1953-1979
On 7 January 1953, Meredith entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for habitability conversion which lasted into November. She then resumed the alternation of duty tours with the 2nd and 6th Fleets. During her 1958 overseas deployment, she served briefly with the Middle East Force as she and HMS Loch Fyne (K429) stood by in the Euphrates Delta area after the Iraqi revolution of 14 July.
Toward the end of the following year, Meredith, reassigned to DesRon 14, was slated for FRAM (Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization). Entering the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, on 28 June 1960, she remained for a year and two days during which time her bridge was enclosed, her torpedo deck was modified to allow the installation of ASROC, and her seven year old 3 inch battery was replaced by a helicopter hangar and flight deck to accommodate the QH-50 DASH (Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter) weapons system.
On 1 July 1961, the "new" Meredith sailed for her new home port, Mayport, Florida. After refresher training, she got underway for a good will tour of various ports in the Caribbean and along the west coast of Africa from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Cape Town, Republic of South Africa. While en route she collected oceanographic data which included piscatoral and avian surveys as well as hydrologic information. Meredith returned to Mayport on 18 February 1962. She further tested and evaluated the ASROC system before heading north to embark midshipmen for the fourth time. In August 1958, the destroyer once again transited the Atlantic for oversea deployment. In November 1965, brought her into the space age with an assignment to the Project Gemini recovery operations.
1969 In the early part of the year Meredith passed thru the Panama canal enroute to the western pacific where she participated in the Action in the South China Sea providing coastal bombardment and plane guard service. Meredith operated in the combat zone over a six month period.
During the WestPac tour, while enroute to Australia (but short of crossing the equater) Meredith was reassigned to join what was said to be the largest task force of American war ships since World War II. The task force was assembled in response to North Korea's downing of an American aircraft. Meredith returned to Mayport in the latter part 1969.
Subsequent to the WestPac tour of 1969 Meredith once again sailed to join the United States 6th Fleet for service in the Mediterranean, after which she returned her Mayport, Fla. home port.
Meredith was decommissioned on 29 June 1979 and transferred to Turkey on the same day. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 7 December 1979.
In Turkish Navy service, she was renamed TCG Savaştepe (D 348). The ship was scrapped in 1995.
Read more about this topic: USS Meredith (DD-890)