USS Sperry (AS 12)

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Crew List:

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

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USS SPERRY Cruise Books:

• Crossing the Line Cruise Book 1945

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About the Ship's Name:

Elmer Ambrose Sperry was born on 12 October 1860 at Cortland, N.Y. After spending three years at the state normal school there, he became interested in dynamo electricity during a year of study at Cornell University in 1878 and 1879. He moved to Chicago, Ill., early in 1880 and, soon thereafter, founded the Sperry Electric Co. He organized the Sperry Electric Mining Machine Co. and the Sperry Electric Railway Co. in 1888 and 1890, respectively. In 1900, Sperry established an electrochemical laboratory at Washington, D.C., where he and his associate, C. P. Townshend, developed a process for making pure caustic soda from salt and discovered a process for recovering tin from scrap metal. Sperry experimented with diesel engines and gyroscopic compasses and stabilizers for ships and aircraft. In 1910, he started the Sperry Gyroscope Co. in Brooklyn, N.Y.; and his first compass was tested that same year in DELAWARE (BB 28). His compasses and stabilizers were adopted by the United States Navy and used in both world wars. In 1918, he produced a high-intensity arc lamp which was used by both the Army and Navy. After setting up eight companies and receiving over 400 patents, Sperry died at Brooklyn, N.Y., on 12 June 1930.

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USS SPERRY History:

USS SPERRY was laid down on 1 February 1941 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif.; launched on 17 December 1941, just 10 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; sponsored by Mrs. Helen Sperry Lea, daughter of Elmer Ambrose Sperry; and commissioned on 1 May 1942, Capt. Robert H. Smith in command.

SPERRY completed trials and shakedown training; and, on 2 August 1942, she reported for duty to the Commander, Submarines, Pacific, at Pearl Harbor. She remained at Oahu for almost three months, refitting seven submarines and making voyage repairs to four others.

On 26 October, she weighed anchor and headed for Australia. After cautiously skirting the Solomon Islands and making a three-day stopover at Noumea, New Caledonia, the submarine tender reached Brisbane on 13 November. During her two-month stay “down under,” SPERRY refitted seven submarines and made a voyage repair on one.

On 17 January 1943, she sailed for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on the 31st. After 10 refits, 10 voyage repairs, and over four months at Pearl Harbor, SPERRY got underway on 8 June.

Steaming in company with KERN (AOG 2) and Coast Guard cutter TANEY, she reached Midway Island on 12 June. Her stay there was probably the busiest period in her career. During five months, she serviced 70 submarines, refitting 17 and making voyage repairs to 53.

In mid-November, she joined FLORIKAN (ASR 9) in a voyage back to Pearl Harbor, from the 12th to the 16th. She refitted eight submarines and accomplished voyage repairs on seven others between 15 November 1943 and 9 March 1944; then headed west once again.

SPERRY's tour of duty at Majuro Atoll lasted from 15 March until 19 September. During her stay, the submarine tender accomplished 19 refits and two voyage repairs. In addition, her crew erected Camp Myrna, the first recuperation camp for submarine crews in the central Pacific area, on Myrna Island.

On 19 September, she exited the lagoon with LITCHFIELD (DD 336) and headed for Pearl Harbor again. They reached Oahu on the 24th, but SPERRY was underway again by 8 October as part of an 11-ship convoy. At Eniwetok, she parted company with the convoy; and, with CORBESIER (DE 438), she continued on to the Marianas. The two ships arrived at Guam on 20 October to begin a four-month tour of duty during which she serviced 20 boats, 14 for refit and six for voyage repairs. Again, her crew constructed a submarine recuperation facility, Camp Dealey.

On 13 February 1945, SPERRY and SOUTHARD (DMS 10) departed Guam to return to the United States. The two ships reached Pearl Harbor on 22 February. SOUTHARD remained at Pearl Harbor but SPERRY continued eastward on 1 March. The submarine tender entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 7 March and commenced an overhaul which lasted until 30 April. By 10 May, SPERRY was back at Pearl Harbor where she completed one refit and three voyage repairs before sailing on 30 June for the Marianas.

She was stationed at Guam from 11 July 1945 to 11 January 1946. During those six months, her stay in the Marianas was interrupted only once, in late November and early December, when she joined BLENNY (SS 324), BLOWER (SS 325), BLUEBACK (SS 326), CHARR (SS 328), REDFISH (SS 395), SEA CAT (SS 399), and SEGUNDO (SS 398) in a training cruise. They visited Ulithi Atoll in the Carolines and Manus Island in the Admiralties before returning to Apra Harbor 10 days before Christmas.

Eleven days into the new year, SPERRY weighed anchor at Apra and headed for Long Beach. She arrived at Terminal Island on 20 February and began an extensive overhaul which was completed in July of 1947. Unlike many of her sister ships, SPERRY remained an active unit of the fleet, operating out of San Diego. She earned the coveted battle efficiency “E” three years in a row in 1948, 1949, and 1950. In 1949, she participated in Operation “Miki,” a war game which simulated the recapture of an enemy-occupied Oahu; and, while returning to San Diego, she operated in support of the first publicized firings of missiles from submarines. Between 1950 and 1953, her pace was quickened by the hostilities in Korea as she serviced and supplied many of the submarines recommissioned for that conflict. In 1952, she made her only voyage to the western Pacific. She sailed via Pearl Harbor, where she stayed from 6 August until 21 September, and served at Chi Chi Jima in the Benin Islands from 2 to 9 October. She returned to the west coast of the United States on 25 October.

In December of 1951, the battle lines in Korea were more or less stabilized along the 38th parallel and hostilities were slowly lessened over the next two years. This resulted in a gradual return to peacetime routine for SPERRY. Over the ensuing 10 years, the submarine tender continued to operate out of San Diego, spending most of her time in port servicing the submarines of the fleet, but occasionally getting underway for training cruises along the west coast. Her area of operation extended from Mexico north to Canada.

From April to September 1961, SPERRY was at Long Beach Naval Shipyard being brought up to date by a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization overhaul. In mid-September, she returned to her duties as submarine tender at San Diego, though now with the capability to service ballistic missile submarines.

In 1962, USS SPERRY operated primarily from San Diego under the command of Captain H. A. Thompson, who had taken over in June 1961 and remained in command until August 1962. He was followed by Captain W. S. Antle Jr., who commanded from August 1962 to June 1963. During this early-1960s period, SPERRY's daily routine reflected the intensifying Cold War. Diesel-electric submarines and an increasing number of nuclear attack boats cycled through her alongside berths for maintenance periods ranging from short voyage repairs to extended refits. Her workshops, foundry, electronics shops and supply departments supported the readiness of submarines that formed part of the United States' forward-deployed anti-submarine and surveillance posture in the Pacific. While the Vietnam War was escalating in Southeast Asia, SPERRY's contribution was indirect but essential: she kept the submarines based at San Diego fully operational so that they could deploy across the Pacific as required.

Command of the ship passed to Captain W. S. Bryant in June 1963 and then to Captain W. W. Price Jr. from November 1963 to January 1965. Under their leadership, SPERRY continued to serve as one of the principal tenders for the San Diego-based submarine force. Her work remained largely pier-side and routine in appearance, but technically demanding. The tender's personnel handled overhauls of propulsion and auxiliary machinery, sonar and fire-control maintenance, weapons handling, habitability repairs, and periodic inspections. According to later summarized histories, she occasionally left San Diego for training and support cruises along the west coast of North America, ranging from Mexican waters in the south to the Canadian coast in the north, reflecting the need to train crews under way and to support submarines operating away from their home port.

A notable milestone in this phase was another major shipyard period completed on 24 June 1965, when SPERRY finished a substantial overhaul that again refreshed her capabilities. Coming out of this yard period, she was well positioned to support not only older diesel-electric submarines but also new nuclear-powered designs whose presence in the Pacific was steadily increasing. In January 1965, command passed to Captain A. E. May, who remained in charge until September 1966, followed by Captain M. M. Elliot from September 1966 to August 1967.

By the mid-1960s, San Diego had become a major center for the Pacific submarine force, and SPERRY formed part of a cluster of support units at what became Naval Submarine Base Point Loma. Contemporary imagery and later recollections show SPERRY alongside her sister tender USS NEREUS (AS 17) at San Diego in 1967, both ships servicing a group of submarines moored outboard, illustrating her continuing role as a front-line support platform in the nuclear age. During this period, the cold-war submarine fleet was deeply involved in anti-submarine warfare exercises, intelligence gathering, and deterrent patrols across the Pacific and into the North Atlantic, and SPERRY's role was to provide the industrial-level support that allowed those operations to proceed without interruption.

From August 1967 to September 1969 SPERRY was commanded by Captain L. E. Mayes, followed by Captain R. Williamson II from September 1969 to August 1971. The late 1960s and early 1970s were marked by the final years of the Vietnam War and by increased emphasis on advanced undersea warfare capabilities. SPERRY's own operating pattern, however, remained consistent: the ship spent most of her time moored at San Diego, providing continuous support to submarines between deployments, and occasionally sailing along the Pacific coast or to Hawaii on training or support cruises. These voyages formed part of broader fleet exercises and readiness training, but the available official summaries do not assign specific operation names or detailed port call lists to SPERRY herself in this era.

