USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968) - First Deployment and Interim

First Deployment and Interim

Arthur W. Radford cleared Norfolk on 13 March 1979, bound for the Mediterranean and a tour with the U.S. 6th Fleet. Over the next six months, she participated in a variety of exercises and visited the ports of Catania, Sicily; Split, Yugoslavia; Trieste, Italy; Alexandria, Egypt; Cannes, France, Palma, Spain; Barcelona, Spain; Toulon, France, Théoule, France, Rota, Spain and Valencia, Spain. During the eployment, the vessel fired her first Harpoon missile in the Mediterranean on 28 July. Her target was the hulk of a destroyer, ex-Lansdowne (later the Turkish TCG Gaziantep (D-344)). Radford also participated in Exercise "Multiplex 1-79" in the Ionian Sea, Exercise "Dawn Patrol" in the Tyrrhenian Sea and Ionian Seas, Exercise "Tridente" out of Alexandria, and Exercise "National Week" XXVII, Phases 1 and 2. While en route from Toulon to Theoule, France, she rescued the French ketch, Laurca, adrift 50 miles (80 km) from the French resort of St. Tropez.

Clearing Rota on 12 September, Arthur W. Radford reached Norfolk on 22 September. Underway for Miami, Florida on 23 October, she served as the platform for deck landing qualifications for helicopter pilots en route, and, after touching at Mayport, Florida to unload a crippled H 3 helicopter from HSL-30, reached Miami on 27 October for a two-day port visit.

After returning briefly to Norfolk from 31 October to 5 November, the destroyer proceeded to Halifax, Nova Scotia and participated in a training exercise with American and Canadian warships. During the course of Exercise "Canus-Marcot" she logged her 1,000th helicopter landing of 1979. Returning to Norfolk on 21 November, she remained in port for the remainder of the year 1979.

For the first half of 1980, the warship principally operated off the eastern seaboard of the United States, and ranged as far north as Halifax and as far south as the Caribbean, working briefly out of Vieques and Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, as well as out of Jacksonville, Florida. During this time, she also visited Annapolis, Maryland where United States Naval Academy midshipmen toured the ship's engineering plant on an orientation visit. Admiral James L. Holloway III, the former Chief of Naval Operations, visited the ship as well. FTG2 Mark (Spud) Coy left the ship on 20 March 1980. DS1 Mark (VD) Vendeiro, plankowner, departed the ship on or about 18 June 1980. ETN2 Grant Evans, Plankowner, departed the ship on or about June 1980.