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USS Conolly (DD 979)

USS CONOLLY was the 17^th SPRUANCE - class destroyer and the first ship in the Navy named after Admiral Richard Lansing Conolly. USS CONOLLY was last homeported in Mayport, Fla. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on September 18, 1998, the CONOLLY spent the following years laid-up at the Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility at Philadelphia, Penn., and was hold on donation for future use as a floating museum. In 2007, those plans were cancelled and the CONOLLY was sunk as a target during the multinational exercise UNITAS on April 29, 2009. CONOLLY was sunk off the US east coast.

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Crew List:

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

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• Click here to see which USS CONOLLY memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS CONOLLY Cruise Books:

• Middle East Force Cruise Book 1992

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Accidents aboard USS CONOLLY:

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History of USS CONOLLY:

USS CONOLLY was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, on September 29, 1975, launched on February 19, 1977, and commissioned on October 14, 1978, for Atlantic Fleet service from Norfolk, Virginia. In her first years she completed trials and work-ups in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean and entered the regular deployment and maintenance rhythm of a front-line SPRUANCE-class destroyer.

From August 1980, the ship undertook her first Middle East Force (MEF) cruise, a presence and maritime security deployment in the Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Persian Gulf during the late phase of the Iran-Iraq War, returning in December 1980. She repeated the assignment from October 1981 to February 1982 amid continued Gulf tensions and periodic closures of key sea lanes. In mid-1982, while operating from Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico toward the U.S. Virgin Islands, CONOLLY cracked her bow sonar dome and, en route to repair at Newport News, also contained a fire in an engineering space. Both casualties were managed without loss of the ship's schedule, and she completed dockyard work and returned to service later that summer. In September 1982, she deployed to the Mediterranean and shifted to the Eastern Med to support U.S. Sixth Fleet operations connected to the multinational peacekeeping presence off Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War.

On June 1983, CONOLLY departed again for the long, hemispheric UNITAS XXIV deployment around South America with embarked COMSOLANT staff, conducting combined antisubmarine, anti-surface, and maritime security exercises with multiple partner navies and visiting a string of South American ports through the southern winter and spring. In November she crossed the South Atlantic for a West African Training Cruise (WATC), calling at Libreville (Gabon), Lagos (Nigeria), Monrovia (Liberia), and Dakar (Senegal) before refueling at Roosevelt Roads and returning to Norfolk in mid-December 1983. During the post-UNITAS transit she executed an unusual at-sea fuel transfer to the frigate USS JESSE L. BROWN (FF 1089) - using fire hoses rather than standard UNREP rigs - to ensure the latter's scheduled port call, an incident noted by embarked officers as a first for a SPRUANCE-class destroyer.

In February 1984, the destroyer entered a Regular Overhaul at Bath Iron Works in Maine. Across a ten-month yard period she received major combat-system upgrades that defined her mid-career profile, including the Tomahawk Weapons System, the Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, and the Mk 23 Target Acquisition System, followed by post-availability trials and refresher training to regain full readiness by the turn of 1984/85.

CONOLLY's next extended deployment began on October 7, 1985, when she sailed in company with the guided-missile destroyer USS TATTNALL (DDG 19) and frigates USS GALLERY (FFG 26) and USS BOONE (FFG 28) for the Middle East. The group made brief stops at Bermuda, Rota, and Palma de Mallorca, transited the Suez Canal in late October, and then relieved units already on station. Through early 1986, the ships alternated radar-picket and escort tasks tied to U.S. Air Force E-3A AWACS coverage out of Saudi Arabia, with upkeep and liberty periods in regional ports including visits to Dubai and Al Jubayl and, on February 8, 1986, a brief call at Karachi to conduct passing exercises with the Pakistani Navy. After further surveillance in the Arabian Sea and Gulf, the force retraced through the Suez Canal on March 17, paused in Barcelona (March 22-25) and Rota (March 26), and returned to the U.S. East Coast in early April 1986, closing a high-tempo deployment that reflected Sixth Fleet and Central Command maritime priorities at the end of the Tanker War era.

Following a period of training and local operations, CONOLLY deployed again to the Mediterranean in June 1987 as part of routine Sixth Fleet rotations during an unusually busy year of NATO exercises and Levant contingencies. Images from the period document her presence with the battle force in late 1987 as Sixth Fleet surged capacity. She continued this pattern through 1988, and in 1989 returned to the Middle East Force for a deployment that later earned Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal credit for the period April 27-August 16, 1989, providing post-ceasefire presence and maritime security in the Gulf during the uneasy lull after the Iran-Iraq armistice.

In January 1991, CONOLLY entered Metro Machine (Norfolk) for a regular overhaul to reset hull, mechanical, and electrical readiness in the wake of high operational tempo across the late 1980s and the opening stages of the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis. Post-availability trials and work-ups through 1991 restored her to full material condition for further deployments.

From March to September 1992, the destroyer deployed to the Red Sea and northern approaches to the Gulf with the Maritime Interception Force enforcing United Nations sanctions on Iraq. In this period, she conducted challenge-and-reply, boarding support, and surface-surveillance operations in the choke points between Bab-el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal approaches while cycling through logistics hubs in theater and integrating with allied units and U.S. maritime patrol aircraft - work recognized at the time by award of Southwest Asia Service Medal credit for the six-month window of sanction-enforcement duty.

In 1993, CONOLLY shifted to Western Hemisphere contingencies as the United States and the Organization of American States tightened an embargo on Haiti following the 1991 coup. After preparatory training and embarkation of additional communications and visit-board-search-and-seizure support, she took station off Port-au-Prince during Operation Support Democracy. Official imagery records the destroyer underway off the Haitian capital on October 31, 1993, as part of the multinational naval effort to monitor and enforce sanctions at sea, a mission that required persistent presence off key ports and coordination with U.S. Coast Guard and allied patrol units.

In 1994, USS CONOLLY deployed to the Arabian peninsula, conducting Maritime Interception Operations in the Red Sea in support of United Nations sanctions against Iraq. During that deployment, on July 12, 1994, USS CONOLLY came to the rescue of Sixty-two crewmembers of the Panamanian-registered ferry AL LOLOA following a fire on board the ferry. USS CONOLLY answered the vessel's distress call and proceeded to the scene of the fire. Sixty-one of the ferry's all Egyptian crew had already abandoned ship and were found safe in five life rafts. A survey team from CONOLLY boarded the AL LOLOA and found the fire out of control. Before returning to CONOLLY, the survey team found the missing crewmember unharmed.

USS CONOLLY deployed with the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) Battle Group, on January 26, 1996, for a regularly scheduled deployment. The previous December, the battle group participated in Joint Task Force Exercise 96-1, their "final examination" before deployment, and the culmination of a year of intense preparation.

While deployed, CONOLLY took part in the Ships Anti-Submarine Warfare Readiness Effectiveness Measuring 114 (SHAREM) Invitational Exercise 1-96 (INVITEX), held February 23-29. SHAREM 114 was a Sixth Fleet Naval Exercise conducted in the Gulf of Valencia off the east coast of Spain.

Following the completion of Operation Destined Glory 96, a NATO amphibious exercise, USS CONOLLY paid a visit to Augusta Bay, Sicily. Operation Destined Glory 96, lasted 16 days and was a NATO forces combined amphibious exercise which began March 13 and continued through March 26. It tested forces in the air and at sea in the Central Mediterranean Sea near Sardinia and in the Tyrrhenian Sea and also trained ashore at Capo Teulada, Sardinia. Military units from the NATO countries of Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and United States took part in the exercise which focused on undersea, surface, electronic and air warfare, and included communications and shiphandling skills.

On April 11, 1996, USS CONOLLY was tasked with escorting the USS GUAM (LPH 9), USS TRENTON (LPD 14) and USS PORTLAND (LSD 37) to Liberia from the Adriatic Sea in support of JTF Assured Response.

USS CONOLLY also assisted in search and rescue efforts when the airplane carrying Commerce Department Secretary Ron Brown crashed. It participated in Operation Sharp Guard, enforcing United Nations Security Council resolutions in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. While on station, CONOLLY queried 121 merchant vessels, ensuring no contraband cargo entered the troubled region.

In June 1996, USS CONOLLY took part in Exercise TAPON 96, an allied exercise held in the Alboran Sea, Gulf of Cadiz and the eastern Atlantic Ocean. She conducted combined warfare exercises with the Spanish aircraft carrier, SPS PRINCIPE DE AUSTURIAS (R 11), and other surface ships including SPS BALEARES (F 71), SPS SANTA MARIA (F 81), SPS NUMANCIA (F 83), the Greek destroyer HS FORMION (D 220), the Spanish submarine SPS DELFIN (S 61) and the US submarine USS GRAYLING (SSN 646). CONOLLY participated in the nine-day exercise which emphasized procedures and tactics for effective maritime choke-point control. USS CONOLLY also completed live-firing exercises in the Central Mediterranean Sea at Avgo Nisi gun-firing range, a small island north of Crete, Greece. It then traveled toward Sicily and conducted a torpedo-firing exercise.

As the deployment wound down, the battle group completed turnover in the Western Mediterranean - GEORGE WASHINGTON's relief by USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65) occurred in mid-July - and the ships headed home. CONOLLY returned to the U.S. East Coast with the group on July 23, 1996, closing a six-month cruise that had ranged from NATO's Adriatic embargo and Bosnia peace support to large-force amphibious and ASW exercises in the central and western Mediterranean. In the final accounting of the cruise, the group's port rhythm reflected that operational mix - Mediterranean staples like Augusta Bay and Naples around exercise windows, together with Adriatic stints supporting NATO and UN tasking - before the Atlantic transit and homecoming to Norfolk.

Post-deployment that late summer brought the usual stand-down, inspections, and corrective maintenance, and by the autumn/winter of 1996, CONOLLY entered a dry-dock/availability period in Norfolk to reset for her next phase of service.

A major administrative and basing shift followed. As part of the Atlantic Fleet surface reorganization announced in July 1995 - creating six core battle groups, nine destroyer squadrons, and the Western Hemisphere Group - CONOLLY's home port assignment changed from Norfolk, Virginia, to Mayport, Florida. The move was executed in March 1997, placing the destroyer within the growing Mayport surface community and aligning her readiness and training cycle to Second Fleet/Western Atlantic tasking from a new base.

From her new Mayport berth through 1997, CONOLLY's activities centered on the inter-deployment training cycle and fleet exercises typical of a post-move reset - engineering certifications, combat systems grooming, refresher training on Atlantic ranges, and type-commander evaluations - now under Mayport waterfront support. This period also captured the administrative close-out of award credit connected to the carrier-group's Balkans and Mediterranean work the year prior, while the ship consolidated crews and processes after the homeport transition.

By 1998, the Navy's accelerated retirement plan for early-block SPRUANCE-class destroyers was fully in motion, and CONOLLY entered her inactivation sequence. She was decommissioned and stricken on September 18, 1998, then towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Philadelphia. Efforts to preserve her as a museum ship later fell short, and she remained in lay-up until ultimate disposal. On April 29, 2009, ex-CONOLLY was sunk as a target off Florida during the multinational exercise UNITAS Gold.

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About the Ship's Name, about Admiral Richard Lansing Conolly:

A native of Waukegan, Illinois, Richard Lansing Conolly attended Lake Forrest Academy, Lake Forrest, Illinois prior to his appointment in 1910 to the Naval Academy. After graduation in 1914 he was ordered to Mexican waters where he served in USS VIRGINIA. He continued duty in that battleship until May 1915, when he reported aboard USS MONTANA for torpedo instruction. In November 1915 he rejoined VIRGINIA, and in March 1916 he was assigned to USS VERMONT as Torpedo Officer of that battleship for two months. Transferred in May 1916 to USS SMITH, he was aboard that destroyer when the United States entered World War I, in April 1917, and served aboard SMITH while she performed escort duty in European waters out of Brest, France.

He was awarded the Navy Cross for services while attached to SMITH in connection with salvaging the transport WESTBRIDGE, torpedoed by a German submarine in August 1918, as follows: "For distinguished service in the line of his profession on the occasion of the torpedoing of the WESTBRIDGE, when he, with a party of eight others remained on board for five days steering by hand and handling the lines from the tugs, while the ship was towed four hundred miles to port."

Detached from SMITH in November 1918, he returned to the United States. Until August 1920, he had consecutive duty in connection with fitting out, and as Executive Officer in turn of the destroyers FOOTE, WORDEN, and HUNT. From August 1920 until June 1922 he was under instruction in electrical engineering at the Postgraduate School, Annapolis, Maryland, and Columbia University, New York, where he received a Master of Science. He continued instruction at various Naval activities until September 1922, and in November of that year joined USS MISSISSIPPI. In March 1924 he was transferred to USS NEW YORK, and served as assistant Engineer Officer of that battleship until September 1925.

After duty as an instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics at the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, September 1925 until June 1927, he returned to sea as Engineer Officer of USS CONCORD. In August 1929 he assumed command of USS DUPONT. He completed the junior course at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island in May 1931, and remained on the staff for two years.

In May 1933 he reported as Aide and Flag Secretary on the staff of Commander Cruisers, Scouting Force and in April 1935 was ordered to USS TENNESSEE. He served as Navigator of that battleship until June 1936, after which he again had duty, until May 1939, as an instructor at the Naval Academy, first in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics, and later in the Department of Seamanship and Navigation, acting as head of the latter department for six months in 1938.

Assuming command of Destroyer Division 7 in May 1939, he was transferred to duty as Commander Destroyer Squadron 6 on January 30, 1941. He was at sea, in command of Destroyer Squadron 6 at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He subsequently participated in the initial attack on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands on February 1, 1942, as part of the gun bombardment force under command of Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.; and in April his destroyers served as escort for the aircraft carrier HORNET from which Lieutenant General J. H. Doolittle's Army planes took off for the first bombing of Tokyo. He also participated in a shore bombardment of Wake Island in command of destroyers in Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's Task Group.

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USS CONOLLY Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Thomas Zera and shows the CONOLLY laid up at Philadelphia, Penn., on September 9, 2001.

The photos below were taken by Brian Barton on October 13, 2008, and show the CONOLLY laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The ships next to the CONOLLY are TICONDEROGA (CG 47), THOMAS S. GATES (CG 51) and the ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD 968). CONOLLY is the one berthed between the two guided missile cruisers.

The photos below were taken by me on November 7, 2008, and show the CONOLLY laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

			Click here to view more photos.

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