USS Damato (DD-871) was a of the United States Navy. She was named for Corporal Anthony P. Damato USMC (1922–1944), who was killed in action during the Battle of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Damato was laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Staten Island in New York on 10 May 1945, launched on 21 November 1945 by Mrs. A. P. Damato and commissioned on 27 April 1946.
History
1947-1962
From her home port at Newport, Rhode Island, and after December 1947, from Norfolk, Virginia, Damato cruised the Atlantic Ocean from Cuba to Newfoundland in training and exercises. In the summer of 1949 she carried midshipmen on a training cruise to France and England, and that fall joined in experimental cold-weather operations in Arctic waters. and has been placed on the US Veterans Administration list of vessels exposed to agent orange thereby making her crew at that time potentially eligible for certain VA benefits. Damato was decommissioned in September 1970, and approximately 40% of her officers and crew were transferred and she became of source of spare parts for other ships. Then in November 1970, a decision was made to see how quickly a decommissioned ship could be placed back into combat ready service. Sailors began arriving on board and Damato made a brief trip to Newport to cannibalize another ship then had a brief dry-dock session in Portsmouth. Damato set sail in January 1971 for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for combat readiness testing. She passed with flying colors and was sent to the Mediterranean to serve with the 6th Fleet. While there, Damato spent several days monitoring the activity of a Soviet cruiser off the coast of Libya and managed to shadow and surface a Soviet submarine among other accomplishments. Damato received commendations for its combat readiness while in the Mediterranean. Upon returning to Norfolk, VA, it set sail again for the North Atlantic on the western coast of Europe to participate in NATO exercises as a show of force toward the Soviet Union. In 1972 she underwent overhaul in the Bath, ME, shipyard and was then transferred to the reserve fleet operating out of Newport Rhode Island. In 1975 she cruised from Boston to Halifax NS with Boston-area based reservists on board. In 1976 she participated in Bi-Centennial exercises along the Atlantic coast w/ "replenishment" ports-of-call incl. Brunswick, GA and Freeport, Bahamas. She was decommissioned on 30 September 1980 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.
Pakistan service
Damato was transferred to Pakistan as Tippu Sultan, on 1 October 1980 and scrapped in 1994.