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Domestic Stories HMCS Vancouver Sends Decommissioned US Destroyer to Watery GraveBy SLt Aaron Butler
Credit: DND
HMCS Vancouver fires the first Harpoon Missile. | “Take surface hostile track number 3000 with Bulldog!” With this final order, Commander Kurt Salchert, Commanding Officer of HMCS Vancouver, began the weapon engagements that sent ex-USS O’Brien, a Spruance-class destroyer, to her final resting place off the Pacific Missile Range Facility in near Kauai, Hawaii.
HMCS Vancouver conducted two successful missile launches with two American P3C Orion patrol aircraft, similar to the Canadian Forces’ Auroras flown from Comox, B.C. The Harpoon surface-to-surface missile can hit surface targets up to 60 nautical miles away at Mach 0.9—almost the speed of sound. Vancouver can carry eight missiles in two quad launchers.
"The missile firings demonstrated a new level of sophistication in the Navy’s tactical procedures … Vancouver and the P3 executed a coordinated attack from over the horizon to achieve a simultaneous impact on the target from multiple directions, " said Cdr Salchert.
Credit: DND
USS O'Brien on fire. | After the missile firings, Vancouver used 50-calibre heavy machine gun fire at close range to close the burning hulk and then conduct damage assessment. The destructive power of modern weaponry completely destroyed and set ablaze the ex-USS O’Brien’s hull.
It did not take long for the magnificent ship to roll on her side and gracefully succumb to her wounds. Many members of Vancouver’s ship’s company were on deck to pay their final respects, as ex-USS O’Brien descended to her watery grave minutes before a glorious Hawaiian sunset. Crew paused in silence to reflect on the death of a fine ship, and ponder their own role in delivering the deadly consequences of modern weaponry.
SLT Aaron Butler is the Unit Information Officer for HMCS Vancouver.
More photos are available on the MARPAC website at: http://www.navy.forces.gc.ca/marpac/images/marpac_images_e.asp?section=4&category=28
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