USS Steinaker (DD-863)
|
Career | |
---|---|
Ordered: | |
Laid down: | 1 September 1944 |
Launched: | 13 February 1945 |
Commissioned: | 26 May 1945 |
Decommissioned: | |
Fate: | Sold to Mexican Navy, 24 February 1982, still active as of May 1998 |
Struck: | 24 February 1982 |
General Characteristics | |
Displacement: | 3,460 tons (full) |
Length: | 390 ft 6 in |
Beam: | 40 ft 10 in |
Draught: | 14 ft 4 in |
Propulsion: | 2-screw General Electric geared turbines, 60,000 shp |
Speed: | 36.8 knots |
Range: | 4500 nm @ 20 knots |
Complement: | 336 |
Armament: | 6 5", 12 40mm., 11 20mm., 10 21" tt |
Nickname: |
USS Steinaker (DD-863) (later DDR-863), named for Private First Class Donald Baur Steinaker USMCR (1922-1942) killed in action at Guadalcanal on 8 October 1942 and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross, was a Gearing class destroyer laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Staten Island in New York on 1 September 1944, launched on 13 February 1945 by Miss Carol Steinaker and commissioned on 26 May 1945.
Steinaker alternated operations along the east coast and in the Caribbean with the 2nd Fleet with deployments to the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet, underwent conversion to a radar picket destroyer at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard between 1 July 1952 and 28 February 1953, underwent an extensive Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the conflict in Vietnam.
USS Steinaker was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 February 1982, transferred to Mexico and renamed Netzahualcoyotl.