USS Van Voorhis (DE-1028) - 1970-1971 and Fate

1970-1971 and Fate

In January 1970, Van Voorhis began preparations for conversion to a research and development platform to test the Interim Towed Array Surveillance System (ITASS). Late that month, her DASH equipment was removed to make room for the ITASS submarine detection gear. On 9 February, she entered the Bethlehem Steel Shipyards in East Boston to begin the actual conversion. Over the next month, her new equipment was installed, and her DASH hangar was modified to provide a berthing area for the additional crew members necessitated by the ITASS. Van Voorhis completed the conversion early in March and, for the next four months, she conducted a series of tests on the experimental equipment in the vicinity of Bermuda.

From late June to late August, she prepared to deploy to the Mediterranean. She departed Newport on 26 August 1970, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on 6 September, and arrived at Naples on the 9th. The destroyer escort operated with the 6th Fleet, conducting surveillance patrols with her new ITASS gear until near the end of November. During the intervening two months, she also called at such places as Barcelona, Mallorca, Crete, and Naples. On 17 November, she turned the 6th Fleet ITASS responsibility over to her relief, Lester (DE-1022). After a liberty call at Palma de Mallorca and change of operational control at Rota, Spain, Van Voorhis set out to recross the Atlantic on 26 November and arrived in Newport on 6 December.

Van Voorhis began 1971 in port at Newport and operated from that base during the first eight months of the year. In September, the warship underwent an inspection and survey which found her to be unfit for further naval service. She remained moored at Newport until the following summer. Van Voorhis was decommissioned on 1 July 1972, and her name was struck from the Navy list simultaneously. On 15 June 1973, she was sold to the Union Minerals and Alloys Corporation, of New York City, and was subsequently scrapped.