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5th
Chief of Naval Operations, 17 September 1930 - 30 June 1933
William
Veazie Pratt was born in Belfast, Maine, on 28 February 1869. After
graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1889, he served in several cruisers
and gunboats, visiting Europe, South America and Asia. During 1895-97, Ensign
Pratt had the first of three instructor tours at the Naval Academy. He was
assigned to the gunboat Mayflower during the Spanish-American War and to the
cruiser Newark afterwards. While in the latter, he returned to Asiatic
waters, where he saw action in the Philippines Insurrection. A second Naval
Academy session followed in 1900-1902, after which he served in the North
Atlantic Fleet flagship Kearsarge.
Lieutenant Commander Pratt's final Naval Academy tour took place in
1905-1908. He then was Executive Officer of the cruisers Saint Louis and
California. Promoted to the rank of Commander in 1910, Pratt was an
instructor at the Naval War College in 1911-1913 and spent the next two years
in the Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla, much of that as Commanding Officer of its
flagship, the scout cruiser Birmingham. Captain Pratt was assigned to the
Army in Panama and at the Army War College in 1915-1917. During the First
World War he served in Washington, D.C., where as Assistant Chief of Naval
Operations in 1918, he played a very important role in running the wartime
Navy.
Pratt was at sea in 1919-1921 as Commanding Officer of the battleship New
York and as Commander Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet. Following promotion to
Rear Admiral in mid-1921, he was a member of the General Board in Washington,
D.C., and served as a technical advisor during the negotiations that led to
the Washington Naval Limitations Treaty of February 1922. He commanded a
battleship division in 1923-1925 and was President of the court of inquiry
that examined the 8 September 1923 Honda Point disaster. Assignments followed
to the General Board and as President of the Naval War College. In 1927 he
returned to sea as Commander Battleship Divisions, Battle Fleet. A year
later, he became Commander Battle Fleet in the rank of Admiral and in
1929-1930 was Commander in Chief United States Fleet.
Admiral Pratt's work with the U.S. Fleet was interrupted in early 1930 by a
trip to England to participate in the London conference that further limited
the size of the World's major navies. He became Chief of Naval Operations in
September 1930 and spent nearly three years in that post, during a time when
Depression-era demands for economy made it very difficult to maintain the
Navy's size and readiness. Retired at the beginning of July 1933, Pratt lived
thereafter in Maine and New York City. During the World War II years he wrote
a regular column for a nationally-circulated magazine and spent several
months on active Navy Department duty in 1941 studying measures to counter
the German submarine threat. Admiral William V. Pratt died on 25 November
1957.
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USS William V.
Pratt (DDG-44) was a Farragut-class destroyer in the service of the United
States Navy. She was commissioned in 1961 as DLG-13 and reclassified as a
guided missile destroyer, designation DDG-44, in 1975. She was named to honor
Admiral William Veazie Pratt, a President of the Naval War College and a
Chief of Naval Operations.
William V. Pratt (DLG-13) was laid down on 7 March 1958 by the Philadelphia
Naval Shipyard; launched on 16 March 1960, sponsored by Mrs. William V.
Pratt; and commissioned on 4 November 1961, Comdr. Boyd E. Gustafson in
command.
Following shakedown training in the West Indies and post-shakedown availability
at Philadelphia, William V. Pratt joined Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 18 as an
active unit of the fleet in September 1962. Operating out of Naval Station
Norfolk, Virginia, she cruised the Atlantic seaboard and the West Indies
until 4 August 1963 at which time she departed Norfolk to participate in NATO
exercise Operation Riptide IV, in European waters. She returned to Norfolk in
September and resumed normal 2nd Fleet operations. That employment continued
until 8 February 1964 when she embarked upon her first tour of duty with the
6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. She returned to Norfolk on 9 August and
once again took up her East Coast-West Indies routine. In September and
October, she visited European waters again to participate in two NATO exercises,
Operations Masterstroke and Teamwork. The warship returned to Norfolk on 20
October and resumed 2nd Fleet operations. In November, she began her first
shipyard overhaul at Norfolk. She completed repairs on 26 March 1966 and put
to sea for trials.
