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U.S.S. GRAND CANYON
(AR-28)NOT ONLY CAN DO BUT WILL DO
Click to view crew list
USS GRAND CANYON (AR-28) - Shenandoah-class destroyer tender
In Commission 1946 to 1978AR-28 Deployments - Major Events
Add a AR-28 Shellback Initiation | Add a AR-28 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
OCT | 1944 | - | Keel Date: 16 OCT 1944 at Todd Pacific Shipyards Seattle WA | ||
APR | 1945 | - | Launch Date: 27 APR 1945 | ||
APR | 1946 | - | Commissioned: 5 APR 1946 | ||
JAN | 1954 | - | JAN | 1955 | Mediterranean |
AUG | 1958 | - | DEC | 1958 | Mediterranean-Lebanon |
JAN | 1970 | - | Shellback Initiation - 28 JAN 1970 - Pacific Ocean | ||
JUN | 1970 | - | JAN | 1971 | Mediterranean |
JUL | 1972 | - | AUG | 1973 | Cuban Missle Blockade |
SEP | 1978 | - | Decommissioned: 1 SEP 1978 | ||
AUG | 2018 | - | AUG | 2019 | South America |
AR-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 (AR-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 (AR-28) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS GRAND CANYON (AR-28), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]