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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # USN 1114887:  USS Hawkins steams alongside USS Enterprise in the South China Sea, 19 February 1965

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Hawkins (DD-873, later DDR-873 and DD-873), 1945-1983

USS Hawkins, a 2425-ton Gearing class destroyer, was built at Orange, Texas. She was commissioned in February 1945 and converted to a radar picket ship before steaming to the Pacific in June to begin combat operations. However, Japan agreed to surrender before she reached the war zone, so she spent the remainder of the year, and the first few months of 1946, in peacetime service in the western and central Pacific. Hawkins deployed to the Far East for a second time in January-October 1947 and made another "WestPac" cruise in 1948-1949, returning to San Diego, California, by way of the Indian Ocean, Suez Canal, Mediterranean and Panama Canal. She was redesignated DDR-873 in mid-March 1949, just after that homecoming, and shortly afterwards was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet.

Hawkins made her first regular deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in mid-1950, but was sent to the Pacific early in 1951 for a Korean War tour of duty that ended with her return to the East Coast in August. Thereafter, with two exceptions, she served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, making a total of sixteen cruises with the Sixth Fleet in the "Middle Sea". Hawkins was present there during the 1956 Middle Eastern crisis. In 1961-63 the destroyer supported space flight operations, took part in the Cuban Missile crisis, and helped with tests of submarine-launched "Polaris" ballistic missiles.

Extensively modernized in 1964, Hawkins was redesignated DD-873 and emerged in FRAM I configuration, with a new superstructure, antisubmarine rocket (ASROC) launcher and facilities for operating for drone helicopters. In September 1965 she went back to the western Pacific for her fifth, and last, career cruise in those waters, returning to the Atlantic Coast in April 1966. Two Sixth Fleet deployments followed in 1966-67 and 1968. In 1969 and 1971 Hawkins supported Apollo space missions and, in 1970, she operated with the Standing Naval Force Atlantic in Northern European waters. Three more Mediterranean cruises, in 1972-73, 1975-76 and 1977 were punctuated in 1974 by long voyages around the Cape of Good Hope for operations in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.

In December 1977 Hawkins was assigned to Naval Reserve training service out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That lasted until the beginning of October 1979, when she was placed out of commission, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and laid up at Philadelpha. Sold to Taiwan in March 1983 and renamed Tsu Yang, she served in Taiwan's navy until 1998.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Hawkins (DD-873, later DDR-873 and DD-873).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 99066

USS Hawkins
(DDR-873)

Alongside the newly-completed USS Independence (CVA-62) during replenishment exercises, May 1959.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 96KB; 590 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99064

USS Hawkins
(DDR-873)

Underway at sea, 30 October 1962.
Photographed by Clements, of USS Enterprise (CVAN-65).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1114887

USS Hawkins
(DD-873)

Steams alongside USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) during refueling operations in the South China Sea, 19 February 1965.
Taken by PH2 W.R. Mosier, USN.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 535 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1114887.

 
Photo #: NH 99067

USS Hawkins
(DD-873)

Underway on 30 May 1965.
Photographed by PH3 Henry Craig Hensel.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99068

USS Hawkins
(DD-873)

Steaming toward Norfolk, Virginia for a visit by the Standing Naval Force Atlantic, 6 July 1970.
Photographed by PHC B.M. Anderson.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-354884

USS Black Hawk
(AD-9)

With six destroyers alongside, probably at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in July 1945.
The destroyers are (from left to right):
USS Hawkins (DD-873);
USS Ordronaux (DD-617);
USS Boyle (DD-600);
USS Champlin (DD-601);
USS Swanson (DD-443); and
USS Franks (DD-554).
Note the personnel boat in the foreground, heading for a landing stage alongside Black Hawk's bow.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-354885

USS Black Hawk
(AD-9)

With six destroyers alongside, probably at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in July 1945.
The destroyers are (from left to right):
USS Hawkins (DD-873);
USS Ordronaux (DD-617);
USS Boyle (DD-600);
USS Champlin (DD-601);
USS Swanson (DD-443); and
USS Franks (DD-554).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 97062

