STATUS:
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Awarded:
March 23,
1978
Laid
down: February 12, 1979
Launched: March 1, 1980
Commissioned: October 24, 1981 (US Navy)
Decommissioned: December 10, 1998 (US Navy)
Fate: sold to Taiwan (ROC);
commissioned
as DDG-1801 ROCS
Kee Lung on
December 17, 2005; in service;
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Rear Admiral Norman
Scott (August 10, 1889 – November 13, 1942):
Norman Scott was
born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on 10 August 1889. Appointed to the U.S. Naval
Academy in 1907, he graduated four years later and received his commission as
Ensign in March 1912. During 1911-13, Ensign Scott served in the battleship
Idaho, then served in destroyers and related duty. In December 1917, he was
Executive Officer of USS Jacob Jones when she was sunk by a German submarine
and was commended for his performance at that time. During the rest of World
War I, Lieutenant Scott had duty in the Navy Department and as Naval Aide to
President Woodrow Wilson. In 1919, while holding the temporary rank of
Lieutenant Commander, he was in charge of a division of Eagle Boats (PE) and
commanded USS Eagle # 2 and Eagle # 3.
During the first years of the 1920s, Norman Scott served afloat in destroyers
and in the battleship New York and ashore in Hawaii. From 1924 to 1930, he
was assigned to the staff of Commander Battle Fleet and as an instructor at
the Naval Academy. He commanded the destroyers MacLeish and Paul Jones in the
early 1930s, then had further Navy Department Duty and attended the Naval War
College's Senior Course. After a tour as Executive Officer of the light
cruiser Cincinnati, Commander Scott was a member of the U.S. Naval Mission to
Brazil in 1937-39. Following promotion to the rank of Captain, he was
Commanding Officer of the heavy cruiser Pensacola until shortly after the
United States entered World War II in December 1941.
Captain Scott was assigned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
during the first months of 1942. After becoming a Rear Admiral in May, he was
sent to the south Pacific, where he commanded a fire support group during the
invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August. Rear Admiral Scott
continued to lead surface task units for the next three months, as the
campaign to hold Guadalcanal intensified. On 11-12 October 1942, he commanded
a cruiser-destroyer force in the Battle of Cape Esperance, the U.S. Navy's
first surface victory of the campaign. A month later, on 13 November, he was
second-in-command during the initial night action of the Naval Battle of
Guadalcanal. In that wild and brutal fight, Rear Admiral Norman Scott was
killed in action when his flagship, the light cruiser Atlanta, was fatally damaged
by gunfire and a torpedo. For his "extraordinary heroism and conspicuous
intrepidity" in the October and November battles, he was posthumously
awarded the Medal of Honor.
USS Norman Scott (DD-690), and USS Scott (DDG-995), were named in honor of
Rear Admiral Scott.
Medal of Honor citation of Rear Admiral Norman Scott -
(as printed in the
official publication "Medal of Honor, 1861-1949, The Navy", page
257):
"For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous intrepidity above and beyond
the call of duty during action against enemy Japanese forces off Savo Island
on the night of 11-12 October and again on the night of 12-13 November 1942.
In the earlier action, intercepting a Japanese Task Force intent upon
storming our island positions and landing reinforcements at Guadalcanal, Rear
Admiral Scott, with courageous skill and superb corordination of the units
under his command, destroyed eight hostile vessels and put the others to
flight. Again challenged, a month later, by the return of a stubborn and
persistent foe, he led his force into a desperate battle against tremendous
odds, directing close-range operations against the invading enemy until he
himself was killed in the furious bombardment by their superior fire power.
On each of these occasions his dauntless initiative, inspiring leadership and
judicious foresight in a crisis of grave responsibility contributed
decisively to the rout of a powerful invasion fleet and to the consequent
frustration of a formidible Japanese offensive. He gallantly gave his life in
the service of his country."
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USS
Scott (DDG 995):
USS Scott
(DDG-995) was a Kidd-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was named
for Rear Admiral Norman Scott, who was killed during a surface action at the
First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal (sometimes referred to as the Battle of
Friday the 13th) aboard USS Atlanta, winning a posthumous Medal of Honor for
his actions.
Originally named Nader, Scott was ordered by the Shah of Iran, but was
undelivered at the time of the Iranian Revolution and the U.S. Navy elected
to commission her and her sister ships for service in the Persian Gulf. The
destroyers were equipped with heavy-duty air conditioning and were also well
suited to filtering sand and the results from NBC warfare. She was
commissioned in 1981.
Scott completed a major re-fit in Philadelphia in 1988. The focus was to
upgrade its radar and fire control tracking system as well to support AEGIS
equipped vessels.
Scott was decommissioned from the U.S. Navy on December 10, 1998.
Current status:
Scott was sold to the Republic of China in 2004 and originally to be named
Tong Teh. However, due to her better storage condition than her sister ships,
she became the first Kidd class vessel to be commissioned by the Republic of
China Navy (ROCN) and named ROCS Kee Lung (DDG-1801), becoming the leading vessel
of the new ROCN Kee Lung-class destroyers.
After almost two years of refit and training in the U.S., the Kee Lung was
commissioned on December 17, 2005 at Kee-Lung naval port in northern Taiwan.
The ROCN paid just over $690 million for the four Kidd-class destroyers,
giving it extensive AAW capabilities.
source:
wikipedia
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