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Destroyer names honor heroes of Vietnam, WWII

A well-respected admiral known as much for his integrity and dignity as for his accomplishments, and one of the greatest naval tactical commanders of World War II will be commemorated by two new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to be built for the Navy.

Names for the USS William P. Lawrence (DDG 110) and USS Spruance (DDG 111) were to be announced May 11 by Navy Secretary Donald Winter. The choices continue the recent practice of applying well-deserved new names and perpetuating classic ship monikers for the Navy’s destroyers.

Vice Adm. Bill Lawrence, who died in December 2005 at the age of 75, had a long and varied career that ranged from the early days of jet aviation and the space program to imprisonment in North Vietnam, followed by a major command.

A champion athlete in his youth, Lawrence began his career as a jet pilot and flew 25 combat missions in the Korean War. As a top Navy test pilot, he was the first naval aviator to fly at twice the speed of sound. He was in the running to be chosen as one of the original Mercury astronauts when he was disqualified because of a minor heart murmur.

Returning to sea, Lawrence flew 150 combat missions in Vietnam and was the commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 143, flying from the aircraft carrier Constellation, when his F-4 Phantom was shot down in June 1967 and he was taken prisoner. Lawrence endured nearly six years of torture, abuse and solitary confinement. Among his mates at the Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi — the infamous Hanoi Hilton — were future senator John McCain and future admiral and vice presidential candidate James Stockdale.

After his release in March 1973, Lawrence came home to find his wife, thinking he was dead, had remarried. Lawrence was devastated, but McCain soon introduced him to McCain’s physical therapist, Diane. The two married and stayed together for 31 years until his death.

Graduating from the Naval War College, Lawrence was promoted to flag rank. Among his posts were superintendent of the Naval Academy, command of the Third Fleet and chief of naval personnel. After retiring from the Navy in 1986, Lawrence held the Chair of Naval Leadership at the Annapolis, Md., academy for five years.

Lawrence was introduced to journalist Frank Aukofer through the Freedom Foundation, and the two co-authored an insightful analysis of the military and media, “America’s Team — The Odd Couple. A Report on the Relationship between the Media and the Military,” published in 1995. Among the recommendations made in the book was the embedding of reporters with military units.

With Rosario Rausa, Lawrence also produced a widely praised autobiography, “Tennessee Patriot.”

A native of the Volunteer State, Lawrence composed in his head a poem about Tennessee while in solitary confinement in North Vietnam. The work — “Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee,” was adopted in 1973 as the state’s official poem.

One of Lawrence’s three children, Wendy, became one of the first women graduated from the Naval Academy. After service as a helicopter pilot, she was chosen as an astronaut and logged more than 1,225 hours in space aboard four space shuttle flights. She retired from the Navy in 2006 with the rank of captain.

The USS William P. Lawrence will be the first Navy ship to carry the name.

Adm. Raymond Spruance was one of the great Navy leaders of World War II. As a young ensign he was a member of a battleship crew in the “Great White Fleet” around-the-world cruise of 1907-1909, and served aboard destroyers, cruiser and battleships. He was in charge of the cruiser-destroyer group that escorted Vice Adm. William Halsey’s aircraft carriers during the Doolittle raid on Japan in April 1942 and earned the confidence of the hard-charging Halsey. When Halsey took ill soon after, he recommended Spruance as his replacement in command of Task Force 16 and its two aircraft carriers — a surprise choice to many, since Spruance had no naval aviation experience.

Although junior to Vice Adm. Frank Jack Fletcher, Spruance ably led the American assault on the Japanese fleet after Fletcher’s flagship was damaged and taken out of the fight. The resulting Battle of Midway, in which four Japanese carriers were sunk while the U.S. Navy lost the Yorktown, was the first clear-cut American victory of the Pacific campaign and established Spruance’s reputation as a winning carrier admiral.

Spruance’s personality, often described as taciturn and quiet, was in almost complete contrast to the aggressive Halsey, a media darling known for giving memorable quotes. But the two went on to make an effective one-two punch commanding the Navy’s largest striking forces in the Pacific.

After duty as chief of staff and deputy commander to U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Chester Nimitz, Spruance in mid-1943 was given command of what was to become the Fifth Fleet, the largest naval force ever assembled. He led the fleet through a series of tough battles through the Central Pacific, culminating in the June 1944 invasion of the Marianas. In the resulting Battle of the Philippine Sea — which included the famed “Marianas Turkey Shoot” — the U.S. Navy all but destroyed what was left of Japan’s naval aviation, but Spruance was criticized by some for not chasing the Japanese fleet and finishing it off. Spruance countered that his primary mission was to support the troops ashore and cover the invasion fleet.

Spruance and his staff retired to Pearl Harbor after the battle to plan for future campaigns, relinquishing command to Halsey — under whose leadership the fleet was recast as the Third Fleet and took part in the invasion of the Philippines. Spruance relieved Halsey in early 1945 and led the fleet through the tough invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and was prepared to invade Japan when the war ended in August 1945.

After the war, he briefly served as commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, but left in early 1946 for a two-year stint as president of the Naval War College. Retiring in 1948, he served from 1952 to 1955 as the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines and died aged 83 in December 1969.

Shortly after his death, the Navy assigned the name Spruance to the first of a class of 31 modern destroyers — affectionately known as “Sprucans.” The USS Spruance (DD 963) was in service for nearly 30 years before being decommissioned in 2005.

The USS William P. Lawrence will be built at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems’ Ingalls yard at Pascagoula, Miss., and is to be delivered in 2009.

The new USS Spruance is to be built at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, with a planned 2010 delivery.

Only one more Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the DDG 112, has yet to be named.