USS Goldsborough (DDG-20)

USS Goldsborough (DDG-20), named for Rear Admiral Louis M. Goldsborough USN (1805–1877), was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer.

Goldsborough was laid down by the Puget Sound Bridge and Drydock Company at Seattle in Washington on 3 January 1961, launched on 15 December 1961 by Mrs. Alan Bible, wife of U.S. Senator Alan Bible of Nevada and commissioned on 9 November 1963, Captain Charles D. Allen, Jr., in command.

1960s
Goldsborough joined the U.S. Pacific Fleet 25 December 1963, as a unit of Cruiser-Destroyer Force with home-port at Pearl Harbor.

After shakedown out of Puget Sound, the new guided missile destroyer arrived Pearl Harbor 14 February 1964. Following qualification and acceptance tests, she sailed 18 April for Sydney, Australia, for the Coral Sea celebration and returned Pearl Harbor 1 June. She operated in Hawaiian waters in the summer and early fall, then got underway 23 November for Yokosuka and her first West-Pac deployment. After operations strengthening the 7th Fleet during the escalating war in Vietnam, Goldsborough returned to Pearl for ASW training.

The guided missile destroyer headed for the Orient once more 9 February 1966 to bolster the 7th Fleet. In April she provided gunfire support for Operation "Binh Phu I" firing 594 rounds of 5" ammunition at Viet Cong troop concentration and buildings. During the last half of the month she screened attack carriers at Yankee Station. Next came SEATO exercises in May and duty as station ship at Hong Kong in June. On 26 June Goldsborough was again off Vietnam on picket station. She sailed for Hawaii 16 July and reach Pearl Harbor on the 23d.

While in berth at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii an anti-submarine torpedo was discharged from the ship and landed on the pier on 24 November 1965.

In August 1966, GOLDSBOROUGH entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for overhaul and extensive modification. In 1967 she participated in “Operation Sea Dragon”, designed to interdict the North Vietnamese lines of supply into the Republic of Vietnam, and provided Naval Gunfire Support along the DMZ. During this deployment GOLDSBOROUGH fired nearly 10,000 rounds in support of allied forces and avoided over 800 rounds of hostile fire without damage to the ship. She was awarded the Naval Unit Commendation for exceptionally meritorious service in Vietnamese waters from 29 August 1967 to 17 February 1968 upon her return to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In November 1968 GOLDSBOROUGH made her fourth Western Pacific deployment in five years, participating in eighty-eight gunfire missions in support of Vietnam, Republic of Korea, and U. S. Marine and Army forces.

In 1969 GOLDSBOROUGH participated in the Apollo 11 Recovery Mission. The command module “Columbia” splashed down about 200 nautical miles south of Johnston Island at 12:50 GMT 24 July 1969.

After a yard period in 1970, GOLDSBOROUGH made a fifth WestPac tour, departing Pearl in August and returning in February 1971. Again she provided Naval Gunfire Support for allied troops, and carried out carrier escort duties in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later that year she visited Portland, Oregon for the 1971 Rose Festival.

In September 1971 GOLDSBOROUGH departed on her sixth deployment to the Western Pacific, providing Naval Gunfire Support for allied ground troops and performing carrier escort services.

In early 1972 she was assigned to the recovery Task Force for Apollo 16. Departing again on 13 October 1972 for her seventh deployment to the Western Pacific, this would be her last trip to the “gunline” of Vietnam. In December, while conducting a combat mission GOLDSBOROUGH was hit by coastal artillery fire. The shore battery put a hole five feet wide through an upper deck. The ship’s crew received a Meritorious Unit Commendation for service between October 1972 and February 1973. The ship returned to Pearl Harbor in May 1973.

1980s
Seaman Jose Cantu was the only fatality from Hurricane Iwa in November 1982. Lieutenant Ray Beard survived the incident after being washed overboard with a broken arm.

Admiral James D. Watkins, Chief of Naval Operations visited the ship in January 1986. The Admiral remarked how he had previously sighted the ship in 1964 from his submarine's periscope, Snook, "Goldsborough looked formidable then, and still is a formidable warship now."

Goldsborough was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 April 1993 and sold to Australia on 17 September 1993 as a parts hulk. The ship arrived in Sydney in early 1994, and a four-man team set about removing equipment for installation in the Royal Australian Navy's Perth class destroyers (a derivative of the Charles F. Adams class). While in Australian hands, the team painted the number 40 on the bow, filling a gap in the number sequence for their three destroyers. After all usable equipment had been stripped, Goldsborough was sold to an Indian company in August 1994, and towed away for ship breaking.