:''See also'' ''USS'' Young ''for similarly named ships.'' USS ''John Young'' (DD-973), named for

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

John Young, USN, was a of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. The ship was built by the

Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, and now part of HII. It is a leading producer of ships for the United States Navy, and, as of 2023, is the largest private em ...

Division of

Litton Industries Litton Industries, Inc., was an American defense contractor that specialized in shipbuilding, aerospace, electronic components, and information technology. The company was founded in 1953 and was named after inventor Charles Litton Sr., who was ...

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula metropolitan area, and is part of the Gulfport, Mississippi, Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi–Pascag ...

Service history

In 1987, ''John Young'' deployed off the coast of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in support of

Operation Earnest Will Operation Earnest Will (24 July 1987 – 26 September 1988) was an American military protection of Kuwaiti-owned tankers from Iranian attacks in 1987 and 1988, three years into the Tanker War phase of the Iran–Iraq War. It was the largest na ...

and participated in

Operation Nimble Archer Operation Nimble Archer was the 19 October 1987 attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces. The attack was a response to Iran's missile attack on , a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at anchor off Kuwait, wh ...

. ''John Young'' deployed with Battle Group Echo, which included the

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

s , , destroyers and ,

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

s , , , and

auxiliaries Auxiliaries are combat support, support personnel that assist the military or police but are organised differently from regular army, regular forces. Auxiliary may be military volunteers undertaking support functions or performing certain duties ...

, , , . ''John Young'', following appropriate

Congressional A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...

notification, became one of eight combat ships that began receiving women as crewmembers in 1994. As part of a reorganization by the Pacific Fleet's surface ships into six core battle groups and eight destroyer squadrons, with the reorganization scheduled to be completed by 1 October 1995, and homeport changes to be completed within the following, year, ''John Young'' was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 23. ''John Young'' departed

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

on 9 February 1996 enroute to the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment as part of the Middle East Force (MEF). This deployment was remarkable because a main engineering space was completely gutted and refitted following a major fuel oil leak just days before that trapped several crew members in thirty thousand gallons of fuel. The ship was having extensive last-minute pre-deployment repairs, requiring most of the installed firefighting systems to be disabled. Also, the fire-proof escape doors in all the engineering spaces were temporarily removed for repairs. Had the fuel ignited, it would have been catastrophic to not only John Young, but the many ships nearby in port. On 28 April 1996, a Navy boarding team aboard ''John Young'' boarded a merchant ship thus marking the 10,000th such boarding in support of

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

sanctions against Iraq. As part of a multinational maritime interception force, operating in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

, the team boarded an Indian flagged

dhow Dhow (; ) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically sporting long thin hulls, dhows are trading vessels ...

in the Persian Gulf to make the milestone boarding. The vessel was empty and permitted to proceed. ''John Young'' departed

on 18 November 1997 en route to the Persian Gulf for a six-month deployment as part of the Middle East Force (MEF). ''John Young'' teamed up with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) in late March 2001 for a major drug bust at sea. She was last stationed at San Diego, California.

Fate

''John Young'' was decommissioned on 30 September 2002, and stricken 6 November 2002, laid up at

Bremerton, Washington Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington, Kitsap County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The population was 43,505 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and an estimated 44,122 in 2021, making it the largest city ...

NISMF. On 13 April 2004, ''John Young'' was sunk during exercise RIMPAC 04 by a

Mark 48 torpedo The Mark 48 and its improved Advanced Capability (ADCAP) variant are American heavyweight submarine-launched torpedoes. They were designed to sink deep-diving nuclear-powered submarines and high-performance surface ships. History The Mark 48 wa ...

fired by the

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

, which broke her in half.

Gallery

File:Three Spruance-class destroyers at Pearl Harbor c1980.jpg, USS Hewitt, USS Kinkaid and USS ''John Young'' at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

in March 1980 File:330-CFD-DN-ST-84-00308 (21923476770).jpg, USS ''John Young'' on 1 May 1981 File:Tashkent&JohnYoung1984.jpg, USS ''John Young'' and

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

in 1984 File:330-CFD-DN-SC-89-09436 (17358204065).jpg, USS ''John Young'' on 26 August 1987 File:330-CFD-DN-SC-88-03384 (17170669240).jpg, USS ''John Young'' on 19 October 1987 File:Defense.gov News Photo 980209-N-4142G-002.jpg, USS ''John Young'''s sailor loads a projectile into her 5-inch gun on 9 February 1998

References

External links

*
navsource.org: USS ''John Young''

Yahoo! Newsgroup for former ''John Young'' Crewmembers

Reunion website and info for former ''John Young'' Crewmembers
{{DEFAULTSORT:John Young (DD-973) Spruance-class destroyers Cold War destroyers of the United States 1976 ships Ships sunk as targets Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi