USS Gyatt (DD-712/DDG-1/DDG-712) was a of the United States Navy operated between 1945 and 1968. The ship was named for Edward Gyatt, a United States Marine Corps private and Marine Raider killed during the Battle of Guadalcanal. She was laid down in 1944, commissioned in 1945, and missed combat during the Second World War. In 1955, she was converted into the world's first guided missile destroyer (DDG) to evaluate the RIM-2 Terrier surface-to-air missile and the practicality of similar weapons.

Her service contributed to the development of dedicated air-defense missile escorts and of later anti-air missiles by identifying flaws in both designs. Her goal was completed in 1962, and she was converted into a floating test bed for radars and other electronic equipment. By 1969, structural issues caused by missile launches forced her to be decommissioned; she was sunk as a target in 1970.

Namesake

Edward Earl Gyatt was born on 4 September 1921, in Syracuse, New York, and later enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942. Private Gyatt served with the 1st Marine Raider Battalion during the Battle of Tulagi, part of the initial landings of the Guadalcanal campaign. He went ashore on Tulagi on 7 August 1942, and communicated that a Japanese counterattack was approaching his position that night. He remained at his station and caused heavy casualties to the Japanese forces before he was killed by a hand grenade. Gyatt was awarded the Silver Star posthumously for his actions. The first ship named after the private was DE-550, a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort that was canceled before construction began.

Design and construction

thumb|Gyatt in her World War II-era configuration, similar to her [[sister ships]]

Development

During World War II, the Fletcher-class destroyers were the main destroyers operated by the US Navy. Yet by 1943, the force had already identified methods to improve the design based on combat experience and further study. To maintain mass-production, a vast majority of the old design was retained aside from several details. The most obvious change was the consolidation of the main battery from five single gun turrets to three twin dual mounted turrets, thereby adding one gun barrel with half the turrets, which freed up immense space on and below deck. This design entered service as the Allen M. Sumner-class. the most advanced US destroyer class of the war. A weakness of early American guided missiles was a slow reaction time and difficulty engaging multiple targets, leaving ships susceptible to simultaneous attacks. It was hoped that having numerous small destroyers would mitigate the flaws, allowing a large number of Terriers to protect a carrier.

To manage the weapon, she was fitted a variation of the Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System. To identify incoming aircraft, she was the first ship in the Navy to be mounted with the AN/SPS-49 search radar. Once a target was identified, her MK 25 gun director would track the target with a radar beam, allowing a launched Terrier to home in on the aircraft. Once refurbishment was complete, she was recommissioned in December 1956 and assigned the hull number DDG-712 as a guided missile destroyer. Issues regarding the Terrier were largely rectified with the larger Farragut-class destroyers as they were the first ships in the Navy built from the keel-up to provide missile-based air defense. With lessons in mind from Gyatt, the new ships displaced twice as much and carried two launchers and nearly three times as many missiles than her in better protected magazines.thumb|Gyatt in 1966, fitted with an aft mast and a wide assortment of experimental radars and antennas

Radar test ship

With her original goal fulfilled, she was retrofitted for service with the Operational Test and Evaluation Force in 1962. On 29 June, she entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard to have her Terriers removed and a mast fitted on top of the old missile magazine. The purpose of the new mast was to carry electronics and other experimental equipment so they could be tested at sea. Now designated as a radar test ship, her hull number was reverted to DD-712. On 1 January 1963, she reported to Norfolk and operated with the Naval Electronics Facility and tested new technology, primarily radars and sensors, along the US East Coast and Caribbean.

Sinking

By the late 1960s, her hull began to crack from stress caused by the missile launches. As it was cheaper to prematurely dispose of her than fix the hull, she was transferred to the reserve fleet and homeported to Washington, D.C. in 1968. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 22 October 1969, and sunk as a target off Virginia on 11 June 1970.

See also

  • Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Flight III, series of modern American guided missile destroyers built for air defense
  • Ticonderoga-class cruiser, modern American air-defense ships
  • USS Timmerman, Sarsfield, Richard E. Kraus, and Witek, experimental Gearing-class destroyers

Notes

References

  • Gyatt Association – Defunct website of the USS Gyatt veterans' association
  • YouTube (Archive) - Video of Gyatts 1956 recommissioning and several closeups of her missile battery