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USS Trippe (FF 1075)

- decommissioned -
- formerly DE 1075 -


USS TRIPPE was the 24th KNOX - class frigate and the fourth ship of the Navy bearing the name of LT John Trippe. Originally designated as destroyer escort (DE), the TRIPPE was redesignated as frigate (FF) on July 30, 1975. Decommissioned on July 30, 1992, the TRIPPE was subsequently leased to Greece where she was recommissioned as THRAKI. Stricken from the Navy list on January 11, 1995, the ship was finally purchased by Greece on February 9, 2001.

General Characteristics:Awarded: July 22, 1964
Keel laid: July 29, 1968
Launched: November 1, 1969
Commissioned: September 19, 1970
Decommissioned: July 30, 1992
Builder: Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans, La.
Propulsion system: 2 - 1200 psi boilers; 1 geared turbine, 1 shaft; 35,000 shaft horsepower
Length: 438 feet (133.5 meters)
Beam: 47 feet (14.4 meters)
Draft: 25 feet (7.6 meters)
Displacement: approx. 4,200 tons full load
Speed: 27 knots
Armament: one Mk-16 missile launcher for ASROC and Harpoon missiles, one Mk-42 5-inch/54 caliber gun, Mk-46 torpedoes from single tube launchers, one 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft: one SH-2F (LAMPS I) helicopter
Crew: 18 officers, 267 enlisted


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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS TRIPPE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.


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USS TRIPPE Cruise Books:


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Accidents aboard USS TRIPPE:

DateWhereEvents
June 15, 1977Persian GulfUSS TRIPPE suffers damage to its sonar dome during a search and rescue operation for a crashed Kuwaiti helicopter.
February 1978CaribbeanUSS TRIPPE's SH-2F helicopter crash lands on the flightdeck.



April 19, 1989500 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla.USS TRIPPE and the USS PLATTE collide during exercises in the Atlantic. One minor injury is reported and the PLATTE sustains minor damage.


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History of USS TRIPPE:

USS TRIPPE was commissioned on 19 September 1970 at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, South Carolina. Following her fitting out availability in Charleston, TRIPPE completed refresher training in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a post shakedown availability at Boston Naval Shipyard. TRIPPE was the first ship to fire the ISSM Weapons System and the first destroyer to be configured with the Basic Point Defense Missile System.

In June of 1972, TRIPPE deployed to Southeast Asia as escort to USS AMERICA (CVA 66), conducting strike operations into North Vietnam. Following duty in the Gulf of Tonkin, TRIPPE proceeded on a goodwill mission to the Indian Ocean. Returning to Newport in December 1972, TRIPPE became the first Knox Class Ocean Frigate to completely circumnavigate the globe.

TRIPPE deployed to the Mediterranean for duty with the Sixth Fleet in August 1973 and returned to Newport, RI, in January 1974. Following a homeport change to Charleston, South Carolina, in March 1974, TRIPPE deployed to the Indian Ocean for duty with Middle East Forces in January 1975 and returned to Charleston, South Carolina on June 1975. TRIPPE underwent a major overhaul in Charleston Naval Shipyard from October 1975 to May 1976. Returning to the fleet in June 1976, TRIPPE conducted refresher training in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba receiving a 91 percent completion score, the highest given any U.S. Navy ship in a year and half.

TRIPPE deployed to the Middle East Forces in January 1977 conducting a goodwill tour of three West African ports prior to arrival in the Middle East. Upon completion of a highly successful Middle East deployment, TRIPPE returned home to Charleston, South Carolina in September 1977.

TRIPPE again deployed to the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean from April to October 1978.

During eight months in her home port of Charleston from October 1978 to June 1979, TRIPPE maintained her standards of excellence in various local training opportunities, which included participation in SHAREM XXIX, a series of Anti-Submarine exercises in which TRIPPE performed admirably.

From June to October 1979, TRIPPE participated in UNITAS XX. This annual South American training cruise took her completely around the South American continent with stops in eleven countries. She also participated in the 1979 West African Training Cruise, which took her to ports in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, and the Cape Verde Islands. TRIPPE returned home in December 1979.

From January 1980 to December 1980, TRIPPE successfully completed a major overhaul at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. She received a sophisticated electronic warfare suite and TACTAS, a towed array sonar system, and ISSM was replaced with the Harpoon cruise missile system. TRIPPE has been underway much of the time since the overhaul. In August 1981 she deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, where she earned the coveted "Hook Em" award, given by Commander Sixth Fleet for excellence in ASW. In the months that followed her February 1982 return home, she spent almost four months involved in special operations off Central America, transiting the Panama Canal four times. From March to September 1983, TRIPPE conducted another Mediterranean and Indian Ocean deployment, which saw her operating in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas. Port visits included Bermuda, Madeira and the Canary Islands; Senegal, Liberia, and Somalia in Africa; Diego Garcia, Italy, and Spain. Once again the frigate demonstrated her ASW prowess, winning a second "Hook Em" award, and met every operational demand in a timely and professional manner which gained her crew the respect of the operational commanders under whom they served.

TRIPPE made two more Mediterranean deployments in 1985 and 1987. In the mid-'80s she was also modernized, receiving a seakeeping-enhancing bulwark on her bow and the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System. The latter's fast shooting radar-controlled 20mm gun mount was installed on her afterdeck to improve her defenses against cruise missiles. She spent most of the late 1980s and the early 1990s operating in the Caribbean Sea area, with counter-narcotics service taking much of her effort. At the end of July 1992 USS TRIPPE was decommissioned and leased to Greece. The Greek Navy placed her in commission in April 1993 as THRAKI, and she was formally sold to that nation in 2001.


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About the Ship's Name:

John Trippe was born in Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1785. He became a Midshipman in the U.S. Navy in April 1799 and had service afloat in the frigate CONSTITUTION and schooner EXPERIMENT during the Quasi-War with France. In 1801 and 1802 Midshipman Trippe served in the frigate PRESIDENT in the Mediterranean Sea. Promoted to Master in May 1803, he returned to the Mediterranean in the schooner VIXEN and performed distinguished service during the war with Tripoli, commanding Gunboat Number 6 during battles off the enemy port in August and September 1804. In 1808, following promotion to Lieutenant, he was stationed at Charleston, South Carolina, and during the next year he commanded the schooner ENTERPRISE on a voyage to the Netherlands. Lieutenant Trippe next commanded VIXEN during a Caribbean cruise, beginning in May 1810. On 24 June he courageously handled a challenge by a British warship. A few weeks later, while sailing from Havana, Cuba, to New Orleans, Lieutenant John Trippe died on board VIXEN.


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