Destroyer Squadron Eight Change of Command, 1951


"Recently returned from Korea, Commander Destroyer Squadron Eight, Captain E.S. Von Kleeck, Jr., reads his farewell address on board the USS J. P. Kennedy, Jr., as officers and men of Destroyer Division 81 stand-by to receive their new commander." Captain Von Kleeck was relieved by Captain J.J. Laffan.
Probably taken at Newport, Rhode Island, soon after 8 August 1951, when DesDiv 81 returned from a Korean War deployment.
Ships present are (from right to left):
USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (DD-850);
USS William R. Rush (DD-714);
USS Fiske (DD-842);
USS Hawkins (DDR-873);
and an unidentified escort destroyer (DDE).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the "All Hands" collection at the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 143KB; 740 x 620 pixels

Note:
This photograph is slightly disfigured by a ripped emulsion in the lower center left.

 
Photo #: NH 99065

USS Hawkins
(DDR-873)

Plowing through heavy seas, circa 1960.
The original photograph bears the rubber stamped date 15 June 1960.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 111KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: K-88323

USS Hawkins (DD-873)


Seaman Curtis mans his station as port lookout, while Hawkins was operating in the Atlantic in February 1971.
Taken by PH1 Claude V. Sneed.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 56KB; 495 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-K-88323.
Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

 
Photo #: NH 68371-KN (color)

USS Hawkins (DD-873)

Jacket patch of the ship's insignia, as used in 1967.

Courtesy of Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 152KB; 590 x 675 pixels

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Hawkins (DD-873, later DDR-873 and DD-873). The following list features some of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • Photo #: 80-G-306067
    USS Hawkins (DD-873) underway on 10 February 1945, the day she went into commission and prior to conversion to a radar picket destroyer.
    Port bow surface view.

  • Photo #: 80-G-306068
    As 80-G-306067, but surface view taken from directly ahead with the ship moving very slowly. Land is visible in the background.


  • Photo #: USN 1045741
    USS Hawkins (DD-873) underway at sea, circa 1946.
    Port bow aerial view, showing the ship after conversion to a radar picket. She is painted in Measure 22 (horizontal two-tone) camouflage.

  • Photo #: 80-G-411491
    USS Hawkins (DD-873) underway on 6 October 1948.
    Port broadside (somewhat toward the bow) aerial view.

  • Photo #: 80-G-438028
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) coming alongside USS Sicily (CVE-118), during operations at sea on 1 November 1949. Photographed by AFC J.P. Zelerock.
    Port bow surface view, taken from about the level of the top of Hawkins' smokestack tops.

  • Photo #: USN 1045771
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) underway, circa 1950.
    Port bow surface view.


  • Photo #: USN 1044262
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) underway in the Mediterranean Sea, 16 August 1959. Photographed by Hein, from USS Saratoga (CVA-60).
    Port bow surface view, relatively tight on the bow.

  • Photo #: USN 1046361
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) at anchor off Sardinia, 2 December 1959. Photographed by Trozal, of USS Essex (CVA-9).
    Starboard bow aerial view.

  • Photo #: USN 1047911
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) underway in the Mediterranean, 1 January 1960. Photographed by Rutledge.
    Starboard bow high aerial view.

  • Photo #: USN 1054659
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) underway in rough seas during Sixth Fleet refueling operations with USS Shangri-La (CVA-38), off Sardinia on 29 April 1961. Photographed by PHAN G.D. Bowen.
    Port bow surface view. Hawkins is cresting a big wave amidships, with her forefoot nearly out of the water.

  • Photo #: USN 1056904
    USS Hawkins (DDR-873) underway at sea, 24 August 1961. Photographed by Snyder, of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42).
    Port broadside (slightly toward the stern) aerial view.


  • Photo #: K-88326 (color)
    Seaman aboard USS Hawkins (DD-873) handles a fuel hose. Photographed by PH1 Claude V. Sneed. The original 35mm color slide was received by the Naval Photographic Center in February 1971.
    Closeup view taken on board the ship.


    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 3 January 2003