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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Accidents aboard the Ship History Patch Gallery Image Gallery to end of page |  |
USS LUCE was the second ship in the FARRAGUT - class of guided missile ships. Commissioned as a guided missile frigate (DLG), the USS LUCE was reclassified as guided missile destroyer (DDG) on June 30, 1975, changing its hullnumber from DLG 7 to DDG 38. The ship was decommissioned on April 1, 1991, and stricken from the Navy list on November 20, 1992. On December 16, 1994, the LUCE was finally sold for scrapping.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: January 27, 1956 |
| Keel laid: October 1, 1957 | |
| Launched: December 11, 1958 | |
| Commissioned: May 20, 1961 | |
| Decommissioned: April 1, 1991 | |
| Builder: Bethlehem Steel Company Shipyard, Quincy, Mass. | |
| Propulsion system:4 - 1200 psi boilers; 2 geared turbines | |
| Propellers: two | |
| Length: 512.5 feet (156.2 meters) | |
| Beam: 52 feet (15.9 meters) | |
| Draft: 25 feet (7.6 meters) | |
| Displacement: approx. 5,800 tons | |
| Speed: 33 knots | |
| Aircraft: none | |
| Armament: one Mk 42 5-inch/54 caliber gun, | |
| Crew: 21 officers and 356 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 LUCE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.
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back to top go to the end of the pageAccidents aboard USS LUCE:
| Date | Where | Events |
|---|---|---|
| January 19, 1966 | Mayport Naval Station, FL | An "actual nuclear incident" occurs when the nuclear warhead on a Terrier anti-air missile separates from the missile and drops about eight feet on the USS LUCE while the ship is docked at Mayport Naval Station. It is recorded that "there were no personnel casualties, and aside from the dent in the warhead, no equipment was damaged." |
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS LUCE History:
USS LUCE - originally commissioned as the guided-missile frigate DLG 7 - was built at Bethlehem Steel's Fore River Yard in Quincy, Massachusetts, launched on December 11, 1958, and commissioned on May 20, 1961. After initial trials out of Mayport, Florida, she began shakedown on February 14, 1962, and that spring operated with the SIXTH FLEET - her first task-force work in the Mediterranean - before returning to Mayport on May 11, 1962. She sailed again on August 3, 1962, joining NATO's Riptide III with British and French units. Over the next seven months she took part in three major NATO exercises, then returned stateside on March 2, 1963, to resume missile tests, midshipman training, and Atlantic exercises. On August 20, 1963, she shifted to the Caribbean for independent gunnery evolutions, came back to Mayport on September 4, and on October 28 entered intensive antisubmarine and anti-air training with Task Force 23. A short period operating with ENTERPRISE (CVAN 65) followed before tender availability in port.
LUCE rejoined the SIXTH FLEET on February 8, 1964, and, as intercommunal fighting flared on Cyprus, stood guard for three weeks off the island to cover a potential evacuation of U.S. citizens. On April 24, 1964, she hosted the Secretary of the Navy and COMSIXTHFLEET for a missile-firing demonstration, then conducted a high-speed Atlantic escort of SHANGRI-LA (CVA 38) back to Mayport, arriving May 23. In July she steamed to New York for Operation Sail amid a worldwide tall-ships regatta, and, following a four-month overhaul, returned to Mayport on January 28, 1965, having earned both the Engineering and Battle Efficiency "E" during 1964.
Refresher training at Guantanamo in March 1965 was followed by crisis duty: on April 29, 1965, LUCE embarked Marines at Guantanamo Bay and on April 30 took station off the Dominican Republic during the Santo Domingo crisis, patrolling the coast until May 8. She returned to the Mediterranean in June for four months of operations with Spanish, French, Greek, and Italian ships. In September she entered the Black Sea with CORRY (DD 817) for surveillance and freedom-of-navigation operations before resuming Mediterranean duty later that year. She reached Mayport on November 6 and embarked COMDESRON 8, then closed 1965 with missile firings and further Atlantic training.
