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U.S.S. GRAND CANYON

(AD-28)

CAN DO

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The USS GRAND CANYON (AD-28), a Shenadoah class destroyer tender, was commissioned on 5 APR 1946. USS GRAND CANYON served her country for 32 years, 4 months and 27 days, until decommissioned on 1 SEP 1978. Built in Tacoma, Washington, USS GRAND CANYON was launched in April 1945, but with World War II ebbing, was not commissioned until April 1946. After shakedown, GRAND CANYON transited the Panama Canal in July 1946 and sailed on to her homeport of Newport, RI. In September 1946 she began a long series of Mediterranean deployment that lasted through out her entire career. GRAND CANYON tended the destroyers serving as the Cuban Blockade force in October 1962. GRAND CANYON was re-designated AR-28, a general purpose repair ship on 11 March 1971. She continued living up to her motto, "CAN DO", until her decommissioning in September 1978. USS GRAND CANYON was scrapped in 1980.

The USS GRAND CANYON (AD-28) deployment history and significant events of her service career follow:

AD-28 Deployments - Major Events

Add a AD-28 Shellback Initiation Add a AD-28 Deployment - Major Event
Month Year to Month Year Deployment / Event
OCT1944-Keel Date: 16 OCT 1944
at Todd Pacific Shipyards Seattle WA
APR1945-Launch Date: 27 APR 1945
APR1946-Commissioned: 5 APR 1946
SEP1946-MAR1947Mediterranean
NOV1946-APR1947Mediterranean
NOV1947-MAR1948Mediterranean
AUG1948-DEC1948Mediterranean
DEC1948-DEC1948Carried Michaelangelo's on loan to US statue of David to US
JUN1949-JUN1949Returned statue of David back to Italy
JUL1949-NOV1949Mediterranean
OCT1950-MAR1951Mediterranean
AUG1951-AUG1951Navy battle efficiency E awarded
JAN1952-MAY1952Mediterranean
APR1952-APR1952The Mystic Order Of The Flying Carpet for Dardanelles passage
JAN1954-APR1954Caribbean
MAY1954-DEC1954Mediterranean
JUN1956- Shellback Initiation - 6 JUN 1956 - Atlantic Ocean
JUN1956- Shellback Initiation - 6 JUN 1956 - Atlantic Ocean
SEP1957-OCT1957Blue Nose - Arctic Circle
MAR1958-APR1958Guantanamo Bay
JUN1958- Shellback Initiation - 12 JUN 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
JUN1958- Shellback Initiation - 12 JUN 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
AUG1958-NOV1958Mediterranean
OCT1958- Shellback Initiation - 12 OCT 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
NOV1958-Shellback Initiation - 20 NOV 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
NOV1958- Shellback Initiation - 20 NOV 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
NOV1958- Shellback Initiation - 11 NOV 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
NOV1958- Shellback Initiation - 20 NOV 1958 - Atlantic Ocean
AUG1961-FEB1962Mediterranean
OCT1962-OCT1962Cuban Missle Blockade
JAN1963-JUN1963Mediterranean
JAN1964-MAR1964Guantanamo Bay
JAN1964-SEP1966Mediterranean
JAN1965-JUL1965Mediterranean
MAR1966-SEP1966Mediterranean
JUL1966-SEP1966Mediterranean
MAR1967-JUL1967Regular Overhaul
AUG1967-SEP1967Guantanamo Bay
NOV1967-APR1968Mediterranean
SEP1968-OCT1968Scotland and Netherlands
APR1969-DEC1969Mediterranean
JUL1970-SEP1970Charleston South Carolina
OCT1970-MAR1971Mediterranean
SEP1971-SEP1971Halifax Nova Scotia
JAN1972-APR1972Guantanamo Bay
JAN1972-FEB1972Caribbean
FEB1972-SEP1972Caribbean
JAN1973-JAN1973Caribbean
FEB1973-MAR1973Caribbean
SEP1978-Decommissioned: 1 SEP 1978

AD-28 General Specifications

Complement: 977 Officers and Enlisted

Displacement: 11755 tons

Length: 492 feet

Beam: 69 feet 6 inches

Draft: 28 feet

Flank Speed: 18 knots



USS GRAND CANYON (AD-28)



Grand Canyon (AD-28) was launched 27 April 1945 by Todd-Pacific Shipyard, Inc., Tacoma, Wash.: sponsored by Mrs. W. L. Mann; and commissioned 5 April 1946, Captain W. D. Hoover in command.

