STATUS:
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Awarded: ?
Laid down: January 9, 1961 (as DLG 20)
Launched: April 6, 1963 (as DLG 20)
Commissioned:
June 13, 1964 (as DLG 20)
Redesignated
CG 20: June 30, 1975
Decommissioned: April 13, 1995;
Fate: sunk as a target (Atlantic, near Puerto Rico)
- August 9, 1998 during a SINKEX exercise
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Richmond Kelly Turner was
born in Portland, Oregon, on 27 May 1885. Appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy
from California in 1904, he graduated in June 1908 and served in several
ships over the next four years. In 1913, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Turner
briefly held command of the destroyer Stewart. After receiving instruction in
ordnance engineering and service on board the gunboat Marietta, he was
assigned to the battleships Pennsylvania, Michigan and Mississippi during
1916-19.
From 1919 to 1922, Lieutenant Commander Turner was an Ordnance Officer at the
Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C.. He then was Gunnery Officer of the
battleship California, Fleet Gunnery Officer on the Staff of Commander
Scouting Fleet and Commanding Officer of the destroyer Mervine. Following
promotion to the rank of Commander in 1925, Turner served with the Bureau of
Ordnance at the Navy Department. In 1927, he received flight training at
Pensacola, Florida, and a year later became Commanding Officer of the
seaplane tender Jason and Commander Aircraft Squadrons, Asiatic Fleet. He had
further aviation-related assignments into the 1930s and was Executive Officer
of the aircraft carrier Saratoga in 1933-34. Captain Turner attended the
Naval War College and served on that institution's staff in 1935-38. He next
commanded the heavy cruiser Astoria and took her on a diplomatic mission to Japan
in 1939.
Captain Turner was Director of the War Plans Division in Washington, D.C., in
1940-41 and achieved the rank of Rear Admiral late in the latter year. He was
Assistant Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet from December
1941 until June 1942 and was then sent to the Pacific war zone to take
command of the Amphibious Force, South Pacific Force. Over the next three
years, while holding a variety of senior Pacific Fleet amphibious force
commands as both a Rear Admiral and Vice Admiral, he planned and executed the
conquest of enemy positions in the south, central and western Pacific,
contributing greatly to ultimate victory in the World's greatest naval war.
In the rank of Admiral, he would have commanded the amphibious component of the
invasion of Japan, had that nation not capitulated in mid-1945.
Following the end of World War II, Admiral Turner served on the Navy
Department's General Board and was U.S. Naval Representative on the United
Nations Military Staff Committee. He retired from active duty in July 1947.
Admiral Richmond K. Turner died in Monterey, California, on 12 February 1961.
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RICHMOND K. TURNER (DLG-20/CG-20)
was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. Camden, N.J., 9 January
1961; launched 6 April 1963; sponsored by Mrs. Claude V. Ricketts; and
commissioned 13 June 1964, Capt. Douglas C. Plate in command.
Departing the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard 10 August 1964 for her homeport of
San Diego, Calif., she touched briefly at Yorktown and Norfolk, Va., and then
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Entering the Pacific via the Panama Canal, she
steamed northward toward her homeport, with a call at Acapulco, Mexico. She arrived
San Diego 11 September.
Following shakedown out of San Diego 19 March-7 May 1965, RICHMOND K. TURNER
prepared for her first deployment to the western Pacific. Departing San Diego
4 June, she joined Task Force 77 in the Tonkin Gulf-South China Sea area and
served as missile support ship for the attack carriers CORAL SEA (CVA-43),
INDEPENDENCE (CVA-62), and ORISKANY (CVA-34), while they conducted air strike
operations in Southeast Asia.
In September, she was relieved of duties as missile support ship and
reassigned to the Search and Rescue Destroyer Unit in the Tonkin Gulf. After
participating in missions in which eight aviators were rescued through 8
October, she departed Subic Bay 30 November and arrived San Diego 18
December.
RICHMOND K. TURNER's subsequent deployments have followed in the wake of her
first WestPac voyage, with leave, upkeep, overhaul, and type training
rounding out her periods in homeport. She stood out of San Diego 15 October
1966, bound a second time for Southeast Asian waters. Returning to her
homeport 28 March 1967, she punctuated her coastal operations with a
midshipman training cruise to Pearl Harbor. Departing for her third tour off
Vietnam 10 June 1968, she contributed to Fleet readiness in Asian waters
until her 19 December return to San Diego.
