Return Home and Longevity
She arrived back at Norfolk 30 January 1968, and shortly thereafter the destroyer resumed operations off the Atlantic coast.
On 14 June 1968 the Leary entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for required maintenance. In early September, after her yard period, Leary returned briefly to Norfolk before conducting training in the Caribbean through October and November. She later reported for operations off the U.S. east coast.
On 5 November 1969, the 632-foot Liberian tanker Keo broke in half about 30 miles east of Cape May, New Jersey. First reports were that 36 crewmen were safe on the stern section of the ship. The Leary was immediately dispatched to the scene, along with two US Coast Guard cutters, two C-130 aircraft, the destroyer Hugh Purvis, and the fast cruiser Fox. However, before any of the ships or the aircraft arrived, the stern quickly sank, and all 36 crewmen were lost.
In early September 1968 after her yard period Leary returned briefly to Norfolk before conducting training in the Caribbean through October and November. From January through October 1969 USS Leary made a West Pac cruise for extended deployment with the 7th Fleet providing gun fire support to US operations in Vietnam. From May 1970 through October 1970 USS Leary made a Mediterranean Cruise and from December 1971 to June 1972 USS Leary made another Mediterranean Cruise which would be her final major cruise before conducting operations off the east coast which continued to her decommissioning on 31 October 1973.
Leary returned one last time to Norfolk, and on 31 October 1973, stood-to for her decommissioning ceremony as she was recognized for her 28 years of distinguished and honorable service to the United States Navy. USS Leary DDR-879 was recognized as one of the longest serving Gearing-class destroyers in the Navy.
Leary was carefully examined for weapons effects testing, and provided vital information on structural integrity and survivability which assisted in the design and planning of later destroyers. After the tests were completed, she was transferred to the inactive fleet and stricken from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1975.
Read more about this topic: USS Leary (DD-879)
Famous quotes containing the words return, home and/or longevity:
“I am apt to think, if we knew what it was to be an angel for one hour, we should return to this world, though it were to sit on the brightest throne in it, with vastly more loathing and reluctance than we would now descend into a loathsome dungeon or sepulchre.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)
“I gleaned jests at home from obsolete farces.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Every thing teaches transition, transference, metamorphosis: therein is human power, in transference, not in creation; & therein is human destiny, not in longevity but in removal. We dive & reappear in new places.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)