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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Cruise Books Accidents aboard the Ship About the Ship's Name History Documents Image Gallery to end of page |  |
USS EDSON was one of the FORREST SHERMAN - class destroyers and the first ship in the Navy named after USMC Major General Merritt Austin Edson. Decommissioned after 30 years of service on December 15, 1988, the EDSON was stricken from the Navy list on January 31, 1989. On June 30, 1989, the EDSON was donated to the INTREPID Sea-Air-Space Museum at New York City, for use as a museum. Since June 21, 1990, the ship was designated a national historic landmark. On June 14, 2004, the destroyer was returned back to US Navy custody and was laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In April 2012, the Navy donated the EDSON to the Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum in Bay City, Mich., and the destroyer left Philadelphia under tow to her new berthing in July 2012.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: January 27, 1956 |
| Keel laid: December 3, 1956 | |
| Launched: January 4, 1958 | |
| Commissioned: November 7, 1958 | |
| Decommissioned: December 15, 1988 | |
| Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine | |
| Propulsion system: four-1200 lb. boilers; two steam turbines; two shafts | |
| Propellers: two | |
| Length: 418.3 feet (127.5 meters) | |
| Beam: 45,3 feet (13.8 meters) | |
| Draft: 22 feet (6.7 meters) | |
| Displacement: approx. 4,000 tons full load | |
| Speed: 32+ knots | |
| Aircraft: none | |
| Armament: three Mk-42 5-inch/54 caliber guns, Mk-32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts) | |
| Crew: 17 officers, 275 enlisted |
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageCrew List:
This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS EDSON. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageUSS EDSON Cruise Books:
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Accidents aboard USS EDSON:
| Date | Where | Events |
|---|---|---|
| December 12, 1974 | off Hawaii | USS EDSON suffers a fire in the after fireroom while training with the USS CORAL SEA (CV 43). The fire was caused by the ignition of oil which was spraying from a rupture in a lube oil guage line. The area was secured and fire extinguished with no personnel casualties. The EDSON returned to Pearl Harbor under her own power for repairs. |
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Ship's Name:
Merritt Austin Edson born 25 April 1897 in Rutland, Vt., enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve at the outbreak of World War I and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the regular Marine Corps 9 October 1917. He served in France from September 1918 to December 1919. In 1941 he directed experimental operations which included training with high-speed transports. These led to the organization of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion one month after the United States entered World War II. This battalion was the prototype for Marine Raider and Army Ranger Battalions formed later in the war. Edson led his battalion during the invasion and capture of Tulagi from 7 to 9 August 1942, then was assigned to defend the ridge on Guadalcanal which dominated Henderson Field. For his superb and heroic leadership on the night of 13 and 14 September when his men stood off a fanatic attack by a much larger Japanese force, Colonel Edson was awarded the Medal of Honor. He took part in the Tarawa invasion and in 1944 was appointed Chief of Staff, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific. After duty in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Marine Corps Headquarters, Major General Edson retired 1 August 1947. He died 14 August 1955 in Washington, D.C.
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS EDSON History:
USS EDSON was laid down at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, on 3 December 1956; launched on 4 January 1958, sponsored by Mrs. Merritt A. Edson; and commissioned at Boston Naval Shipyard on 7 November 1958 with Commander Thomas J. Moriarty in command. After fitting out, she conducted shakedown in the Caribbean and transited the Panama Canal en route to the Pacific. During the passage south she visited Caribbean ports, then called at Ciudad Trujillo and, after trans-Isthmian transit, proceeded down the west coast of South America to deliver U.S. embassy supplies at Callao, Peru, where she lay 18-21 February 1959. She reached her new homeport, Long Beach, California, on 2 March 1959 and spent the remainder of 1959 in local operations to raise readiness.
On 5 January 1960, EDSON sailed from Long Beach for her first Western Pacific deployment. She patrolled the Taiwan Strait, took part in amphibious exercises off Okinawa, and conducted other evolutions off Japan. On 29 April 1960, she rescued three A-3D crewmen from the aircraft carrier RANGER (CVA 61) after their aircraft ditched at sea, then returned to Long Beach on 31 May 1960 and entered an overhaul that ran through October, followed by refresher training off San Diego into late 1960.
In early June 1961, EDSON joined the ships of Destroyer Division 231 for a public-relations visit to the Portland Rose Festival - arriving during 7-10 June - before resuming operations. On 11 August 1961, she sailed from Long Beach to begin a second WESTPAC tour, operating for months with the attack carriers RANGER and TICONDEROGA (CVA 14) and then spending December on Taiwan Strait patrols before completing the deployment and returning to the U.S. Pacific coast.
EDSON deployed to the Western Pacific again on 13 March 1964. After joining the Taiwan Patrol Force (CTF 72) she cycled through carrier screening, naval gunfire training in the Philippines, and SEATO exercise LICTAS. In early August, she was ordered to the Gulf of Tonkin for special operations, for which she received a Navy Unit Commendation for exceptionally meritorious service during 2-5 August 1964, amid the acute crisis that set wider Vietnam operations into motion. The destroyer then concluded the cruise and returned stateside to prepare for subsequent WESTPAC service.
By late 1965, EDSON was back in the Western Pacific. Photographic records place her alongside KITTY HAWK (CVA 63) for underway replenishment on 16 November 1965 while engaged in plane-guard and screening duties for Task Force 77. In December 1966 - between combat deployments - she participated in anti-submarine warfare drills and Terrier missile exercises with the guided-missile frigate FOX (DLG 33) and destroyer WEDDERBURN (DD 684), sharpening sensor and weapons proficiency before returning to combat operations.
On her 1966-1967 deployment EDSON alternated between gunline work, search-and-rescue (SAR) North SAR station, and carrier screening. On 27 May 1967, while delivering naval gunfire in support of ground forces, she was hit by North Vietnamese coastal artillery. The ship took damage but remained in action and later withdrew for repairs and further tasking. VA and museum records also document EDSON's presence in Da Nang approaches during the conflict, including pier-side periods and small-boat movements ashore while anchored in Da Nang Harbor.
Following her 1967 combat tour, EDSON returned to WESTPAC in 1968 for gunline, search-and-rescue (SAR), and carrier screen duty in the Gulf of Tonkin, cycling through logistics at Subic Bay while supporting I Corps fire missions along the South Vietnamese coast. In mid-June, she was detached northward to the Tiger Island surveillance sector east of Cap Lay, operating with HMAS HOBART (DDG 39), USS BOSTON (CA 69), and USS THEODORE E. CHANDLER (DD 717). During the confused night of 16-17 June 1968 - amid reports of enemy helicopters - friendly U.S. aircraft engaged surface contacts. HOBART and BOSTON were hit, and EDSON came under aerial attack but escaped damage. She remained on station as the force regrouped and then resumed routine 7th Fleet tasking, completing the deployment and returning to the U.S. West Coast in the autumn of 1968.
Through 1969, EDSON operated stateside from Long Beach and San Diego - type training, gunnery qualifications, and engineering certifications - preparing for the next WESTPAC cycle as the destroyer force sustained Vietnam rotations. By early 1970, she had moved through work-ups with periods in the Hawaiian operating areas before the next Far East cruise. (Deck-log and cruise book material for intervening port calls and short underway periods exists but shows no combat-zone stationing comparable to her 1971 and 1973 tours.)
EDSON's 1971 WESTPAC began in the spring. After clearing the West Coast, she staged via Pearl Harbor and then proceeded to the Philippines and the Tonkin Gulf. Across that deployment she spent 55 days "on the gunline", firing 8,874 five-inch rounds in roughly 1,200 missions in support of allied forces, and she is documented as docking at Da Nang with small boats sent ashore, confirming close-coast employment. She also alternated with plane-guard and screen duty for TF-77 carriers on Yankee Station, plus SAR picket assignments, before returning stateside in the autumn of 1971.
The ship spent 1972 largely in upkeep and training while 7th Fleet surface operations adjusted to the changing tempo after the 1972 Easter Offensive and the Paris Peace Accords negotiations. Early in 1973, EDSON again headed west - photography shows her entering Pearl Harbor en route - and operated with 7th Fleet during OPERATION END SWEEP (6 February-27 July 1973), the mine-clearance operation that fulfilled U.S. obligations under the Paris Peace Accords. Destroyers provided screens and general protection for the mine countermeasures force (Task Force 78). EDSON is recorded in deployment summaries as serving in the WESTPAC/tonkin area during the END SWEEP window and then remaining in theater for post-Accords presence until returning to the U.S. in the fall of 1973.
In 1974, EDSON continued stateside training and fleet exercises from the Pacific coast. On 12 December 1974, during training evolutions with USS CORAL SEA (CV 43), she suffered a fire in the after fireroom when oil from a ruptured lube-oil gauge line ignited. The engineering team secured and extinguished the blaze without casualties, and the ship proceeded under her own power to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
After completing repairs in Hawaii in January 1975, EDSON proceeded west to rejoin Seventh Fleet operations as Indochina unraveled. She was assigned to the amphibious and screening forces positioned in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea for the emergency evacuations that spring. On 12 April 1975, she provided cover during Operation Eagle Pull, the helicopter evacuation of Phnom Penh, working in concert with amphibious shipping and with other escorts designated to protect the airlift and sea lanes. As the crisis in South Vietnam peaked, EDSON shifted north with the force. On 29-30 April 1975, she again served in the screen during Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation from Saigon that concluded the American withdrawal. Contemporary Navy histories note that EDSON - alongside HENRY B. WILSON (DDG 7) and KNOX (DE 1052) - provided cover for the evacuation force off the Vietnamese coast during these final days. With the lifts complete, EDSON stood down from contingency operations and returned to the United States.
Through 1976, EDSON remained on the U.S. West Coast in a cycle of maintenance and type training following the intense tempo of the 1975 evacuations. In 1977, she transited the Panama Canal to shift from the Pacific to the Atlantic Fleet and took up duty at Newport, Rhode Island, where she was employed primarily in training and readiness roles and served pier-side periods as flagship for Commander, Naval Surface Group FOUR. This marked the beginning of her long final chapter as a high-utility all-gun destroyer supporting Atlantic and Caribbean operating-area drills, public outreach, and short deployments typical of Newport's surface contingent.
EDSON's training-ship decade included periodic recruiting and goodwill itineraries. In summer 1983, she participated in the Navy's Great Lakes tour, entering the Seaway and calling at multiple ports. Local schedules recorded Duluth, Minnesota, 11-13 July 1983, with public visiting between arrival ceremonies and departure.
As the Navy retired the remaining FORREST SHERMAN-class destroyers in favor of newer missile ships, EDSON - by then the last all-gun U.S. destroyer in commission - was withdrawn from frontline employment. She decommissioned at Newport on 15 December 1988 and was stricken on 31 January 1989. The Navy donated her on 30 June 1989 to the INTREPID Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York, where she opened to the public and was designated a National Historic Landmark on 21 June 1990, recognizing her intact state and representative Cold War/Vietnam service. After display in New York into 2004, the ship returned to Navy custody and was later selected for preservation on the Great Lakes. The Navy declared EDSON seaworthy in July 2012. She departed the East Coast later that month, arrived on the Saginaw River on 7 August 2012, and on 7 May 2013 was moved to her permanent berth at Bay City, Michigan, where she continues to serve as a museum destroyer.
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS EDSON Documents:
 Meritorious Unit Commendation WestPac 1967 |
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USS EDSON Image Gallery:
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The photos below were taken by Brian Barton on May 22, 2007, and show the EDSON at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Previously, the EDSON was tied up alongside the USS INTREPID (CV 11) in New York City, however, at that time the INTREPID was in dry dock and the EDSON returned back to US Navy custody.
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The photos below were taken by me on November 7, 2008, and show the EDSON laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
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The photos below were taken by me and show the EDSON still laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on October 26, 2010. The destroyer will most likely be reopened as a museum in the Great Lakes area.
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