USS Kidd (DDG-993) - History

History

Warship 27 June 1981: Commissioned in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

8 December 1982: Deployed to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean under the command of Commander William J. Flanagan, Jr.. While in the Mediterranean Sea, the USS Kidd visited the ports of Palma, Majorca, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; and Catania, Italy. She visited the ports of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, and Mombasa, Kenya, while on station in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean and calling on Benidorm, Spain. The deployment ended with her return to Norfolk on 2 June 1983. In September 1983, the Kidd was awarded the Battle Efficiency "E".

16 February 1984: The USS Kidd left Norfolk, Virginia, to participate in battle-readiness maneuvers as part of Operation United Effort. She returned home to Norfolk on 29 April.

12 March 1985: READEX 1–85, with Commander Fred Moosally in command. She conducted Caribbean operations from 28 March to 6 April, before anchoring at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. Following a transit of the Atlantic Ocean, she passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on 17 April. While in the Mediterranean, the USS Kidd called on the ports of Taormina, Sicily, and Gaeta and Naples, Italy.

30 May 1985: U.S. Sixth Fleet operations in the Black Sea through 3 June. The USS Kidd cut short a port visit to Haifa, Israel, on 16 June in response to the TWA Flight 847 aircraft hijacking. She returned to Haifa on 15 July before visiting Alexandria, Egypt, and Constanța, Romania. Black Sea operations continued with the Sixth Fleet in August. The Kidd called on Istanbul, Turkey, before returning to Naples, Italy. She conducted operations in the Western Mediterranean with the USS Nimitz through September. Calling on Benidorm, Spain, she then passed through the Straits of Gibraltar again on 20 September. After visiting Rota, Spain, the Kidd crossed the Atlantic under the power of her gas-turbine engines, arriving in Norfolk. and ending her deployment on 2 October 1985.

14 March 1986: At 0130 a seawater strainer bolt parted on the upper level of Main Engine Room Number 2, immediately filling that level with two feet of seawater. The water poured down to the next level where it covered Number Two Gas Turbine Generator and all associated control panels. Water also reached the lower level, where it covered controllers for all the main propulsion support equipment. Fast, correct reaction by members of Main Engine Room Number 2, electrical division, and the Gas Turbine Electronics Workcenter saved the engine room. Canvas sheets and plastic covers were placed over all equipment and controllers while mop and bucket brigades began dewatering. At 0200, with all seawater removed from Main 2, GSMs, GSes, and EMs made numerous repairs to their respective equipment. Within eleven hours the engine room was returned to normal operating condition, and KIDD continued with the Operational Propulsion Plant Examination (OPPE). Despite no sleep and the physical exhaustion of the morning's events, members of Main 2, E Division, and the Electronics Workcenter performed superbly during Propulsion Examination Board (PEB) evolutions and drills that followed.

September 1987: The USS Kidd was awarded her third Battle Efficiency "E" award while deployed as part of the Middle East Force 3–87. She departed Norfolk on 6 June 1987, returning to port on 4 December 1987. During the operations in the Persian Gulf, from about 4 July to 2 October, the Kidd led the first ten convoys of Kuwaiti tankers which were reflagged with American flags. This reflagging was in response to Iranian threats to close the Persian Gulf shipping lanes, through which more than 50% of the world's oil ourput passes.

9 January 1991: The USS Kidd departed from Norfolk, bound for the Persian Gulf, along with the USS McInerney, in support of Operation Desert Storm. The Kidd faced several roles while operating in the Persian Gulf, among them the location and destruction of naval mines and maritime interdiction force operations. To assist in these duties, a detachment from Anti-Submarine Light Helicopter Squadron 34 (HSL-34) was embarked. The "Green Checkers" came aboard with two SH-2 helicopters which were used early on in SSSC missions – flying beyond the visual horizon of this warship to visually observe all radar contacts on the surface. In early April, two U.S. Army OH-58 AHIPS helicopters were embarked, giving a total of four helicopters embarked on board the Kidd at one time.

December 1991: The USS Kidd was again awarded the Battle Efficiency "E", this time for excellence during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

October 1992: Counter-narcotics operations off the South American coast. The USS Kidd transited the Panama Canal on 8 November 1992. During this mission, she patrolled Latin American waters as a deterrent to smugglers of illegal contraband. A detachment from the Anti-Submarine Light Helicopter Squadron 34 (HSL-34) was carried on this cruise.

December 1992: The USS Kidd was awarded her sixth Battle Efficiency "E". Admiral Isaac Kidd, Jr., USN(Ret.) presented this award to the crew at a pierside ceremony.

October 1994: The USS Kidd is assigned to Carrier Task Force 60 (CTF-60), forming around the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. During this period, the task force provided support of the naval weapons and ammunition embargo of the war-torn republics of the former Yugoslavia ("Operation Sharpguard"), the enforced no-fly zone over the area (Operation Deny Flight), and air drops of humanitarian aid to the residents of the city of Sarajevo ("Operation Provide Promise").

1996: The USS Kidd was in the Caribbean on counter-narcotics patrols, under the command of Commander John J. Decavage. During this deployment,

16 April 1997: Port visit three-day port visit to Boston, Massachusetts, to coincide with the 100th running of the Boston Marathon. From there, she moved southward to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for a community relations project before assuming drug interdiction duties in the Caribbean. She transited the Panama Canal to the Eastern Pacific on 30 April. Following another transit of the Canal and a brief stop in Charleston, South Carolina, the USS Kidd ended her final deployment in Norfolk on 1 June 1997.

12 March 1998: The USS Kidd was decommissioned for placement into storage as a reserve warship on 12 March 1998, at Norfolk Naval Base, Virginia. Present at this decommissioning ceremony were several of Admiral Isaac Kidd's surviving family members, including his son, Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., USN (Ret.). The USS Kidd's last American Commanding Officer was Commander Thomas R. Andress, USN.