On 15 April she arrived in her new home port of Naval Station Mayport,
Florida. She conducted refresher training in the Guantanamo Bay operating
area in May and June and returned to Mayport on 3 July. The warship resumed
East Coast operations until 27 August, at which time she deployed to the
Mediterranean once again. That four month deployment ended on 17 December
when the guided missile frigate reentered Mayport. For the next six months,
William V. Pratt conducted operations out of Mayport. She voyaged twice to
the West Indies and once to the Gulf of Mexico. The warship also operated
briefly off the Virginia Capes. In July 1966, she deployed to the
Mediterranean for the third time in her career. She conducted operations with
the 6th Fleet for the next five months, departing the Mediterranean for home
on 10 December. She arrived back in Mayport 10 days later.
Following six months of normal operations along the East Coast and in the
West Indies, William V. Pratt departed Mayport on 20 June 1967 for her only
deployment to the western Pacific during the American involvement in the
Vietnamese civil war. En route, she transited the Panama Canal and made port
calls at San Diego, Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Guam before arriving in Subic
Bay in the Philippines on 28 July. Early in August, she departed the
Philippines for the Gulf of Tonkin and duty on the northern sea-air rescue
(SAR) station. She relieved USS Berkeley on 12 August and remained on station
in the gulf until early in September. After upkeep in Subic Bay, she headed
back to the Gulf of Tonkin late in the month to take up duty on the south SAR
station. That tour of duty lasted until the latter part of November at which
time she departed the gulf for port visits to Hong Kong and Kachsinng on the
island of Taiwan. She did one more period of duty on the south SAR station
before leaving the western Pacific via Yokosuka in Japan, Midway Island, and
Pearl Harbor. The warship arrived in San Diego on 31 December. On 2 January
1968, she resumed her voyage back to Mayport. William V. Pratt transited the
Panama Canal on 10 January and reentered her home port on the 16th.
In February 1968, the warship moved to Charleston to prepare for regular
overhaul. On 1 March, she entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard and began a
six-month repair period. She departed Charleston on 6 September and arrived
back in Mayport two days later . After refresher training in the West Indies,
William V. Pratt resumed her routine of alternating 2nd and 6th Fleet tours
of duty. Over the next four years, the guided missile frigate was deployed to
European waters once each year. She departed Mayport on 7 January 1969 and
set a course for the Mediterranean. She reported for duty with the 6th Fleet
on 18 January and, for the next five months, conducted the normal round of
port visits and exercises. On 1 June she arrived in Rota, Spain for turnover
ceremonies before heading north on the 3rd for a series of hunter/killer
exercises and visits to northern European ports. She concluded that
assignment on 7 July when she departed Portsmouth, England to return to the
United States. The warship arrived back in Mayport on 15 July and resumed
normal 2nd Fleet operations. That employment lasted until 30 April when she
pointed her bow eastward again and headed for the Mediterranean. In addition
to the usual exercises and port visits, that deployment included duty with a
special contingency force assembled in the eastern Mediterranean in response
to Syrian intervention in the Jordanian civil war on the side of militant, anti-government,
Arab guerrillas. She steamed around off the Levantine coast from early
September to early October before the American show of force succeeded in
securing a Syrian withdrawal. The warship then resumed normal 6th Fleet
operations until 1 November when she departed Barcelona, Spain, on her way
home.
For the remainder of 1970 and during the first seven months of 1971, William
V. Pratt operated out of Mayport along the East Coast and in the West Indies.
Her 1971 deployment began early in August, but it consisted of a cruise to
northern European waters for hunter/ killer exercises and visits to northern
European ports rather than a Mediterranean cruise. She returned to Mayport on
8 October and, on the 29th, began converting her main propulsion plant to the
use of Navy distillate fuel. She completed that modification on 17 January
1972 and resumed local operations until 18 February when she got underway for
duty with the 6th Fleet. The warship participated in the usual schedule of
training evolutions, multiship exercises, and port visits through the spring
and early summer. On 28 June, after turnover ceremonies at Rota, the guided
missile frigate headed home. She reentered Mayport on 8 July and began
post-deployment stand-down and preparations for her decommissioning incident
to a major modernization overhaul. In September, she moved to Philadelphia
for the antiaircraft warfare (AAW) modernization overhaul. William V. Pratt
was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
William V. Pratt was recommissioned at Philadelphia on 6 October 1973, Comdr.
