USS Davis (DD-937) was a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer of the United States Navy laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Quincy, Massachusetts, on 1 February 1955. The ship was named for Commander George Fleming Davis USN (1911–1945), commanding officer of USS Walke (DD-723), killed in action at Lingayen Gulf on Luzon in the Philippine Islands on 6 January 1945, and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Davis was launched on 28 March 1956 by Mrs. G. F. Davis, widow of Commander Davis, and commissioned on 6 March 1957 at Boston Naval Yard.
Building and commissioning The unnamed Forrest Sherman-class destroyer DD-937 was laid down on 1 February 1955 at Quincy, Massachusetts, by Bethlehem Steel Co. The ship was named Davis on 5 December 1955 and was launched on 28 March 1956 sponsored by Mrs. George F. Davis, widow of the late Commander George Fleming Davis. The ship departed her building yard on 28 February 1957 and arrived at Boston Naval Shipyard, where she was commissioned on 6 March 1957.
Service history After fitting out and undergoing preparations for sea, Davis departed the Boston Naval Shipyard on 23 April 1957 for trials off Brenton Reef, returning on 25 April. She sailed for Naval Station Newport, her assigned home port, on 2 May, arriving at her destination the same day. After undergoing an administrative inspection there on 10 May, she got underway for Cuban waters. She paused at the Washington Navy Yard from 17 to 20 May for Armed Forces Day celebrations, then embarked the Harbor and Rivers Commission for a cruise down the Potomac River. After stopping briefly at Naval Station Norfolk from 21 to 23 May, Davis pushed on for Guantanamo Bay, reaching her destination on 26 May. She conducted her shakedown cruise from those waters through mid-July, punctuating that training with visits to Kingston, Jamaica from 15 to 16 June and Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic from 4 to 7 July.
Davis departed Guantanamo Bay on 15 July 1957 for a post-shakedown cruise to northern European waters, visiting Culebra (17 July) and San Juan, Puerto Rico from 17 to 19 July en route to the Azores. Pausing only briefly at Ponta Delgada (25 July), Davis then visited Rotterdam, Netherlands from 29 July to 2 August, Copenhagen, Denmark from 12 to 17 August and Edinburgh, Scotland from 19 to 22 August. She returned to Boston Naval Shipyard on 29 August for post-shakedown availability that kept her in yard hands (except a brief period at sea on 5–6 November) until 8 November, when she got underway to return to her home port Newport, arriving the following day. She became flagship for Captain Harry G. Moore, Commander, Destroyer Squadron (ComDesRon) 12, in November upon completion of that yard period.
Sailing for the Mediterranean and operations with the Sixth Fleet on 29 November 1957, Davis exercised and trained at sea until standing in to Cannes, France, on 16 December, where she remained through the Christmas and New Years' holidays. Sailing on 3 January 1958, the destroyer operated with the Sixth Fleet into the spring, punctuating her at-sea periods, during which time she participated in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and air defense exercises and plane guarded a succession of attack carriers: , , and , and with visits to Pollensa Bay, Mallorca (5–7 January), Valetta, Malta (11–16 January), Piraeus, Greece (18–22 January), İskenderun (29–30 January) and İzmir (1–4 February), Turkey, and Rhodes, Greece (11–18 February), Genoa, Italy (22–28 February), Barcelona, Spain (10–17 March and 18–21 March). After pausing briefly at Gibraltar (1–3 April) as she left the Mediterranean, homeward-bound, Davis returned to Newport on 12 April.
Following post-deployment upkeep, the ship remained at her home port through early June 1958, logging a port call to New London, Connecticut, between 16 and 19 May. Davis then paused briefly at Boston (10–12 June) before she sailed for northern Europe on a midshipman cruise. During the course of that period of training, the destroyer visited Kiel, West Germany, for Kiel Week (25–30 June), Bergen, Norway (9–16 July) and Rotterdam (19–24 July). She ultimately returned to Boston on 4 August, disembarking midshipmen and beginning a period of post-deployment repairs and alterations that included the strengthening of her aluminum deckhouses and the installation of new expansion joints.
Emerging from the yard on 14 October 1958, Davis returned to her home port the following day, but remained there only a short time, sailing on 20 October to operate as part of Anti-Submarine Defense Forces, Atlantic, conducting advanced ASW training, until setting course to return to port on 3 November, standing in the following day. Sailing again on 1 December, she reached Norfolk the next day, and remained there, members of her crew given the opportunity to attend ASW Tactical School there, until her departure on 8 December for another stint of operations at sea. Heading for home on 15 December, she arrived on the 16th. She remained there into the first week of January 1959.
Davis sailed from Newport on 7 January 1959, then participated in Operation Springboard in the Caribbean operating areas, completing type training requirements and interspersing those evolutions with port visits to San Juan (11–12 January), Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico (13–14 January), Ciudad Trujillo (16–21 January), San Juan (23–26 January) and Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (30 January – 2 February). Returning to her home port on 9 February, Davis remained there until 26 February, when she stood out en route to Washington, D.C., which she visited between 28 February and 5 March. Visits to Naval Station Mayport, Florida (8–10 March), Charleston, South Carolina (11–13 March) and Norfolk (14 March) followed; then, after unloading ammunition at the Naval Ammunition Depot, Earle, New Jersey, (15–16 March), the ship then entered the Boston Naval Shipyard on 17 March.
Following an extensive upkeep and overhaul period, Davis departed Boston on 17 June 1959, and paused at Newport (19–23 June) before steaming to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she took part in Independence Day observances during her stay (3–5 July). Proceeding thence to Guantanamo Bay for refresher training, Davis reached her destination on the morning of 11 July, but before the day was out, stood out to sea to patrol off the western and southern coasts of Haiti. Operating under Commander Caribbean Sea Frontier during her time off the island (12–16 July), Davis and her squadron-mates performed a deterrent mission, preventing neighboring nations from interfering in the internal affairs of Haiti during President Francois Duvalier's recovery from a heart attack. "The presence of the U.S. Navy bolstered the internal fortitude of Haiti," wrote one observer, "and was a major factor in maintaining peace in the Caribbean area." Davis visited Port au Prince, Haiti (1 August), returned to Cuban waters on 3 August, after which time she operated off Culebra, Puerto Rico, then conducted "special operations." Upon completion of that work, Davis stood out, bound for Newport, which she reached on 17 August, continuing her work to prepare for, and take part in, the annual competitive exercises. Subsequently, from 26 October 1959 the ship participated in Operation Tralex 4-59, evaluating "convoy procedures and amphibious assault operations," upon completion of which she returned to her home port on 7 November, for a tender overhaul before resuming operations with the Anti-Submarine Defense Force, Atlantic, beginning in December.
1960s Davis again headed southward, bound for the Caribbean, on 18 January 1960. After providing support for Operation Skyhook, an Office of Naval Research project, part of activities undertaken during the International Geophysical Year, "measuring...cosmic radiation at high altitude over the Caribbean area," the ship then spent the remainder of her one-month cruise engaged in extensive ASW operations. During that time, she and the other units of DesRon 12 received the nickname "Dragon Killers" in reference to one of their adversaries in the training evolutions being the new nuclear submarine . A five-day visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico, capped the cruise in that region, and she ultimately returned to Newport on 18 February. After operating as part of an ASW Ready Group (7-21 March) in the North Atlantic, practicing "hunter-killer" operations, Davis completed her competitive exercises (March–April 1960) earning seven gunnery "E" awards for outstanding shooting. She spent May 1960 engaged in upkeep alongside a tender and spent June and July in extensive operations as part of the Second Fleet, participating in LantFlex 2-60. In mid-July, Davis received word that Commander, Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, had designated her as the winner of the Battle Efficiency "E" for "outstanding performance in all areas of endeavor."
On 4 August 1960, DesRon 12 sailed for the Mediterranean, and upon joining the Sixth Fleet "were assigned to various Task Units. Subsequently, wrote one squadron chronicler, none of DesRon 12's ships operated together again in 1960, although Davis and proceeded into the Black Sea "on a special assignment," the third and fourth U.S. warships to enter that body of water since World War II. "Considerable publicity" ensued as the Soviet Union protested what it termed "provocative action." As the year 1960 ended, Davis had returned to the western Mediterranean.
Davis and DesRon 12 departed Pollensa Bay and the Sixth Fleet for Rota, Spain, and thence, to the continental United States on 13 February 1961, and reached their home port eleven days later to begin leave periods and pre-yard tender availabilities. Davis departed Newport on 4 April for Boston Naval Shipyard, where she received a scheduled overhaul to machinery and equipment. Upon completion of that period of yard work on 5 July, Davis took ammunition on board, then visited New York City; returning to her home port to prepare for refresher training. She operated daily off Newport, getting ready for the slated work in Cuban waters. She sailed on 24 July for Guantanamo Bay, arriving on 28 July whence she conducted "long and difficult, yet extremely valuable, training...liberally spiced with patrols and exercises, in view of the existing Cuban situation..." that included taking part in an exercise (25 August) that featured a "simulated Atomic underwater burst..." Davis sailed for Key West, Florida, on 8 September, there to provide services for the Fleet Sonar School.
Standing out from Key West on 14 September 1961, Davis paid a visit to Norfolk en route back to her home port. Hurricane Esther, however, compelled a change in plans. When the storm forced the evacuation of the crew from Texas Tower 3, Davis received orders to guard the facility. Ultimately, the abatement of the hurricane-force winds permitted the ship to return to Newport on 22 September. During October 1961, the destroyer then took part in a two-week training evolution as part of Task Force 22, of the Second Fleet, off the Virginia capes. During November, Davis and deployed twice with TF-140, supporting the recovery operations of Enos, the chimpanzee from the Mercury-Atlas 5 space mission. During the first deployment, on 14 November, Davis transferred her hospital corpsman to the Swedish oil tanker Seven Skies to aid an injured crewman. She returned to Newport on 1 December 1961 for upkeep that included a tender availability, and remained in her home port through the beginning of the new year.
On 7 February 1962, Davis departed for the Mediterranean in company with Harlan R. Dickson, , , and ; Compton, delayed by last-minute repairs at Newport, caught up with them at Gibraltar. Becoming a part of the Sixth Fleet on 17 February, DesRon 12 relieved DesRon 22 two days later, its ships, including the squadron flagship, Davis, deployed among various task forces as before.