USS O'Hare

USS O'Hare underway in the 1960s
History
United States
Name	O'Hare
Namesake	Edward O'Hare
Builder	Consolidated Steel Corporation
Laid down	27 January 1945
Launched	22 June 1945
Commissioned	29 November 1945
Decommissioned	31 October 1973
Reclassified	DDR-889, 1953
Stricken	2 June 1975
Identification	Callsign: NBIM Hull number: DD-889
Motto	Custodia Pacis (Hold Peace)
Fate	Loaned to Spain, 31 October 1973
Notes	Sold to Spain, 17 May 1978
Badge
Spain
Name	Méndez Núñez
Namesake	Casto Méndez Núñez
Acquired	31 October 1973
Decommissioned	3 April 1992
Stricken	1992
Identification	Hull number: D-63
Fate	Scrapped, 1992
General characteristics
Class and type	Gearing-class destroyer Churruca-class destroyer
Displacement	2,425 long tons (2,464 t)
Length	390 ft 6 in (119.02 m)
Beam	41 ft (12 m)
Draft	18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Propulsion	General Electric geared turbines, 2 shafts, 60,000 shp (45 MW)
Speed	32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)
Range	4,500 nmi (8,300 km) at 20 kn (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	267
Armament	6 × 5"/38 caliber guns (3×2) 12 × 40 mm AA guns (2×4, 2×2) 11 × 20 mm AA guns (11×1) 10 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (2×5) 6 × depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

USS O'Hare (DD/DDR-889) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Lieutenant Commander Edward "Butch" O'Hare, Medal of Honor recipient, who was shot down at Tarawa on 27 November 1943.

O'Hare was laid down at the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 27 January 1945; launched on 22 June 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Selma O'Hare, the mother of Lieutenant Commander O'Hare, and commissioned on 29 November 1945.

In February 1946, following shakedown, O'Hare became an active unit of the Navy. After spending 1946 in operations ranging from New Brunswick down to the Florida Keys, she embarked her first group of midshipmen for a cruise to Latin America during the summer of 1947. Departing Norfolk, Virginia, early in May 1948 she sailed to the Mediterranean temporarily serving under the United Nations' flag as an evacuation ship off Haifa, Israel, from 24 June through July, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Several goodwill visits took place before departure for home in September at the conclusion of this first deployment with the Sixth Fleet.

Eight additional such tours of duty, prior to the end of 1962, permitted ship's company to gain a great deal of familiarity with the area. Midshipman cruises and NATO maneuvers added new vistas and dimensions to her training exercises as did several rescue operations. Twice in 1952 this destroyer received commendations for her efforts after ships had collided at sea, while in 1957 and again in 1961 aviators from the carriers Randolph and Franklin D. Roosevelt respectively were plucked from the sea. Meanwhile, to update and increase her value to the Navy, O'Hare was converted during 1953 to a radar picket ship (DDR-889) and in 1958 received installation of the electronic data system. The next major modification, in 1963, a FRAM Mk I overhaul, restored her original designation.

The increasing tempo and scope of the Vietnam War brought O'Hare an assignment to WestPac duty. Steaming from Norfolk, on 1 June 1966, she assumed station as a gun support ship along the coast of Vietnam on 15 July, firing missions in all four Corps areas in the South. O'Hare served as plane guard for aircraft carriers on "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin, participated in "Sea Dragon" operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties off North Vietnam. O'Hare returned home on 17 December via the Suez Canal, completing a circumnavigation of the world. In March 1968, along with USS Charles R. Ware from Mayport, O'Hare deployed to the Indian Ocean via Africa and made 17 port calls in the Middle East. In January 1969 with Destroyer Squadron 32 (DesRon 32) she again deployed to the Mediterranean.

O'Hare deployed to Vietnam on 1 December 1972, remaining on gunfire support duty there until the cease fire of March 1973. She then became the last U.S. Navy ship based on the United States East Coast to circumnavigate the world after a Vietnam deployment during her return to the United States. She became a "blue-nosed" ship during the voyage when she crossed the Arctic Circle on 17 September 1972, and passed through the Panama Canal on 6 December 1972.

O'Hare was decommissioned on 31 October 1973, and transferred on loan to the Spanish Navy. The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1975.

O'Hare was sold outright to Spain on 17 May 1978. In the Spanish Navy, she served as Méndez Núñez (D-63), in honor of Vice Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez (1824–1869), and was the third ship in Spanish navy with this name.

Méndez Núñez was stricken and scrapped in 1992.

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and here.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS O'Hare (DD-889).

• Photo gallery of USS O'Hare at NavSource Naval History
• USS O'Hare veterans' website Archived 2014-08-14 at the Wayback Machine