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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Cruise Books Accidents aboard the Ship About the Ship's Name History Image Gallery to end of page |  |  |
Commissioned as a Destroyer Escort, the USS GARCIA was the lead ship of the GARCIA - class. Redesignated as FF 1040 on June 30, 1975, the GARCIA was decommissioned on January 31, 1989. The same day, the ship was stricken from the Navy list and transferred to Pakistan where the GARCIA was recommissioned as SAIF. The ship was given back to the US Navy at Singapore on January 13, 1994, and transferred to the Maritime Administration. The GARCIA was finally sold for scrapping on March 29, 1994.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: June 22, 1961 |
| Keel laid: October 16, 1962 | |
| Launched: October 31, 1963 | |
| Commissioned: December 21, 1964 | |
| Decommissioned: January 31, 1989 | |
| Builder: Bethlehem Steel, San Francisco, Calif. | |
| Propulsion system: 2 Foster-Wheeler boilers; 1 Westinghouse geared turbine; 35,000shp; 1 shaft | |
| Length: 414.4 feet (126.3 meters) | |
| Beam: 44.3 feet (13.5 meters) | |
| Draft: 25.9 feet (7.9 meters) | |
| Displacement: approx. 3,500 tons full load | |
| Speed: 27 knots | |
| Armament: one Mk-16 missile launcher for ASROC missiles, two Mk-30 5-inch/38 caliber guns, | |
| Aircraft: one | |
| Crew: 16 officers, 231 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 GARCIA. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageUSS GARCIA Cruise Books:
back to top go to the end of the pageAccidents aboard USS GARCIA:
| Date | Where | Events |
|---|---|---|
| April 20, 1982 | Boston, Mass. | Seven people are injured in an explosion aboard the GARCIA while the ship is overhauled at Boston, Mass. |
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Ship's Name:
Fernando Luis Garcia was born 14 October 1929 at Utuado, P.R., and was inducted into the Marine Corps 19 September 1951. A member of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, Private Garcia served valiantly in Korea - particularly on 5 September 1952 when he threw himself on an enemy grenade to save the life of a comrade. Private Garcia was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism, the first native Puerto Rican to be so honored.
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS GARCIA History:
USS GARCIA was the lead ship of the GARCIA-class, a group of ten ocean escorts developed for the United States Navy primarily for antisubmarine warfare during the Cold War. GARCIA was ordered on June 22, 1961, and her keel was laid at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard in San Francisco, California, on October 16, 1962. She was launched on October 31, 1963, sponsored by Daisy Garcia de Alvarez, the sister of Fernando Luis Garcia. The ship was already conducting trials off California by October 22, 1964, and was commissioned on December 21, 1964, with Commander Donald A. Smith in command. As the first member of a new class, her initial months included trials, equipment evaluation, training, and qualification work on the Pacific coast.
After completing her initial Pacific work, GARCIA departed San Diego on March 22, 1965, for transfer to the Atlantic Fleet. She steamed south, transited the Panama Canal, and continued to Newport, Rhode Island, which became her home port. She arrived there on April 7. After ship qualification tests, she departed for the Caribbean on May 7 for shakedown training. This period was intended to exercise her propulsion plant, weapons, communications equipment, sonar, and other systems under operational conditions. GARCIA returned to Newport on July 16. During the remainder of 1965 she operated from Newport while continuing antisubmarine warfare and sonar training.
A major assignment followed in early 1966 when GARCIA participated in Exercise Match Maker II, an experimental multinational NATO squadron intended to determine how destroyer-type ships from several allied navies could operate together using standardized procedures and combined antisubmarine tactics. The six participating ships were GARCIA, the British radar-picket destroyer HMS AGINCOURT (D 86), the Dutch antisubmarine destroyer HNLMS DRENTHE (D 816), and the Canadian destroyer escorts HMCS ANNAPOLIS (DDH 265), HMCS SKEENA (DDH 207), and HMCS RESTIGOUCHE (DDE 257). Captain Parker B. Armstrong, U.S. Navy, commanded the multinational squadron, with GARCIA serving as his flagship for much of the exercise.
Beginning on January 22, 1966, the Match Maker II force conducted intensive training in the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range area near Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, and participated in the annual Atlantic Fleet exercise Operation Springboard. Antisubmarine warfare was the principal focus, but the squadron also practiced the procedures required for ships from different NATO navies to operate as a single formation. Personnel were exchanged among participating ships so that officers and enlisted men could become familiar with the equipment and operating methods of the other navies. Match Maker II continued into June 1966 and included operations on both sides of the Atlantic.