Her service during the high-tension years of the late 1960s earned formal recognition. Among her postwar decorations, SPERRY's record includes entitlement to the National Defense Service Medal for the period from 1 January 1967 to 15 August 1974, reflecting her contribution to fleet readiness during the Vietnam War and the broader Cold War confrontation. Throughout these years, the tender's crew maintained and supplied submarines assigned to commands such as Submarine Group Five and Submarine Squadron Three in the San Diego area, even though those command relationships are more clearly documented for the later 1970s.

With Captain M. C. Scoggins taking command in August 1971 and remaining until July 1973, SPERRY entered a decade that would see the ship recognized repeatedly for excellence. He was followed by Captain J. W. Ailes IV from July 1973 to September 1975, Captain P. Durbin from September 1975 to November 1976, and Captain J. L. Willis Jr. from November 1976 to June 1979. During these years SPERRY continued her steady cycle of repair, upkeep and logistics support for a mix of conventional and nuclear submarines. Her workshops handled complex tasks ranging from hull and structural repairs to sophisticated electronics and weapons maintenance.

SPERRY's performance in the late 1970s is reflected in a major unit award. In June 1979, the Secretary of the Navy awarded the ship a Meritorious Unit Commendation for her service from 1 April 1978 to 1 December 1978 in support of Submarine Group Five, Submarine Development Group One and Submarine Squadron Three. This commendation highlights her key role during a period when the US Navy was introducing more advanced submarines and undersea warfare systems, and when experimental and developmental units depended heavily on reliable tender support. Although the detailed daily activities behind the award are not listed in official summaries, the citation period shows that for nearly twenty months, SPERRY sustained a level of performance judged to be significantly above normal expectations.

In 1979, command passed to Captain J. G. Reynolds, who remained in command until May 1980, when Captain J. F. Sullivan took over for the final period of commissioned service through September 1982. During these last active years, SPERRY continued to serve at Naval Base Point Loma, again spending most of her time moored while submarines came alongside for upkeep and repair. Photographic records from around 1981 show the tender berthed at Point Loma with a variety of submarines inboard, underlining that even after nearly four decades of service she remained an integral part of the West Coast submarine support infrastructure. Her high standard of performance in this period was formally recognized when SPERRY received another Battle Efficiency "E" for the fiscal year spanning 1 October 1979 to 30 September 1980, marking her out once more as one of the most efficient ships in her class and mission area.

On 1 May 1982, the crew celebrated the ship's fortieth anniversary of commissioning, an unusually long active career for a World War II–era auxiliary. The end of commissioned service came later that same year. USS SPERRY was decommissioned at San Diego on 30 September 1982 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the same date, closing the active-duty phase of her life. Her place at Point Loma as an active tender was eventually taken by newer ships such as USS McKEE (AS 41), which joined USS DIXON (AS 37) at the base to continue support of Pacific Fleet submarines, reflecting the Navy's transition to a more modern tender force.

After decommissioning, SPERRY did not go directly to disposal. She was moved north to Puget Sound, where she lay for several years moored in Sinclair Inlet near the Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Bremerton, Washington. During this time, she was progressively stripped of equipment and fittings that could be reused on other ships or preserved. Some of her components were transferred to museum submarines such as USS COD (SS 224) in Cleveland, Ohio, where items from SPERRY were incorporated into the historic boat's display and restoration work, extending the tender's influence into the museum world.

By the early 1990s, SPERRY figured prominently in imagery of the early nuclear-submarine disposal program. An aerial photograph taken on 17 May 1993 shows the former tender at the Ship Intermediate Maintenance Facility at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard with sixteen decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines moored nearby - including attack and ballistic-missile boats whose reactor compartments were awaiting dismantling. The image captures SPERRY's final role in the Pacific Northwest: a laid-up auxiliary surrounded by the retired submarines of the nuclear era she had helped support during her active career.

In March 1998 the ship left Puget Sound for the last time. On 10 March 1998, according to contemporary accounts and later compiled histories, ex-SPERRY was taken in tow from Mooring G at the Navy Inactive Maintenance Facility at Bremerton and towed south toward the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, just east of Vallejo and Mare Island, arriving there later in the month. The Maritime Administration's vessel history records her as entering the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet on 16 March 1998, where she joined other former Navy auxiliaries awaiting final disposition. For more than a decade SPERRY lay moored among the "mothball fleet" at Suisun Bay, her hull maintained in reserve status while various proposals for museum use were considered but not realized.

Ultimately the decision was taken to dispose of her. On 9 August 2011, the Maritime Administration sold the ship to ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Texas, for dismantling. SPERRY departed Suisun Bay on 28 September 2011 and was first brought back to Mare Island, where Allied Defense Recycling cleaned her hull of marine growth and loose paint in preparation for the ocean tow. On 17 October 2011, she left Mare Island under tow by the tug RACHEL, bound for the Panama Canal, which she transited on 17 November 2011 en route to Brownsville. There she was broken up, ending a physical existence that had begun at Mare Island in 1941.

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USS SPERRY Image Gallery: