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USS Harry W. Hill (DD 986)

USS HARRY W. HILL was the 24^th SPRUANCE - class destroyer and the first ship in the Navy named after Admiral Harry W. Hill. Throughout her service life, HARRY W. HILL was the only ship in her class not retrofitted with Tomahawk launchers. The destroyer was last homeported in San Diego, Calif. Stricken from the Navy list on May 29, 1998, the HARRY W. HILL was sunk as a target during RIMPAC 2004 on July 15, 2004.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS HARRY W. HILL. 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 HARRY W. HILL memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS HARRY W. HILL Cruise Books:

• Commissioning Cruise Book 1979-80
• WestPac Cruise Book 1994

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About the Ship's Name, about Admiral Harry W. Hill

A graduate of the Naval Academy in 1911, Admiral Harry W. Hill served successively in USS MARYLAND (ARC 8), torpedo boat tender USS IRIS, USS PERRY (DD 11), and with the Pacific Flotilla as the Engineering Officer in USS ALBANY (CL 23). His follow-on assignments included service during World War I in USS TEXAS (BB 35) and as Navigator in USS WYOMING (BB 32) when both battleships were attached to the British Grand Fleet. Immediately after WW I, he served as Navigator in USS ARKANSAS (BB 33) until January 1919 when he was assigned duty as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to Admiral R. E. Coontz, Commander of the Atlantic Fleet's Division Seven. In July of the same year, he transferred to similar duty on the Staff of Commander Division Six, Pacific Fleet. Continuing as Aide to Admiral Coontz as Chief of Naval Operations from 1919 to 1923, Lieutenant Commander Hill then joined USS CONCORD (CL 10) as Gunnery Officer from 1923 to 1926. After serving the next three months as Aide to Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, he again had duty afloat as Gunnery Officer in USS MARYLAND (BB 46) from 1926 to 1931 and then served in the Executive Department at the Naval Academy.

Since a number of his ships won gunnery awards while under his direction, he served as Force Gunnery Officer on the Staff of Commander Battle Force, U.S. Fleet, in the Pacific from 1933 to 1934. As a Commander, he commissioned and commanded USS DEWEY (DD 349) from October 4, 1934 to June 17, 1935, when he was again assigned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department. In May 1938, Commander Hill completed the Senior Course at the Naval War College, and was promoted to Captain. He then served as War Plans Officer on the Staff of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, until February 1940, after which he had a third tour of duty in the Office of Naval Operations, where he was attached to the War Plans Division until January 1942.

Captain Hill took command of the heavy cruiser USS WICHITA (CA 45), which operated for several months on convoy duty with the British Home Fleet to the north Russian port of Murmansk. In September 1942, he was promoted to Rear Admiral and reported as Commander Battleship Division Four, Flag Ship USS MARYLAND (BB 46) serving a year in the South Pacific. He was also Commander of a task force which was the first ever to comprise both battleships and escort carriers.

In September 1943, he became Commander Amphibious Group Two, Fifth Amphibious Force, and in that capacity, participated in the capture of Tarawa, and later in operations against the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, where he commanded the amphibious and support operations of that force until the island was secured at the end of June. At the close of the war in August 1945, Admiral Hill commanded the Amphibious Force that landed the Sixth Army for the occupation of Japan. He later served as the first Commandant of the Naval War College, Chairman of the General Board of the Navy, and Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy.

Although he retired in the rank of Admiral in May 1952, he was not detached from his final assignment until the following August. Admiral Hill then reported as Governor of the Naval Home at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he continued to serve on active duty until May 1954. Admiral Harry Wilbur Hill passed away on July 19, 1971.

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Accidents aboard USS HARRY W. HILL:

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The coat of arms for USS HARRY W. HILL commemorates some highlights of the Naval career of the ship's namesake, Admiral Harry W. Hill. His service as Gunnery Officer on several ships of the line, and especially while aboard the battleship MARYLAND when she won the Gunnery Trophy in 1929, is represented by the grenade symbol at the base. The three gold stars on the scarlet point signify as many awards of the Distinguished Service Medal for combat service in the South Pacific during World War II, with a total of four stars indicating his advancement upon retirement to the rank of Admiral, by reasons of combat citations. The white wavy chevron together with the red point in the base allude to Admiral Hill's outstanding service in protection of Russian bound convoys between Iceland and Northern Russian ports, for which the Soviet government awarded him the Order of Kutozov. The six waves of the chevron allude to six major amphibious operations commanded by Admiral Hill in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The two lion's heads represent the awards by Great Britain of the Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in tribute to his "Outstanding gallantry and leadership" in the Gilberts operations and the Companion of the Order of the Bath for his service on the U.S.-Canada Permanent Joint Board of Defense.

The flaming torch, adapted from the coat of arms of the U.S. Naval Academy, refers to Admiral Hill's military education. Following his graduation in 1911, he served aboard six vessels in succession through the end of World War I and the contribution of this experience to his leadership capability is symbolized by the six poiinted blue and gold star. Upon cessation of hostilities on November 11, 1918, Admiral Hill witnessed the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet while aboard USS WYOMING. This event is symbolized by the rainbow referring to the suspension ribbon of the World War I Victory Medal.

The ship's motto, "Speed, Surprise, Success", characterizes the traits common to the amphibious forces commanded by Admiral Hill in the South Pacific during World War II. This motto also depicts the effective manner in which this highly maneuverable and quiet shiip accomplished her primary mission of Undersea Warfare.

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USS HARRY W. HILL History:

USS HARRY W. HILL was ordered on 15 January 1975, laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, on 1 April 1977, launched on 10 August 1978, delivered to the Navy on 29 October 1979, and commissioned on 17 November 1979. Built for quiet, long-range anti-submarine warfare as part of the SPRUANCE-class, she joined the Pacific Fleet and was homeported at San Diego.

Straight out of commissioning she conducted a lengthy shakedown and "year-log" cruise that doubled as her post-delivery trials and first series of distant port calls. The itinerary included a South America leg and a Panama Canal transit. A period photo shows the destroyer moored at the U.S. Navy base at Balboa, on the Pacific side of the Canal Zone, during this 1979-1980 sequence. Through 1980, she completed weapons qualifications and systems grooming that set the baseline for future carrier and surface action group work.

By mid-1981, she was deployed to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. Crew records and ship logs place an Equator crossing on 23 August 1981 - one of the customary "shellback" markers that bracket blue-water passages - during a WestPac/Indian Ocean period of presence patrols, replenishments, and anti-submarine drills characteristic of Seventh Fleet routines in the late Cold War.

During ENTERPRISE (CVN 65)'s 1982-1983 Western Pacific/Indian Ocean deployment, HARRY W. HILL was detached in late November 1982 to shadow the Soviet aviation cruiser MINSK on her first Far East transit, a task that reflected the era's standing maritime intelligence priorities. ENTERPRISE temporarily assigned two intelligence specialists to the destroyer for the surveillance phase. The detachment concluded with HARRY W. HILL rejoining the carrier battle group on 19 January 1983. Around the same time, the group cycled through Diego Garcia - command reports note a "Weapons Week" there on 3-9 January 1983 - before resuming operations at sea and ultimately returning stateside.

In 1984, the destroyer again ranged west. A documented Equator crossing on 12 June 1984 indicates an Indian Ocean leg that summer, while photography shows her back in San Diego by 14 December 1984, underscoring the rhythm of long deployments followed by stateside upkeep and training.

On 2 July 1985, she entered Chiniak Bay off Kodiak, Alaska, to take part in local Independence Day events - an early-summer presence that fit the pattern of Northern Pacific operating periods for San Diego-based destroyers of the era. Late that year, the Navy placed HARRY W. HILL into a scheduled regular overhaul at Todd Pacific Shipyards' Seattle Division. Maritime industry reporting in November 1985 recorded a $15-million contract on the yard's books specifically for DD 986, and contemporaneous notices indicated the work was planned to run into May 1986. The overhaul kept the ship in the Puget Sound yards through early 1986 before she rejoined Pacific Fleet operations from her San Diego base. Through this overhaul she retained the class's original strike fit (HARPOON, ASROC, and NATO SEA SPARROW) and LAMPS helicopter capability, and she did not receive Tomahawk armored box launchers or, later, a Mk 41 vertical launch system - an exception within the class that would persist for the rest of her service.

Following yard completion in 1986, HARRY W. HILL returned to routine readiness workups and fleet exercises from the Southern California operating areas - steps that restored full deployable status after the yard period. By 1987, with the "Tanker War" at its height in the Persian Gulf, she deployed westward for a cruise spanning 1987-1988 in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. That deployment is preserved in the ship's 1987-88 cruise book, reflecting her assignment to the broader U.S. Middle East naval presence at the time. While individual convoy serials for HARRY W. HILL are not enumerated in open sources, the context is clear: the U.S. Navy's largest post-World War II convoy effort - Operation Earnest Will, running 24 July 1987-26 September 1988 - dominated the theater. A ceasefire between Iran and Iraq took effect on 20 August 1988 under UN Security Council Resolution 598, stabilizing conditions just as many U.S. surface combatants rotated in and out of the area.

From late 1988 into early 1989, HARRY W. HILL conducted another WestPac-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf deployment. Unit rosters and cruise summaries place her forward between September 1988 and March 1989, with an additional Equator crossing recorded on 13 February 1989. This period coincided with the final months of Operation Earnest Will and the immediate aftermath of the Iran-Iraq War cease-fire. U.S. surface combatants in theater emphasized convoy protection, maritime interception, and sea-control patrols from the Gulf of Oman into the Northern Arabian Gulf, all backed by the underway replenishment cycle and frequent anchorage logistics calls that characterized Fifth Fleet operating patterns. She returned to San Diego in the spring of 1989 for maintenance and work-ups.

The destroyer sailed again with RANGER (CV 61)'s Battle Group Echo as operations shifted from deterrence to war. The battle group's Persian Gulf employment window ran from 8 December 1990 to 8 June 1991. HARRY W. HILL made the standard transit chain of WestPac waypoints and Gulf access ports with the carrier and her escorts, including Pearl Harbor, Subic Bay, Abu Dhabi, and Pattaya, before sustained operations on station. On 14 January 1991, during an underway replenishment in the Gulf of Oman, she collided with the oiler USS KANSAS CITY (AOR 3). There were no personnel casualties. HARRY W. HILL suffered a cracked sonar dome and other damage and subsequently spent approximately three months at Subic Bay for repairs while the battle group continued combat operations. Photographs and captions from the period place her at Pearl Harbor on 1 June 1991 during the group's return flow, with a San Diego homecoming documented on 8 June 1991.

In the immediate post-Gulf War period - late 1991 through 1992 - HARRY W. HILL settled into the familiar PacFleet cycle of maintenance, basic phase training, and short underway periods out of San Diego while the surface force absorbed lessons from DESERT STORM and redistributed modernization funds. She remained the only SPRUANCE not retrofitted with Tomahawk launchers, a configuration distinction that framed later yard work and tactics.

The mid-1990s brought a significant yard mishap and a return to sea. In 1994, while being re-floated and undocked, a gust of wind set the ship into the dry dock. A controlling steel wire parted, seriously injuring two sailors, and HARRY W. HILL sustained damage to her rudders, screws, and controllable-pitch propeller system. Repairs returned her to service, but the cost-benefit case for major combat-system upgrades narrowed thereafter. Even so, she conducted a documented WestPac cruise in 1994 with the usual sequence of Hawaii as the first stop and Seventh Fleet ports and operating areas thereafter, before resuming local training.

From early 1995, USS HARRY W. HILL settled into a West Coast training-and-upkeep rhythm while the Navy reactivated Fifth FleetT to manage a steadily intensifying sanctions-and-presence mission in the northern Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. That reorganization - completed in 1995 - reframed deployment patterns for Pacific Fleet surface combatants like HARRY W. HILL, which alternated basic and intermediate readiness phases off Southern California with forward periods under NAVCENT/Fifth Fleet tasking.

By early 1996, the destroyer was operating in the Gulf region in support of maritime security and partner-capacity work. On 6 February 1996, Navy reporting from the frigate USS GARY (FFG 51) noted HARRY W. HILL dispatching an assistance team to vessels of the Qatari Coast Guard near Doha - an episode that reflected the day-to-day tempo of sanctions enforcement, safety-of-life responses, and combined training alongside regional authorities. Around the same season, fleet command histories record HARRY W. HILL conducting communications and signaling drills with the salvage ship USS SAFEGUARD (ARS 50) and the fleet tug USNS SIOUX (T-ATF 171), sharpening shiphandling, towing, and coordination procedures.

From January 1997, HARRY W. HILL embarked on what became her final extended deployment, a long swing that carried her across the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf and kept her forward through the end of the year and into 1998. The deployment's core tasks matched the era: maritime interception operations to enforce United Nations sanctions on Iraq, screen and plane-guard duties around carrier and amphibious formations, Strait of Hormuz transits, and steady underway replenishment and logistics cycles tied to Bahrain-centered Fifth Fleet operations. On 24 December 1997, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jay L. Johnson, visited the ship in the Gulf during a Christmas-period inspection of forward-deployed forces - a dated photo places him on HARRY W. HILL's weather decks with the crew, marking the end of a demanding year on station.

The destroyer remained abroad into the new year, completing her return passage in the spring of 1998. After off-load and a brief terminal upkeep, HARRY W. HILL decommissioned at San Diego on 29 May 1998 and was stricken the same day, closing nearly nineteen years in commission. She was later expended as a target during RIMPAC on 15 July 2004 north of Kauai - a common fate for SPRUANCE-class hulls retired in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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USS HARRY W. HILL Image Gallery:

The photo below is an official US Navy photo taken on June 4, 2000. It shows (from left to right) the INGERSOLL (DD 990), HARRY W. HILL, LEFTWICH (DD 984), and MERRILL (DD 976) laid up at the Pearl Harbor Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility. All four ships have since been sunk as targets off the north coast of Kauai, Hawaii.

The photos below were taken by Mark Dubaz and show the HARRY W. HILL being towed out of Pearl Harbor in preparation for being sunk as a target during RIMPAC 2004. The photos were taken in July 2004.

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