Even a slight sea would cause Long Beach to roll but you became used to it. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. After I was born, he went back on active duty. The U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9) underway off Oahu, Hawaii (USA), 9 May 1973. The monolithic superstructure atop her otherwise graceful 721' cruiser hull makes it impossible to confuse Long Beach with any other ship. [8] During this initial cruise, the ship served primarily as the Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone (PIRAZ) unit in the northern Gulf of Tonkin. Upon arriving, we were told that we'd only be in port for a few hours and that only crew members with official business would be allowed off of the ship. My partner at the recruiting station was an Engineman First Class originally from the Philippines. Amounts shown in italicized text are for items listed in currency other than Canadian dollars and are approximate conversions to Canadian dollars based upon Bloomberg's conversion Long Beach had the cradles for the Harpoon anti-ship missiles on the fantail now. However, the space was eventually occupied by the 5"/38 caliber gun mounts and the ASROC system. [17] In 1975 the ship changed home ports to Naval Base San Diego, California. Our 1978 WESTPAC cruise wasn't greatly different from the one in 1976-1977. 17,000 tonnes 1976 design. During this deployment, we also visited Subic Bay in the Philippines for a maintenance period, as well as Singapore (one of my favorite cities) and Pearl Harbor on the way home to San Diego. As a side note, with an enlisted crew of about 1,000, there was only seating for about 300 sailors in the enlisted mess decks at one time. Regardless, the damage requiredLong Beach to stay in Pearl Harbor longer than planned and also necessitated going into drydock to replace the starboard shaft. March 1970 Overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. She served in the US Navy until 1921, then in the US Merchant Marine, and was scrapped in 1924. They were both unique designs, each a kind of 'one-off' which generally doesn't do well for ship designs. I knew Long Beach's capabilities and I also knew the Chief's accommodations were a bit better on Lang Beach compared with the other ships, even though Arkansas was much newer. USSLong Beach(CGN9)arrived back at the west coast on 4 July where, after a welldeserved period of rest, she resumed the exercises and operations which would keep her well prepared for her return to Vietnam the following year. The decision was made to decommission her in 1994. Technology, performance and design delivered to your inbox. She was the U.S. Navy's first nuclear-powered surface combatant and was absolutely packed with. Those of us who had been on Long Beach called Arkansas a 'cruiser with a forged birth certificate' since most of the official plans and manuals referred to the ship as a DLGN (nuclear powered guided missile destroyer), not a CGN (nuclear powered guided missile cruiser). On the fantail, Long Beach had the Talos missile system. Instead of receiving a third nuclear refueling and proposed upgrade, USSLong Beach was deactivated on May 1, 1995, after more than 33 years of operational service. The first place I sailed to after joining Long Beach was Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Washington. He was a Master Chief Storekeeper (E-9) at the time of his passing in April of 1980. I was there before the reactors were placed in the ship. The 1984 deployment was different than my previous deployments on Long Beach from the start. Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs ofUSS Long Beach (CGN-9). Because of this, Long Beach also had plenty of chill water cooling available. The Standard SM-2ER missiles and the associated modern electronics replaced the obsolete Terrier system. [20], A crew member aboard the USS Long Beach may have been exposed to abnormal levels of radiation in 1963,[21] and the ship was leaking radioactive coolant in 1991. She was reclassified CGN-160 in early 1957, but was again reclassified as CGN-9 on 1 July 1957. Long Beach deployed throughout the 1980s, conducting Tomahawk cruise missile test launches and exercises. We hadn't yet learned to formalize the mentoring process in the Navy. The Chief Classifier, who had attended recruiting school with me, called and told me my applicant was not going to enlist for the position he'd offered her. This is the first in our series about all things Nuclear. The guided missile frigate USS McClusky was commissioned in 1982 . The ship was an absolute modern marvel of her time. We actually had to get permission to send a female applicant to the processing station. We had an impromptu exercise with a Soviet Kynda class cruiser when they took up plane guard during my first deployment. She told me that she'd been interested in the HT position but after I explained the rarity of what she'd been offered, she agreed to take the air traffic controller training along with an advanced pay grade after boot camp. A big AN/SPS-48 radar dish was also mounted on the forward mast. We later rejoined the Kitty Hawk and made a port visit in Yokosuka, Japan. In a lot of aspects, the difference between the two is not unlike the difference between a 1960 family sedan and a 1979 model from the same manufacturer. [8] At commissioning, the ship was reported to have cost $320million ($2.9billion today),[9] which was over budget from earlier estimates of $250million. [citation needed], The original weapons suite consisted of:[citation needed], The ship went through several modifications by the time she was decommissioned. She was launched 14 July 1959, sponsored by Mrs. Marian Swanson-Hosmer, the wife of Rear Admiral Craig Hosmer (USNR, Ret. Long Beach was originally considered for the installation of sea-launched ICBMs, but the boomers (SSBNs) worked out and have owned the sea-based nuclear ballistic missile deterrent mission ever since. Long Beach was decommissioned on 1 May 1995 instead of receiving her third nuclear refueling and proposed upgrade. 