USS ''Reasoner'' (FF-1063) 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 ...

, named in honor of 1st Lt. Frank S. Reasoner, awarded the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

posthumously in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

Construction

''Reasoner'' was laid down 6 January 1969, by

Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company (a.k.a. Lockheed Shipbuilding), was a shipyard in Seattle, Washington with Yard 1 on Harbor Island and Yard 2 at what is now Jack Block Park at Seattle Terminal 5, both at the mouth of the West Wat ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, WA and launched 1 August 1970, cosponsored by Mrs. James C. Curry and Mrs. Robert Svingen. ''Reasoner'' was commissioned 31 July 1971, Cmdr. Francisco Velazquez-Suarez, USN, commanding. Her hull number, originally DE-1063, was changed in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Class design and description

The ''Knox''-class design was derived from the , modified to extend range and without a long-range missile system. The ships had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of . They displaced at full load. Their crew consisted of 13 officers and 211 enlisted men. The warships were equipped with one Westinghouse geared

steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...

that drove the single

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect o ...

. The turbine was designed to produce , using steam provided by two C-E

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

s, to reach the designed speed of . The ''Knox'' class had a range of at a speed of .Gardiner, Chumley & Budzbon, p. 598 The ''Knox''-class ships were armed with a

5"/54 caliber Mark 42 gun The Mark 42 5"/54 caliber gun (127mm) is a naval gun (naval artillery) mount used by the United States Navy and other countries. It consists of the Mark 18 gun and Mark 42 gun mount. United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fires a pr ...

forward and a single

3-inch/50-caliber gun The 3-inch/50-caliber gun (spoken "three-inch fifty-caliber") in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long (barrel length is 3 in × 50 = ). Different guns (iden ...

aft. They mounted an eight-round

RUR-5 ASROC The RUR-5 ASROC (for "Anti-Submarine Rocket") is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, ser ...

launcher between the 5-inch (127 mm) gun and the

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

. Close-range anti-submarine defense was provided by two twin Mk 32 torpedo tubes. The ships were equipped with a torpedo-carrying

DASH The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

drone helicopter; its telescoping hangar and landing pad were positioned amidships aft of the mack. Beginning in the 1970s, the DASH was replaced by a

SH-2 Seasprite The Kaman SH-2 Seasprite is a ship-based helicopter originally developed and produced by American manufacturer Kaman Aircraft Corporation. It has been typically used as a compact and fast-moving rotorcraft for utility and anti-submarine warfar ...

LAMPS I helicopter and the hangar and landing deck were accordingly enlarged. Most ships also had the 3-inch (76 mm) gun replaced by an eight-cell BPDMS missile launcher in the early 1970s.

Service history

''Reasoner'' first deployed with HSL 31 "Lamps" SH2D in 1973 to Southeast Asia and took part in Operation End Sweep (the removal of mines in Haiphong Harbor). ''Reasoner'' was decommissioned on 28 August 1993 and subsequently leased to Turkey, where the ship was recommissioned as ''Kocatepe''. On 22 February 2002, she was finally purchased by Turkey. On 4 May 2005, the ship was used as a target and sunk in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

In popular culture

* ''Reasoner'' is featured in the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for the 1979

Village People Village People is an American disco group known for its on-stage costumes and suggestive lyrics in their music. The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis following the re ...

song "

In the Navy "In the Navy" is a song by American disco group Village People. It was released as the first single from their fourth studio album, '' Go West'' (1979). It was a number one hit in Canada, Flanders, Japan and the Netherlands, while reaching numbe ...

Awards and decorations

* Joint Meritorious Unit Award * Navy Unit Commendation * Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation * Navy "E" Ribbon (2) * Navy Expeditionary Medal * National Defense Service Medal w/service star * Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal w/bronze star * Southwest Asia Service Medal w/bronze star * Humanitarian Service Medal w/bronze star * Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon * Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait)

Notes

References

* * *

External links

*
DANFS - Reasoner
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reasoner Ships built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company Knox-class frigates 1970 ships Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the Turkish Navy Ships sunk as targets Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States