After another Mediterranean deployment beginning June 13, 1966 - punctuated by allied exercises and U.S. trade-fair representation - LUCE came home on October 26, 1966. The first half of 1967 brought Atlantic and Caribbean workups and a June midshipmen cruise. A regular overhaul at Charleston Naval Shipyard commenced August 7, 1967. Returning to service in early 1968, she operated locally and in the Caribbean until September 14, 1968, when she departed Mayport for the Persian Gulf via Recife, Brazil, and ports on both the west and east coasts of Africa. She arrived at Bahrain on October 29, 1968, and maintained watch during a tense period in the Middle East before returning to Mayport in March 1969.
Preparing for the Navy Tactical Data System (NTDS) upgrade, LUCE entered a stand-down and then proceeded to Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in February 1970. She decommissioned for modernization on February 28, 1970. The work replaced her AN/SPS-39 air-search radar with AN/SPS-48 and her two AN/SPQ-5A missile fire-control radars with AN/SPG-55s, among other improvements. She recommissioned at Philadelphia on May 22, 1971, returning to fleet operations with updated sensors and weapons.
With the new combat suite certified, LUCE resumed forward duty as the Atlantic and Mediterranean remained central to Cold War naval strategy. She deployed to the Mediterranean from July-December 1972, returned to Atlantic training and maintenance through 1973, and then sailed again for the SIXTH FLEET from January-June 1974. These cycles - carrier screening, air-defense exercises, multi-national drills, and periodic port visits - reflected the post-Vietnam normalization of presence missions in European waters.
On June 30, 1975, the Navy reclassified its DLG frigates as guided-missile destroyers. LUCE accordingly became DDG 38. That same year she executed another Mediterranean deployment (May-October 1975). In 1976, she shifted north for a high-latitudes period in the North Atlantic from August-October and crossed the Arctic Circle in September (earning "Blue-Nose" honors) before entering a shipyard availability from November 1976 through October 1977 to update machinery, electronics, and hull systems for the next cycle.
In early 1978, LUCE conducted refresher training at Guantanamo Bay. An official photograph places her off Cuba on February 24, 1978. After additional local operations, she headed back to the North Atlantic in August 1979, remaining on that station through April 1980 and crossing the Arctic Circle again in November 1979. She then pivoted to a Caribbean period in April-May 1980, sharpening gunnery and air-defense proficiency at the tail end of a long North Atlantic run.
From September 1980 to March 1981, LUCE deployed with the SIXTH FLEET during a year marked by the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War (September 1980) and continuing Allied focus on Eastern Mediterranean stability. She returned to Atlantic exercises in August-October 1981 and then entered a major dry-dock and overhaul period from March 1982 to April 1983, emerging to conduct another Guantanamo Bay refresher in June-August 1983 as the fleet re-balanced after prolonged Indian Ocean commitments.
In 1984, LUCE deployed from February-August across the Mediterranean, Red Sea/Suez, and into the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf as the "Tanker War" phase of the Iran-Iraq conflict accelerated attacks on merchant shipping. Her tasks mirrored those of other U.S. surface escorts in that theater - screening, air-defense and surface surveillance, escort coordination with coalition partners, and frequent logistics pauses at forward anchorages - before she returned to the Atlantic later that year.
After a North Atlantic period in September-October 1985 - again marked by an Arctic Circle crossing - LUCE sailed from February-August 1986 on another Mediterranean-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf deployment. The cruise included an equator crossing on April 22, 1986, recorded in the ship's alumni chronology, and sustained blue-water operations with U.S. and allied units during a year of heightened regional tensions.
The destroyer returned to the Mediterranean from February-August 1988. A U.S. Navy image documents LUCE underway in the central Med on March 12, 1988. She then resumed East Coast and Caribbean routines, culminating in a Panama Canal transit in October-November 1990 as her final months of service began. LUCE decommissioned at Mayport on April 1, 1991. She was stricken on November 20, 1992, sold for scrap on December 16, 1994, and dismantled at Philadelphia with final scrapping recorded on June 17, 2005.
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