Leave and upkeep extended through 20 January 1969. She then assumed duty as
ASW Schoolship in the southern California operating areas. In February, she
conducted a SecNav guest cruise, and 1 March she commenced an extensive
updating of her shipboard missile systems at the Naval Station San Diego. She
then underwent training and further preparations for her fourth WestPac
deployment, which commenced in January 1970. She arrived in Yokosuka, Japan,
4 March and spent the next two months operating in the Sea of Japan. June
found her off the coast of Vietnam, where she remained until late July.
Stopping off at Guam and Pearl Harbor, she returned to San Diego in August,
arriving on the 12th.
RICHMOND K. TURNER continued operations out of San Diego until 22 March 1971,
when she embarked for Bath, Maine and antiaircraft warfare modernization. She
arrived at the Bath Iron Works 27 April and was decommissioned 5 May. After
more than a year at Bath, she was recommissioned 27 April 1972.
For the next seven months, RICHMOND K. TURNER engaged in various post
modernization trials, exercises, and refresher training along the east coast
of the United States and in the Caribbean. She returned to Newport, R.I., 22
November and remained there until 9 January 1973, when she entered Boston
Naval Shipyard for a two-month yard period. Leaving Boston in March, she
continued normal operations out of Newport along the Atlantic seaboard and in
the Caribbean until mid-December. At that time she returned to Newport and
remained in port at Newport into 1974.
She participated in Operation 200 which included the International Naval
Review in New York City on the occasion of the Nation's Bicentennial
Celebration on 4 July 1976.
In May 1980 TURNER participate in Boston's OPSAIL 80, in addition to
conducting two special operations for which she was awarded a Meritorious
Unit Citation. RICHMOND K. TURNER completed four highly successful
Mediterranean deployments as part of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, prior to an
extensive baseline overhaul at Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, SC from
January to December 1982. During this overhaul TURNER received numerous
updates which modernized her combat systems suite; this included the
installation of the Vulcan Phalanx Close In Weapons System for self defense
against cruise missiles. After this overhaul TURNER completed two more
Mediterranean deployments, one of which included the successful launch of a
Harpoon missile during a Gulf of Sidra operation.
TURNER also completed a 1988 deployment to the Persian Gulf and was a participant
of Operation Earnest Will.
Upon her return to the United States, TURNER was overhauled in Ingalls
Shipyard at Pascagoula, Mississippi,where she received the New Threat Upgrade
(NTU) to her Combat Direction System as well as many engineering
improvements.
In response to the crisis in the Persian Gulf caused by Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait, RICHMOND K. TURNER deployed early as a primary AAW unit in the
THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) battle group, which arrived in the theater just
before hostilities broke out.
During 60 days of operations in the Persian Gulf, TURNER provided protection
to four carriers in the CV operating area and served as an advance picket
ship in the mine infested waters off Kuwait in the final days of the war.
Following the cease fire, TURNER relocated to the Red Sea where she
participated in the continuing maritime interception operations in support of
U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
Escorting THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71) through the Suez Canal in late April
'91, TURNER participated in Operation Provide Comfort, the massive relief
effort to help tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees who fled the turmoil of
Iraq following that country's decisive defeat in the war. During this time
RICHMOND K. TURNER became the Anti-Air Warfare Commander for the Aircraft
Carrier Striking Force, U.S. Sixth Fleet.
For her operations during this deployment, the Secretary of the Navy awarded
RICHMOND K. TURNER the Joint Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy Unit
Commendation, the National Defense Medal, and the Southwest Asia Service
Medal.
RICHMOND K. TURNER's final years were marked by a final deployment to the
Mediterranean as a part of the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT battle group. She
served with distinction as an anti-air warfare commander during Operation
Deny Flight over the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Bosnia. As one of her
last duties, she served as the test platform for the Navy's Light-weight
Exoatmosheric Projectile (LEAP) Program, firing the first LEAP shot ever and
launching the Navy into the future of missile technology.
She was decommissioned and stricken 31 March 1995 and laid up with the NDRF.
On 9 August 1998 she was sunk as part of a SINKEX conducted by the Enterprise
(CVN-65) battle group including Philippine Sea (CG-58), Thorn (DD-988),
Nicholson (DD-982) and Carrier Air Wing 3. She was sunk by a combination of
HARM missiles fired by CVW-3 and Harpoon anti-ship missiles fired by
Enterprise's escorts. The Air Force participated with a trio of 2000-lb bombs
and she was sunk in nearly 3,000 fathoms of water.
RICHMOND K. TURNER has earned eight battle stars for Vietnam service.
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