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USS Robison (DDG 12)

USS ROBISON - the first ship in the Navy to bear the name - was the eleventh ship in the CHARLES F. ADAMS - class of guided missile destroyers. Stricken from the navy list on November 20, 1992, ROBISON was sold on June 20, 1994. ROBISON earned seven battle stars for service off the Vietnamese coast.

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Crew List:

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

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USS ROBISON Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1966
• WestPac Cruise Book 1970
• WestPac Cruise Book 1971

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About the Ship's Name:

Samuel Shelburne Robison was born on 10 May 1867 in Juniata County, Pa. He entered the Naval Academy on 4 September 1884. After finishing his academic studies at Annapolis he served the 2 years at sea as a Passed Naval Cadet in OMAHA on the Asiatic Station and was commissioned ensign 1 July 1890.

In 1891 he was transferred to BOSTON, still on the Asiatic Station; and, from 1893, he served in THETIS until ordered to the Mare Island Navy Yard in 1895. In 1896 he returned to the Asiatic Station in BOSTON. In August 1899 he was assigned to the League Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pa. He joined ALABAMA (BB 8) 15 September 1900, and 2 years later was transferred to HULL (DD 7), a torpedo boat destroyer. From September 1904 to July 1906, he served with the Bureau of Equipment at Washington, D.C., then he returned to sea, serving first in TENNESSEE (CA 10) and later in PENNSYLVANIA (ACR 4).

After a tour of duty in the Bureau of Engineering, he assumed command of CINCINNATI (C 7), a unit of the Asiatic Fleet, on 25 October 1911. Upon his return to the United States in April 1914, he became commanding officer of JUPITER (AC 3). He held the rank of captain from 1 July 1914, and he remained with JUPITER until 8 August.

On 12 October 1915 he assumed command of SOUTH CAROLINA (BB 26) and held that post until after the United States entered World War I. From July 1917 until September 1918, he commanded the Atlantic Submarine Force with additional duty as General Supervisor of all commissioned submarines in the Navy. For this duty he was awarded the Navy Cross. He was also made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for service to the British during the war.

In October 1918 he assumed command of Squadron 3, Patrol Force, and during the next month had additional duty as District Commander, Brest, France. In November, he was appointed U.S. Naval Representative on the Commission for executing the Naval Terms of the Armistice with Germany. After his return to the United States in March 1919, he commanded the Boston Navy Yard. In May 1921, he was sent to Santo Domingo as Military Governor.

A member of the General Board of the Navy from December 1922 until June 1923, he was appointed Commander in Chief, Battle Fleet, with the rank of admiral, from 30 June 1923. With SEATTLE (CA 11) as his flagship, he commanded the U.S. Fleet during the year commencing August 1925. He then became Commandant of the 13th Naval District with the permanent rank of rear admiral. From June 1928 until his retirement in June 1931, he served as Superintendent of the Naval Academy.

For a number of years after his retirement, Admiral Robison was Superintendent of the Admiral Farragut Academy, Toms River, N.J. He died in Glendale, Calif., on 20 November 1952 and was buried in the Arlington National Cemetery beside his wife, Mrs. Mary Louise Clark Robison, who had passed away in 1940.

Admiral Robison was a noted expert in the technical fields of the Navy as well as an outstanding naval commander. He published the "Manual of Radio Telegraphy and Telephone" which was regarded as the authority publication throughout the country and was published in nine editions.

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USS ROBISON History:

USS ROBISON commissioned at Boston Naval Shipyard on 9 December 1961 and soon shifted to the Pacific for a San Diego homeport. During her delivery passage she diverted on 1 March 1962 to Clipperton Island and took off ten survivors from the capsized tuna boat MONARCH, then reached San Diego on 7 March to begin shakedown, post-shakedown availability at San Francisco on 14 June, and weapons work at Mare Island and Seal Beach before settling into local training through the autumn. On 13 November 1962, she sortied with CRUDESFLOT 11 for her first WestPac, returning to San Diego on 21 June 1963, to resume coastal operations. Late that year she sailed west again in company with USS PARSONS (DDG 33) for escort duties, linked up with USS MIDWAY (CVA 41) near Hawaii, touched Guam, then escorted USS HANCOCK (CVA 19) eastward, arriving back at San Diego on 19 December after fuel stops at Midway and Pearl Harbor.

