canal Zone, then continued up the Pacific coast to San Diego before pushing westward via Pearl Harbor and Midway. Arriving in the western Pacific in mid-March 1969 after calls at Yokosuka and Okinawa, she entered the Gulf of Tonkin and settled into the now-routine rotation of a destroyer: periods as plane guard and screen for carriers at Yankee Station, stints designated as antisubmarine command ship and as surface/subsurface surveillance control ship, and two tours on the gunline delivering naval gunfire support ashore. Liberty and logistics turns took her to Subic Bay, Kaohsiung, and Hong Kong. In the same season she worked close to the coast - within the 12-mile-zone on several occasions in April and May - carrying out shore-fire missions and patrols shaped by Vietnamization and the increasing emphasis on combined ARVN-U.S. operations. She operated in Qui Nhon Bay during April, and in May 1969 her gunfire supported the amphibious Operation Daring Rebel on Barrier Island south of Hoi An, an effort that combined ARVN, U.S., and allied forces to disrupt Viet Cong base areas. After nearly five months on station, NOA departed WestPac for home on 15 August 1969, ending her Vietnam employment for the year.

Through 1970 and 1971, the destroyer remained a Mayport-based Atlantic Fleet unit, cycling through type training, local operations, and upkeep under the Second Fleet. These were the familiar rhythms of an East Coast "tin can": short underway periods in the western Atlantic and Caribbean interleaved with pier-side maintenance and inspections, sharpening the crew and systems after the demands of WestPac and before any future distant deployment.

In May 1972, NOA went to Guantanamo Bay for training ahead of a scheduled yard period. From June to September 1972 she underwent overhaul in Jacksonville, Florida, with hull work inside and out and extensive lagging replacement throughout the ship. In November 1972, she returned to Guantanamo for refresher training to certify for deployment. This sequence - Gitmo workup, yard overhaul, Gitmo refresher - reestablished the ship for blue-water assignments after years of hard steaming.

NOA sailed once more on 8 January 1973, shaping course for the Indian Ocean to join the Middle East Force. She reached Guantanamo Bay on 20 January 1973 and rendezvoused with her consort, USS FISKE (DD 842), then departed on 23 January for Port of Spain, where both destroyers made a brief fuel stop on 27 January. Crossing the equator on 29 January, she entered Recife on 1 February, put back to sea on 9 February, and arrived at Luanda on 12 February. She sailed 19 February for Lourenco Marques (now Maputo), arriving 21 February, and departed on 24 February for Port Louis, Mauritius. On 26 February 1973, at Port Louis, NOA and FISKE conducted the formal turnover into MIDEASTFOR, with NOA relieving USS CHARLES R. WARE (DD 865) and FISKE relieving USS SELLERS (DDG 11). NOA departed Mauritius on 28 February, bound for Diego Garcia.

She arrived at Diego Garcia on 3 March 1973 and sailed the next day for Diego Suarez (Antsiranana), Madagascar, where she arrived on 9 March, departing the same day toward Victoria, Seychelles, and arriving there on 11 March. On 17 March she left the Seychelles for Mombasa, refueling en route alongside HMAS SUPPLY, and made Mombasa on 20 March. Leaving Kenya on 25 March she headed up the Red Sea to Massawa, arriving 31 March. There, in visits ashore that reflected the small-force diplomacy MIDEASTFOR practiced throughout the region, the commanding officer called on the naval officer in charge at Haile Selassie Imperial Naval Base and on the governor of Massawa.

On 4 April 1973, NOA departed Massawa for Bahrain, entering the northern Gulf a week later. On 10-11 April she exercised in the Bahrain operating area with USS FISKE and the Royal Navy frigate HMS LYNX, then moored outboard of the MIDEASTFOR flagship USS LASALLE (AGF 3) from 13-26 April for upkeep. During this inport period the ship handled logistic resets and minor maintenance typical of a long theater cruise. On 27 April she got underway for Sir Abu Nu'ayr Island, conducting inflight refueling of LASALLE's helicopter and anti-submarine air-control drills with that aircraft along the way. She arrived at Sir Abu Nu'ayr on 28 April, sailed on 29 April for Dubai, and entered Dubai on 30 April. On 2 May she proceeded to Bandar Abbas, arriving 8 May, before turning back across the Arabian Sea for Djibouti on 13 May, where she made a fuel stop on 18 May and continued to Mombasa, arriving 21 May.

The destroyer left Mombasa on 24 May 1973 for Port Louis, Mauritius, arrived 26 May, and continued to Lourenco Marques, making port on 30 May and departing the next day for Luanda. She returned to Luanda on 7 June, sailed 8 June for Brazil, and made Recife on 15 June. From 18-20 June NOA and FISKE conducted bilateral operations with the Brazilian Navy - BNS PARAIBA (D 28), BNS PARANA (D 29), BNS PERNAMBUCO (D 30), and the submarine BNS GUANABARA (S 10) - before departing on 20 June for Port of Spain. After a quick fuel stop there on 25 June and another at Guantanamo on 28 June, NOA returned to Mayport on 30 June 1973, completing a long Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf circuit undertaken via the Cape of Good Hope because the Suez Canal remained closed since the 1967 war. The deployment, with its sequence of Indian Ocean islands, Red Sea ports, and Gulf calls, illustrates MIDEASTFOR's low-footprint presence mission during a period of regional flux.

The balance of 1973 was spent standing down in July, a day of DESRON drills on 10 August, and then preparing the ship for transfer. On 26 September Spanish officers - CDR Sobrino, LT Berceiro, and LT Muniz - reported as prospective commanding, engineering, and supply officers. On 28 September, LCDR Raymond A. Helbig relieved CDR William H. Peerenboom as commanding officer to carry the destroyer through her final U.S. month. On 31 October 1973, NOA was decommissioned at Mayport and transferred on the spot to Spain, entering service as BLAS DE LEZO (D 65). Her U.S. Navy name came off the Naval Vessel Register in June 1975. Spain purchased her outright in May 1978, and she served there until being stricken and scrapped in 1991.

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About the Ship's Name:

Loveman Noa was born 5 October 1878 at Chattanooga, Tenn. Appointed to the Naval Academy as a midshipman 5 September 1896, he graduated in June 1900, and was ordered to the Asiatic station in gunboat MARIVELES. The morning of 26 October 1901, Midshipman Noa, with an armed crew of six men, put off from MARIVELES in a small boat to watch for craft engaged in smuggling contraband from the island of Leyte to Samar. When ready to return to MARIVELES, they found the wind and the tide against them. As the boat was taking on water, they put into a small cove on the island of Samar. While scouting the adjacent jungle, Noa was attacked and stabbed four times by Filipino insurgents. He died before aid could reach him.

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USS NOA Image Gallery:

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