Soon after this multinational assignment, the Navy established Escort Squadron Six at Newport. The squadron was formally activated on July 1, 1966, under Captain William S. Mayer, and GARCIA became its flagship. The organization brought together new Atlantic Fleet escorts with a strong emphasis on antisubmarine warfare. In late September, GARCIA operated with USS EDWARD McDONNELL (DE 1043) and USS McCLOY (DE 1038) during Exercise Plumbob II in the Narragansett Bay operating area.
The intensive antisubmarine training continued during 1967. On January 16, GARCIA operated with the antisubmarine warfare carrier USS RANDOLPH (CVS 15), USS BACHE (DD 470), EDWARD McDONNELL, and the submarine USS CUBERA (SS 347). The combination of a carrier, surface escorts, and a submarine allowed the ships to practice coordinated detection and tracking procedures.
On April 24, 1967, GARCIA and EDWARD McDONNELL entered the Virginia Capes operating area for ASWEX VII. The exercise was designed to test and develop tactics for a combined-arms antisubmarine force operating against missile-equipped submarines. Severe weather interfered with parts of the exercise, but both GARCIA-class escorts continued operations in the difficult conditions. ASWEX VII concluded in early May, with EDWARD McDONNELL returning to Newport on May 5. GARCIA continued the Atlantic Fleet cycle of antisubmarine exercises, local operations, training, maintenance, and readiness work during the following years.
On October 15, 1969, GARCIA was involved in a collision with the guided-missile cruiser USS ALBANY (CG 10) during a towing exercise. ALBANY suffered a nine-square-foot dent together with damage to stanchions, rivets, and other fittings, but the damage was not considered critical. The towing exercise was subsequently continued.
GARCIA began one of her best-documented early deployments on May 5, 1970, when she sailed as part of Task Group 83.1 for operations in the North Atlantic and northern European waters. The force was centered on the antisubmarine warfare carrier USS WASP (CVS 18) and also included USS FISKE (DD 842), USS FORREST SHERMAN (DD 931), USS DYESS (DD 880), and EDWARD McDONNELL. Rear Admiral Tazewell Shepard Jr. commanded the group from WASP. The transatlantic phase included intensive antisubmarine training as the ships prepared for operations with NATO forces.
The task group reached Lisbon, Portugal, on May 25, 1970. Subsequent operations included hunter-killer antisubmarine work associated with NATO exercises in the eastern Atlantic. GARCIA later proceeded north with WASP and EDWARD McDONNELL, and the three ships arrived at Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 19. After approximately a week in port, they departed Copenhagen, rejoined the task group, now designated Task Group 87.1, and steamed north. On July 1, 1970, the ships crossed the Arctic Circle. They then spent approximately two weeks conducting antisubmarine warfare, gunnery, and helicopter operations in the Norwegian Sea. These waters were of particular importance to NATO because Soviet Northern Fleet submarines using bases on the Kola Peninsula had to pass through the northern approaches to reach the North Atlantic.
On July 13, GARCIA, WASP, and EDWARD McDONNELL arrived at Hamburg, West Germany. They departed Hamburg on July 18 for Scotland and reached Leith on July 20. The three ships departed Leith on July 25 and returned to operations in the Norwegian Sea. EDWARD McDONNELL detached from them on July 29, while GARCIA continued the deployment. Her service during this extended North Atlantic assignment was later included in a Navy Unit Commendation covering the period from May 5 through September 1, 1970.
During 1971 and 1972, GARCIA continued Atlantic Fleet operations and training. Official Navy photographs document her operating off Newport on July 31 and August 18, 1972. This period also coincided with the Navy's transition away from the QH-50 DASH unmanned helicopter toward the manned SH-2 Seasprite LAMPS system. The DASH program had not fulfilled its original expectations, while LAMPS gave surface combatants a manned airborne platform capable of extending their surveillance and antisubmarine reach well beyond the range of the ship's hull-mounted sonar. GARCIA-class ships were among the surface combatants adapted for the new system.
GARCIA subsequently shifted her home port from Newport to Charleston, South Carolina. By the middle of the 1970s, GARCIA was firmly established as a Charleston-based Atlantic Fleet escort whose operating cycle included Mediterranean and Middle Eastern deployments as well as training and maintenance periods on the U.S. East Coast.
