USS Leary (DD-879)

USS "Leary" (DD/DDR-879), a "Gearing"-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Clarence F. Leary USNRF (1894–1918), who lost his life in the line of duty. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

"Leary" was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 11 August 1944, launched on 20 January 1945 by Mrs. Theodore S. Wilkinson, wife of Vice Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson, and commissioned on 7 May 1945.

On 23 June 1945 "Leary" completed her shakedown off Guantanamo Bay and proceeded to Norfolk. Overhauled and converted to a radar picket destroyer she reported for duty with Task Force 69 (TF 69) the day before the Japanese accepted terms for surrender. After a period of training off the Maine coast she proceeded to New York and took part in a presidential review 27 October.

"Leary" alternated operations along the east coast and in the Caribbean with the 2nd Fleet with deployments to the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet, participated in blockade operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, underwent an extensive Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul between April 1964 and January 1965, and served as plane guard for carriers on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf, participated in Sea Dragon operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out Naval Gunfire Support missions during the conflict in Vietnam. "Leary" was decommissioned on 31 October 1973.

SPS "Langara" (D64)

"Leary" was transferred to Spain and renamed SPS "Langara" (D64). She was stricken from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1975 and scrapped in 1992.

References

*DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l5/leary-ii.htm

External links

* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/879.htm navsource.org: USS "Leary"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd879txt.htm hazegray.org: USS "Leary"]