Rodney B. McDaniel in command. On the 23rd, she departed Philadelphia, bound
for her new home port of Charleston, South Carolina She arrived at her
destination on the 26th. The guided missile frigate conducted post-overhaul
shakedown training in December and resumed 2nd Fleet operations early in
1974. Those operations continued until 23 September at which time she
departed Charleston to deploy to the Mediterranean once again. She changed
operational control to the 6th Fleet at Naval Station Rota, Spain, on 2
October. The following day, the warship entered the Mediterranean proper and
began operations as a unit of the screen for USS Independence. For the next
five months, William V. Pratt conducted exercises with carriers Independence
and USS Saratoga. She ranged the length and breadth of the "middle
sea", making port visits and performing the usual training missions. On
8 March 1975, she conducted turnover at Rota and got underway for Charleston.
The warship reentered her home port on the 19th and, after about a month of
post-deployment stand-down for leave and upkeep, she resumed normal 2nd Fleet
operations. Those missions brought an NROTC midshipman cruise in May and
readiness exercises in June. On 1 July 1975, William V. Pratt was
reclassified a guided missile destroyer and received the designation DDG-44.
On 14 August, she departed Charleston to participate in UNITAS XVI, a series
of multinational exercises conducted annually with units of various Latin
American navies. Those exercises occupied her time for most of what remained
of 1975. On 8 December, the warship arrived back in Charleston and began
holiday leave and upkeep as well as preparations for a restricted
availability.
The ship entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard on 15 December and remained
there until 29 March 1976. She returned to Charleston on 7 April and resumed
normal 2nd Fleet duty. That assignment - broken only by her participation in
the International Naval Review held at New York on Independence Day -
continued through the summer of 1976. On 4 October, William V. Pratt departed
Charleston in company with USS Jesse L. Brown, USS Julius A. Furer, and USS
Valdez for another tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. The
ships arrived in Rota on 14 October, completed turnover briefings, and
entered the Mediterranean on the 16th. The warship served in the screen of
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt for the bulk of her 6th Fleet assignment. Once
again, she visited ports and conducted exercises throughout the
Mediterranean. That tour of duty with the 6th Fleet lasted until the
beginning of April 1977. After turnover at Rota, the guided missile destroyer
got under way on 11 April to return to the United States. She moored at
Charleston once again on 21 April and, on the 27th, entered the Charleston
Naval Shipyard for a 10-week availability. She completed repairs on 8 July
and resumed 2nd Fleet training operations out of Charleston. That employment
continued through the end of 1977 and into 1978. On 11 July 1978, she
departed Charleston for another deployment to South American waters to
participate in UNITAS XIX. During that cruise, she completed a
circumnavigation of the South American continent while engaged in a series of
readiness exercises with Latin American navies. She returned to Charleston on
3 December and spent the remaining days of the year in port.
William V. Pratt earned one battle star during the Vietnam conflict.
The rest of the '70s saw her return once to the Mediterranean and make
another UNITAS cruise, this time voyaging completely around South America.
She received further combat systems updates in 1979-80, operated with the
Sixth Fleet and visited Northern European waters in 1981, and took part in
Lebanon Crisis actions in 1982, including providing gunfire support for U.S.
Marines at Beirut. She was the escort ship that escorted Yassar Arafat out of
Lebanon to Tunisia.
William V. Pratt had three more major deployments during the last six years
of the decade, operating in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Red Seas in
1984, the Mediterranean alone in 1987 and again in 1989. Bracketing her 1989
Sixth Fleet cruise were major exercises off Norway and in the North Sea -
English Channel area. In 1990 she worked with the U.S. Coast Guard on law
enforcement service in the Caribbean Sea. William V. Pratt's final overseas
tour was an important one, involving participation in the short, but intense
war that drove Iraq out of Kuwait during the first months of 1991.
William V. Pratt was decommissioned on 30 September 1991 and stricken from
the Naval Vessel Register on 20 November 1992 and sold for scrapping on 14
September 1995 to Transformer Marine of Brownsville, Tx for $49,600. William
V. Pratt was dismantled shortly afterwards.
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