By 1974, GARCIA was participating directly in the operational introduction of LAMPS. She deployed to the Mediterranean with HSL-32 Detachment 6 and an SH-2F Seasprite embarked. GARCIA and Detachment 6 reached the Mediterranean in late July, contributing to a period in which several LAMPS-equipped escorts were operating simultaneously with the Sixth Fleet. This allowed the Navy to evaluate the helicopter not merely as an individual shipboard aircraft but as part of broader surface-force antisubmarine tactics. On September 2, 1974, while GARCIA was anchored at Taormina, Sicily, her embarked helicopter detachment carried out a medical evacuation. A seriously ill member of the ship's company was flown to Naval Air Facility Sigonella. The illness, initially suspected to be a heart attack, was subsequently diagnosed as a collapsed lung.
Secretary of the Navy J. William Middendorf II also visited GARCIA during this Mediterranean deployment to observe LAMPS operations. He arrived by helicopter from USS INCHON (LPH 12), observed the ship and helicopter detachment at work, and witnessed demonstrations associated with LAMPS and helicopter in-flight refueling. He subsequently flew aboard the SH-2 to USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62), occupying the sensor-operator position during the flight.
GARCIA remained engaged in Sixth Fleet operations during the autumn. On October 23, 1974, she was operating outside Naples, Italy, when the aircraft carrier USS SARATOGA (CV 60) conducted an underway replenishment with the fast combat support ship USS DETROIT (AOE 4). A photograph of the replenishment was taken from GARCIA, confirming her presence with the force on that date. The Mediterranean deployment continued through the winter and lasted approximately six months before GARCIA returned to Charleston.
Soon after her return, GARCIA resumed Atlantic Fleet exercises. On March 10, 1975, JESSE L. BROWN (DE 1089) departed Charleston and rendezvoused with GARCIA for fleet training. On March 11, they joined the nuclear-powered attack submarine USS SUNFISH (SSN 649). The ships conducted antisubmarine warfare, communications, and division-tactics exercises in the Virginia Capes operating area through March 13. On June 30, 1975, GARCIA was redesignated from destroyer escort DE 1040 to frigate FF 1040 as part of the U.S. Navy's fleet-wide ship classification changes.
Early in 1976, GARCIA received an assignment to the U.S. Middle East Force. JESSE L. BROWN arrived at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on January 28 and remained there through January 29. During this port call she completed turnover procedures with GARCIA, which assumed the Middle East Force responsibilities. At that time, the permanent American naval presence in the region was much smaller than it would become during the following decade, and ships assigned to the force operated through the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, and Red Sea while maintaining a continuing U.S. naval presence and conducting exercises and regional visits.
On May 3, 1976, while operating in the Red Sea, GARCIA assisted the Greek merchant vessel KYRA ELENI after the ship suffered a steering-gear casualty. A repair team from GARCIA boarded the merchant vessel and repaired the steering system, allowing it to resume operation.
By 1979, GARCIA was again operating with a Mediterranean carrier force centered around USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62). On December 12, 1979, an official Navy aerial photograph recorded the group in the Atlantic as it headed home from the Mediterranean. The formation consisted of USS FARRAGUT (DDG 37), USS McCANDLESS (FF 1084), INDEPENDENCE, DETROIT, GARCIA, USS MAHAN (DDG 42), USS CARON (DD 970), and USS PETERSON (DD 969).
Her performance during the competitive period from October 1, 1979, through September 30, 1980, resulted in eligibility for the Navy "E" Ribbon. During 1980, she also participated in Operation Sail 1980 at Boston. The international gathering of sailing vessels and naval ships took place from May 30 through June 6, and GARCIA was among ten participating U.S. Navy ships. A special shipboard postal cancellation dated June 4 documents her presence during the event.
Later in 1980, GARCIA returned to Sixth Fleet duty in the Mediterranean. By early October 1980 she was in the Mediterranean: EDWARD McDONNELL, after completing a series of Sixth Fleet antisubmarine operations and port visits, turned over her duties to GARCIA in early October before departing for Mayport. After completing that overseas operating cycle, GARCIA returned to the United States and entered another major maintenance period. In November 1981, General Ship Corporation in Boston was preparing to begin an overhaul of the frigate under a recently awarded Navy contract. The company operated shipyard facilities in both East Boston and South Boston. GARCIA was in overhaul at the yard during the following spring.
On April 20, 1982, a serious accident occurred aboard GARCIA while the overhaul was in progress at General Ship in Boston. An explosion injured seven people. Repairs and overhaul work continued after the accident. Once the yard period and subsequent preparations had been completed, GARCIA returned to fleet operations.