After brief shakedown off the coast of southern California Grand Canyon departed Port Townsend, Wash., 26 June 1946 en route Newport, R.I., via the Canal Zone. She arrived Newport 20 July. Assigned the task of keeping our destroyers in operation, Grand Canyon cleared Newport 17 September 1946 for her first tour with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. After a visit to Palermo, Sicily, and a 41/£-month stay at Naples she returned to the States, arriving Norfolk 1 March 1947.

Between 1 November 1947 and 12 November 1954 Grand Canyon continued her support of 6th Fleet destroyers, making six Mediterranean deployments. During this time she participated in some of the largest peacetime service operations ever undertaken.

Grand Canyon continued her tender duties in the U.S. until 24 September 1956 when she again departed for the the Mediterranean for her eighth tour. By 20 October the Suez Crisis had reached the serious stage and the majority of the 6th Fleet proceeded into the Eastern Mediterranean. During this period Grand Canyon, as flagship, took part in fleet exercises and visited the ports of August Bay, Sicily; Messina, Sicily and Taranto, Italy. As the Suez problem subsided she sailed for Cannes, France, 20 December, in time for the Christmas holidays. Grand Canyon returned to Fall River, Mass., 13 March 1957.

The third of September 1957 found Grand Canyon underway with other units of the Atlantic Fleet, this time to participate in NATO fall exercises. By the 16th she had crossed the Arctic Circle operating west of Norway. After visits to Trosmo, Norway and Portland, England, Grand Canyon returned Newport, R.I. 21 October.

Grand Canyon continued her tender duties out of Fall River, Mass., until 1 August 1958 when she sailed for Suda Bay, Crete, to support the 6th Fleet in operations off Lebanon. For the next 4 months she supported destroyers and other types while helping to stabilize the situation and block aggression in Asia Minor. Besides Suda Bay, Grand Canyon visited Izmir, Turkey; Athens, Greece; Naples, Italy; and Barcelona, Spain, before returning home in December.

Grand Canyon spent most of 1959 with tender duties at Newport except for duty at Charleston, S.C., between 29 August 1959 and 11 January 1960. She cleared Charleston 11 January 1960 to participate in Operation "Springboard," returning to Newport 7 February; thence to Bermuda and New York before returning to Newport. Between October 1960 and August 1961 Grand Canyon tended ships at Newport, Boston, and Norfolk.

After her ninth Mediterranean tour August 1961 to March 1962 Grand Canyon returned to Newport and again took up her duties there until the fall. She proceeded to San Juan, P.R., arriving 3 November 1961 to start tending ships of the South Atlantic Blockading Fleet during the Cuban missile crisis and subsequent quarantine. Grand Canyon again helped demonstrate the mobility and versitility of sea power. She returned to Newport 5 December.

Grand Canyon made her tenth deployment to the Mediterranean between 6 February and 27 June 1963. The ship entered Bethlehem Steel Yards, East Boston, Mass., for modernization and refitting. With the completion of modernization 3 January 1964, Grand Canyon sailed for Guantanamo Bay and San Juan, P.R., on training cruises. Returning to Mayport, Fla., 11 May, she tended destroyers there until her departure for Newport, R.I., 20 June for similar duties at that station.

On 27 November, Grand Canyon, departed Newport for her llth Mediterranean cruise, relieving Shenandoah (AD-26) as 6th Fleet tender. She reached Palma, Mallorca, December and until 16 April 1965 tended ships in French, Italian, and Spainsh ports. After returning to Newport 27 April, she served there and at Norfolk, Va., during the next 11 months. Between 29 March 1966 and 12 August she again served ships of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. During the remainder of the year she operated out of Newport.  Into 1967 Grand Canyon continued to provide tender and repair facilities for destroyer-type ships of the Atlantic Fleet and the mighty 6th Fleet.

[Note: The above USS GRAND CANYON (AD-28) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS GRAND CANYON (AD-28), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]