Regular overhaul began at Long Beach Naval Shipyard in January 1964, followed by missile qualifications and refresher training. ROBISON deployed again on 14 August 1964, for a second WestPac that ran into early 1965, clearing Yokosuka on 24 January and arriving San Diego on 6 February 1965. Spring 1965 brought a midshipman cruise (10 June-5 August), a port visit at Portland, Oregon, and a 24 August call by the Chief of Naval Operations, before a fall period of coastal training that emphasized ASW, AAW, and naval gunfire support. Preparing for her third WestPac, she deployed early in 1966, and returned to San Diego on 18 July 1966. A San Francisco overhaul extended into early 1967, with homeport return on 3 February 1967. Through the later 1960s the destroyer - by then a division flagship - screened carriers including KITTY HAWK (CVA 63) on Yankee Station, took search-and-rescue turns, and delivered naval gunfire support in I Corps as the Vietnam War intensified, before completing that cycle with a San Diego return on 6 July 1969.

From October 1969, ROBISON underwent a 4 1/2-month overhaul at San Francisco Naval Shipyard, Hunters Point, completing work and returning to San Diego on 27 February 1970, for refresher training. Across 1970-1972 she settled into a steady rhythm: spring operations off the U.S. West Coast followed by late-spring or summer deployments to the Western Pacific in support of Seventh Fleet tasking. During the 1972 cruise she contributed to the renewed air and naval campaign against North Vietnamese targets associated with LINEBACKER operations, combining plane-guarding, radar picket, and naval gunfire tasks as the fleet pressed interdiction along the coastline and inland approaches. That deployment extended into 1973. She then remained stateside through the end of that year, berthed at San Diego as of January 1974. Cruise book and Navy library holdings confirm back-to-back WestPac cruise books for 1970, 1971, and 1972-73.

From January 1974, USS ROBISON remained berthed at San Diego and worked a stateside rhythm of inspections, refresher training, and local operations while the Navy reset after the long Vietnam cycle. She resumed forward duty with a WESTPAC in 1976 - photographed underway in March 1976 - and spent that deployment in the familiar Seventh Fleet pattern of plane-guard and air-defense screening for carriers, radar picket assignments, gunnery qualifications, and logistics evolutions, interleaved with routine maintenance alongside on the West Coast as the class aged into mid-life. After another period of training and upkeep through 1977, the destroyer shifted to a diplomacy-heavy itinerary: on 15 July 1978 she sailed from San Diego in company with USS HORNE (CG 30) for a three-month South Pacific goodwill cruise designed to improve unit readiness, conduct exercises with regional navies, and gather port-visit and operating data, before returning in October 1978. In the following year, she appeared on Seventh Fleet rosters within a MIDWAY (CV 41)-centered battle group on 6 June 1979 - an ensemble that underscored the carrier's Western Pacific and Indian Ocean presence that summer as regional tensions rose from the Horn of Africa across to South Asia. ROBISON's contribution remained the steady work of screening, escort, and flight-operations support.

On 12 December 1980, the destroyer conducted a large humanitarian rescue in the South China Sea, taking aboard 262 Vietnamese refugees from an overcrowded craft encountered after Thai-U.S. maneuvers - an event reported at the time by UPI and remembered in survivor accounts and oral histories. The ship provided emergency care and coordinated transfer ashore for processing, one of the Navy's better-documented refugee recoveries of that period.

Through the early and mid-1980s ROBISON continued Pacific Fleet operations from San Diego - local training, inspections, and periodic deployments west - while sustaining combat-system and engineering upkeep as the CHARLES F. ADAMS - class aged into its third decade. By the end of the decade she was still earning readiness credit. In her final competitive cycles she carried Battle Efficiency recognition against much newer ships. In May-June 1991, she completed a final extended deployment to the Southeast Pacific/Central America in support of counter-narcotics operations, credited with a seizure tally exceeding $21 million (street value) of cocaine, and closed her operating career with a series of port visits that included the Portland Rose Festival, an ammunition offload at Indian Island, Washington, and a last overseas stop at Victoria, Canada.

ROBISON was decommissioned at Naval Station San Diego on 1 October 1991, in a combined ceremony alongside fellow destroyers and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 November 1992. She was sold for scrapping on 20 June 1994. Across three decades she completed seventeen Western Pacific and Indian Ocean-area deployments and earned seven battle stars for Vietnam service, all from a single homeport at San Diego.

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Homeports of USS ROBISON:

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USS ROBISON Image Gallery:

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