USS Stump (DD-978)
She was my first assignment. I served as Damage Control Assistant, Overhaul Assistant in Brooklyn Navy Shipyard and Auxiliary Officer.
USS STUMP was the 16th SPRUANCE - class destroyer and the first ship in the Navy named after Admiral Felix B. Stump. The STUMP was last homeported in Norfolk, Va. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on October 22, 2004, the STUMP spent the following months berthed at the Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance Office, Philadelphia, Penn., until sunk as a target on June 7, 2006.
General Characteristics: Awarded: January 26, 1972
Keel laid: August 25, 1975
Launched: January 8, 1977
Commissioned: August 19, 1978
Decommissioned: October 22, 2004
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, West Bank, Pascagoula, Miss.
Propulsion system: four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine engines
Propellers: two Blades on each Propeller: five
Length: 564,3 feet (172 meters)
Beam: 55,1 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft: 28,9 feet (8.8 meters)
Displacement: approx. 9,200 tons full load
Speed: 30+ knots
Aircraft: two SH-60B Seahawk (LAMPS 3)
Armament: two Mk 45 5-inch/54 caliber lightweight guns, one MK 41 VLS for
Tomahawk, ASROC and Standard missiles, Mk 46 torpedoes (two triple
tube mounts), Harpoon missile launchers, one Sea Sparrow launcher,
one Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) System, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS
Crew: approx. 340
MY TIME ON THE STUMP
USS STUMP deployed as USCOMSOLANT Flagship for UNITAS XXII. It was on this cruise that STUMP obtained it's mascot Felix, a Bluefronted Amazon Parrot, during a port visit to Brazil. In October 1982, STUMP deployed to the Persian Gulf as a part of the Middle East Force to conduct radar picket operations.
USS STUMP IS NAMED FOR Admiral Felix B. Stump
A native of Parkersburg, West Virginia, Felix Budwell Stump was appointed to the
Naval Academy from that state in 1913. He graduated in March 1917, just prior
to the United States entrance into World War I, during which he served in the
gunboat YORKTOWN and as Navigator on the cruiser CINCINNATI, operating on
escort duty in the Atlantic.
After the war he served in the battleship ALABAMA, had flight training at the
Naval Air Station, Pensacola, and postgraduate instruction in Aeronautical
Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He subsequently
served in Torpedo Squadron 2 of the experimental carrier LANGLEY; as Assembly
and Repair officer at Naval Air Station, Hampton Roads, Virginia; and in command
of the Cruiser Scouting Wing and on the Staff of Commander Cruisers, Scouting
Fleet. He then had two tours of duty in the Bureau of Aeronautics; and was C
ommanding Officer of the SARATOGA's Scout-Bombing Squadron 2, and Navigator
and Executive Officer, respectively, of the carriers LEXINGTON and ENTERPRISE.
In command of the LANGLEY in Manila Bay, at the outbreak of World War II, he was transferred in January 1942 to the Staff of the Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet. For exceptionally meritorious service as "Commander of the combined operation center of the Allied-American, British, Dutch and Australian air command..." he was awarded the U.S. Army's Distinguished Service Medal.
In 1942 he had eight months duty as Air Officer for Commander Western Sea Frontier, then commanded the new carrier LEXINGTON, which was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for Heroism in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands operations 1943. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action against Japanese-held islands..." from September to December 1943. He later commanded Carrier Division 24, and was awarded the Navy Cross twice, the Legion of Merit (three awards) and has the ribbon for the Presidential Unit Citation to his flagship, the NATOMA BAY.
He was Chief of Naval Air Technical Training Command from May 1945 to December 1948, after which he served successively as Commander in Chief, Pacific and U.S. Pacific Fleet, with headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on July 10, 1953. In February 1958 when the command was divided, he was relieved of duty as Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, but continued to serve as Commander in Chief, Pacific until his retirement, effective August 1, 1958. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for "exceptionally meritorious service...as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet; United States Military Advisor to the Southeast Treaty Organizations."
After his retirement, he was appointed to the position of Vice Chairman of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
UNITAS: Chip Eckles looking out at the last of Chile
Chilean Inland Waterway from Stern of USS Stump
IO Cruise: Hanging out in my stateroom
IO Cruise: Suez Canel
