USS Sterett

The first Sterett, DD-27 (1910 -1919)

The first USS Sterett was a three stack, modified Paulding class destroyer, often referred to as “flivvers”.

She was 293 feet long with a 26-foot beam and 16-foot draft. DD-27 displaced 742 tons. Her oil-fired 12,000 shp (shaft horsepower) power plant consisted of four boilers driving twin screws via steam turbines. DD-27 had a top speed of 29.5 knots and carried a crew of four officers and 82 enlisted men. DD-27 was armed with five three-inch guns, three .50 caliber machine guns and six 18-inch torpedo tubes.

Her distinctive three funnels distinguished her from the rest of the four funnel destroyers of the time.

USS Sterett DD-407 

Sterett DD-407 was one of ten ships of the Benham class, the last of the 1500 ton destroyer classes. The class was a Gibbs and Cox design and the ten ships were constructed at six different shipyards, the Sterett being the only one built at the Charleston Navy Yard. Her keel was laid on December 2, 1936, and she was launched on October 27, 1938. Commissioning was August 15, 1939, with Lt. Cdr. Atherton Macondray her first C.O.She had a length of 341 feet, a beam of 35 feet 6 inches and a mean draft of 11 feet. The three Babcock and Wilcox boilers had uptakes leading to a single stack and powered Westinghouse steam turbines developing 50,000 shaft horsepower for the two screws. With a 483-ton fuel oil capacity, she had a cruising range of 8,730 nautical miles at 12 knots. The original main battery configuration was four 5″/38 dual purpose guns in the new base ring mounts (vs. pedestal mounts) with the forward mounts in gunhouses and the after open mounts. Sixteen torpedo tubes in four quad mounts were amidships, two on each side. The torpedos were the 21″ Mk15 and could be used for surface contacts only. The anti-aircraft battery consisted of four .50 caliber Browning machine guns arranged with two forward of the bridge and two atop the after deckhouse. The anti-submarine battery was two roll-off depth-charge racks mounted on the fantail with a complement of five 600 pound charges each.

Her initial complement was 175 crew and nine officers.

At war’s end, her complement was 235 crew and 16 officers.

USS Sterett DLG-31/CG-31

STERETT earned nine battle stars for her service off the coast of Vietnam.

On 30 June 1975, STERETT was reclassified as a guided-missile cruiser—CG-31. In October of that year, STERETT was deployed to the Western Pacific serving in the South China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin. During this 8 month deployment, STERETT visited the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Okinawa, Korea, and Japan. STERETT completed the WESTPAC tour in May or 1976 and returned to San Diego. The remainder of 1976 and the first part of 1977 were spent on operations in the SOCAL area.

DDG-104 The fourth US Navy ship named in honor of Andrew Sterett

The Four Sterett’s

Painting by Dale Byhre