By the autumn of 1983, she was again deployed to the Mediterranean. Her deployment took place during the U.S. naval commitment off Lebanon, where the Lebanese Civil War had drawn American and other multinational forces into an increasingly unstable security situation. On October 23, a truck bomb destroyed the U.S. Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport, killing 241 American service members. The U.S. Navy subsequently maintained major forces off the Lebanese coast. The carrier USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) reached the eastern Mediterranean on October 28, 1983, with GARCIA included among the escorts assigned to its carrier battle group. GARCIA's documented periods in the Lebanon operational area included November 25 through November 28, 1983, dates for which her crew qualified for the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal.
The situation around Beirut remained unstable into 1984. GARCIA again operated in the qualifying Lebanon area beginning on January 25. During early February, fighting in and around Beirut intensified, and the position of the multinational force ashore became increasingly difficult. On February 6, GARCIA fired 5-inch rounds at positions inland in Lebanon. The firing was her first naval-gunfire mission of the approximately six-month deployment and was the first use of U.S. Navy 5-inch gunfire ashore in Lebanon since January 15.
On February 7, President Ronald Reagan announced the decision to withdraw the U.S. Marines from their positions ashore and redeploy them to ships offshore. U.S. naval forces continued operations off Lebanon as the shore presence was reduced. GARCIA remained within the qualifying Lebanon operational area through February 24, 1984. Her Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal eligibility for this phase therefore covered January 25 through February 24. The deployment ended in mid-1984.
Following her return, GARCIA again entered the normal Atlantic Fleet cycle of upkeep, training, readiness work, and preparations for future deployment. GARCIA returned to the Mediterranean during 1985. On October 21, 1985, she was photographed during an underway replenishment involving SARATOGA (CV 60) and the fast combat support ship USS SEATTLE (AOE 3). The photograph confirms her operation with the carrier force in Mediterranean waters during this deployment.
The Mediterranean situation became increasingly tense because of the confrontation between the United States and Libya under Muammar Qaddafi. Libya claimed the Gulf of Sidra south of 32 degrees 30 minutes north latitude as Libyan territorial waters, while the United States rejected the claim and considered most of the gulf international waters. American naval forces repeatedly operated in the area to challenge the Libyan claim.
GARCIA's participation in operations associated with Libya extended from January 20 through March 29, 1986, qualifying her crew for the Navy Expeditionary Medal. The most serious phase came during late March. Operation Attain Document III began on March 23 as another U.S. freedom-of-navigation operation in and around the Gulf of Sidra. On March 24, Libyan forces fired surface-to-air missiles at American aircraft and Libyan naval vessels moved against the U.S. forces. American forces responded under Operation Prairie Fire by attacking Libyan missile facilities and naval craft. GARCIA remained part of the Sixth Fleet surface forces during these operations. Her participation from March 23 through March 29 was recognized by a Navy Unit Commendation.
After the Libyan confrontation, GARCIA continued Atlantic Fleet service. A well-documented later operation occurred on April 4, 1987, when she was photographed underway in the Atlantic with the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69), the destroyer USS COMTE DE GRASSE (DD 974), USS JOHN HANCOCK (DD 981), and USS NICHOLSON (DD 982).
During 1988, GARCIA entered the final phase of her American service as the Navy moved toward disposal of the remaining members of the GARCIA-class. The ships had entered service in the 1960s as specialized antisubmarine escorts and had subsequently been adapted to accommodate LAMPS helicopters and other improvements, but by the late 1980s the Navy was increasingly relying on newer classes of frigates, destroyers, and cruisers for carrier escort and antisubmarine missions. GARCIA was formally decommissioned on January 31, 1989, after more than twenty-four years in commissioned U.S. Navy service. She was also stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on that date and transferred on lease to Pakistan. She entered the Pakistan Navy as PNS SAIF (F 264), one of several former American frigates transferred to Pakistan during this period.
PNS SAIF remained in Pakistani service until 1994. Following the end of her Pakistani service, the former GARCIA returned to U.S. disposal authority. She was sold to Trusha Investments Pte. Ltd. of Singapore on March 29, 1994, for scrapping. During her U.S. Navy career, GARCIA accumulated a documented record that included two Navy Unit Commendations, the first covering May 5 through September 1, 1970, and the second covering March 23 through March 29, 1986. She earned eligibility for the Navy "E" Ribbon for the competitive period October 1, 1979, through September 30, 1980; the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for operations associated with Lebanon from November 25 through November 28, 1983, and January 25 through February 24, 1984; and the Navy Expeditionary Medal for operations associated with Libya from January 20 through March 29, 1986.
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