1969. I asked to speak with my applicant and we talked about the position she'd been offered. Nimitz is underway in the 3rd Fleet Area of Operations. This also allowed me to make a quick phone call to my wife to let my family know we had arrived safely. 400 Hz motor-generator maintenance school was six weeks long and in San Diego, so I would also get six weeks at home with my family. He told me to put a request through the district CO and if approved he'd give me a spot on the Long Beach. 2 Armored Box Launchers for a total of eight, Two triple 12.75inch torpedo launchers that could fire the, The rear launcher for the Talos was removed and initially replaced with two quadruple mounts for the, Two quadruple armored box launchers were added for the. Soon after we noticed the Victor III on the surface, dead in the water. Find Uss Long Beach stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Later in my career, when I was a senior chief (E8) on the COMNAVSURFPAC/COMNAVAIRPAC Nuclear Propulsion Mobile Training Team, I was instrumental in getting funds put into yard maintenance to move the crew ashore out of the industrial area. The 'billboard' arrays of the AN/SPS-32/33 SCANFAR radar were gone and a new structure was erected over the aft superstructure to support the new AN/SPS-49 radar. Arkansas had a bit less than one-half the number of Long Beach's crew. I finished boot camp as a company honor man and with scholastic honors. [Status: Disposed of by Recycling ] Class: CGN 9 - Cruiser, Guided Missile, Nuclear. Polmar, Norman "The U.S. Navy: Shipboard Radars", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone, Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon, List of cruisers of the United States Navy, Nuclear-powered cruisers of the United States Navy, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, "Historic nuclear cruiser headed to scrap heap", "Ships Participating in Desert Shield / Storm as of 24 April 1991", "USS Dallas completing 36-year-run in Bremerton", "Documents Say Nuclear Ship Leaking Radioactive Coolant", https://lbpost.com/staff-blog/deactivated-uss-long-beach-sold-for-scrap, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Long_Beach_(CGN-9)&oldid=1147925725, Vietnam War cruisers of the United States, Articles needing additional references from August 2011, All articles needing additional references, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2018, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Naval Vessel Register, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. [citation needed], There was originally a plan to fully upgrade Long Beach with an Aegis Combat System in the early 1990s, requiring that her superstructure be completely rebuilt. It takes almost two years of training before a nuclear-trained crew member reports to their first ship. Navy USN USS Texas CGN-39 Ship 5 inch Cap Hat Embroidered Patch EE1521 F6D24U. All Rights Reserved. After about a year as Recruiter-In-Charge, I heard from my detailer that he needed nuclear-trained chiefs back at sea. It was also more compact than Long Beach and had fewer crew members, but it had better accommodations. $8.99 + $0.87 shipping. I was correct in that there were more good examples to learn from on the Long Beach. Long Beach had two pressurized water reactors, two main engines, twin screws and twin rudders. I looked around and saw khakis with shiny black shoes and heard I only wanted one at the end of the table where I sit from the admiral in charge of Cruiser-Destroyer Group 1 (we were the flagship). When this was done at dinner time we'd call it 'having dinner rolls.'. In 1987, we were deployed to the Arabian Gulf area during the Iraq-Iran War. This tour of duty in West Pac ended with her arrival again at Long Beach on 16 November. 9 December 1967 Present at Long Beach to welcome. Nuclear power had been deemed too expensive to use on surface ships smaller than aircraft carriers in view of defense budget cutbacks after the end of the Cold War. The guidedmissile cruiser conducted extensive. He went back to sea duty on USS Dixie (AD-14) for three years and then his final tour was at Fleet Assistance Group, San Diego. I'm sure that the air group's pilots weren't thrilled when Long Beach was on plane guard station (trailing the carrier in case of a mishap). She arrived on PIRAZ station on the 30th and continued on that vital operation throughout most of her WestPac tour. The bearing lost all of the oil from its sump and got so hot it damaged the shaft. 2 December 1957 Keel laid in Bethlehem Steel Company's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts. Politics. Navy ships have unique smells, sounds, and sensations. In the course of the voyage, numerous foreign dignitaries visited the ship during visits off both coasts of Africa and inport calls at Karachi, Pakistan, Melbourne, Australia, Wellington, New Zealand and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Generally, we couldn't turn it on until we were at least three miles away from an airport for safety reasons. The state of Arkansas also helped sponsor a commissioning party for the ship's crew. [3] She was the third Navy ship named after the city of Long Beach, California . The modern surface combatants like the Aegis cruisers and the Arleigh Burke class destroyers are gas turbine powered and require fewer crew members to operate. [11] It was the second of three incidents at Fore River Shipyard at that time. So I had prepared her to accept an engineering position such as HT (hull maintenance technician) which I'd been told was wide open for women. Sept 2002 Removal of superstructure, nuclear fuel removed. The Talos missiles, which could be nuclear armed, were about the size of a telephone pole and would 'sit' on the launch rail building up thrust before taking off. The ships high box-like superstructure housed the SCANFAR radar system, which comprised of AN/SPS-32 and AN/SPS-33 phased array radars. [8], Returning to Norfolk, Virginia 7 February 1962, Long Beach, trained off the east coast and in the Caribbean. Kitty Hawk went alongside theUSS Wabash for an underway replenishment (UNREP). 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