USS ''Knox'' (DE/FF-1052) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer escorts in the United States Navy. ''Knox'' was named for Commodore

Dudley Wright Knox Commodore Dudley Wright Knox (21 June 1877 – 11 June 1960) was an officer in the United States Navy during the Spanish–American War and World War I. He was also a prominent naval historian, who for many years oversaw the Navy Department's his ...

, and was the second US Navy ship named ''Knox''. In 1975, she was redesignated a

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

. She served from 1969 to 1992, and was sunk as a target in 2007.

Design and description

The ''Knox''-class design was derived from the modified to extend range and without a long-range missile system. The ships had an overall length of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draft of . They displaced at full load. Their crew consisted of 16 officers and 211 enlisted men. The ships were equipped with one Westinghouse geared

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

that drove the single propeller shaft. The turbine was designed to produce , using steam provided by two C-E boilers, to reach the designed speed of . The ''Knox'' class had a range of at a speed of . The ''Knox''-class ships were armed with a single /54 caliber Mark 42 gun. They mounted an eight-round ASROC launcher between the 5-inch gun and the bridge. Close-range anti-submarine defense was provided by two twin Mk 32 torpedo tubes. The ships were equipped with a torpedo-carrying

DASH The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

drone helicopter; its telescoping hangar and landing pad were positioned amidships aft of the mack. Beginning in the 1970s, the DASH was replaced by a SH-2 Seasprite LAMPS I helicopter and the hangar and landing deck were accordingly enlarged. Most ships had an eight-cell BPDMS missile launcher added in the early 1970s.

Construction

She was laid down 5 October 1965, by Todd Pacific Shipyards, Seattle, Washington; launched 19 November 1966; sponsored by Mrs. Peter A. Sturtevant, the granddaughter of Commodore Knox; and was commissioned on 12 April 1969, with

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

William A. Lamm in command.

Service history

''Knox'' performed search and rescue operations and provided evacuation, blockade, and surveillance support, when necessary, for the Pacific Fleet. In April 1975, ''Knox'' participated in Operation Eagle Pull, the evacuation of

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

, Cambodia. ''Knox'' was redesignated a

on 30 June 1975 as FF-1052.

Disposition

Decommissioned on 14 February 1992, ''Knox'' was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 January 1995. NAVSEA temporarily placed ''Knox'' on the donation hold list but removed her from the list around 2003. ''Knox'' was sunk as a target off Guam, during "

Exercise Valiant Shield Exercise Valiant Shield is one of the largest United States military war games held in the Pacific Ocean. Nine Valiant Shield exercises were conducted between 2006 and 2022. According to the Navy, Valiant Shield focuses on cooperation between m ...

" (2007) on 7 August 2007.

Awards, citations and campaign ribbons

Gallery

File:USS Knox (DE-1052) underway in 1969.jpg, ''Knox'' in 1969. File:USS Chicago (CG-11) prepares to tow USS Knox (DE-1052) on 4 March 1971.png, passes tow line to ''Knox'' after ''Knox'' was disabled by a JP-5 fire in engineering spaces on 4 March 1971, while en route from Guam to Hawaii.

In Popular Culture

''Knox'' appears in the original Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series) season 8 episode Murder: Eyes Only.

Notes

References

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External links

USS ''Knox'' (DE/FF-1052) Reunion Association
*
hazegray.org: USS ''Knox''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knox Ships built in Seattle Knox-class frigates Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States 1966 ships Ships sunk as targets Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean