OVERVIEWUSS MCCANDLESS, named in honor of Commodore Byron McCandless and his son Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless, was the first United States warship to bear this name. The keel of this Knox-class (DE-1052) destroyer escort (later reclassified as a frigate) was laid on June 4, 1970 at Avondale Shipyards of Westwego, Louisiana. The ship was launched on March 20, 1971 and commissioned on March 18, 1972. |
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| MCCANDLESS was 438-feet long, had a 47-foot beam, and displaced 4,200 tons (full load). Powered by two 1200psi
boilers and a geared turbine that generated 35,000 shaft horsepower, the ship's maximum speed was 27 knots.
These frigates, all of which have been retired, fulfilled a Protection of Shipping (POS) mission as
Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) combatants for carrier task groups, amphibious expeditionary forces, underway
replenishment groups and merchant convoys. MCCANDLESS was outfitted with the SQS-26CX sonar, ASROC and
Harpoon from the MK16 box launcher, 4 single tube launchers for the MK46 torpedo, a single 5-inch / 54 caliber
MK42 gun, a 20mm Phalanx CIWS, and a flight deck/hangar for the SH-2F (LAMPS) aircraft. MCCANDLESS had a
complement of 285 including 18 officers and 267 enlisted while on active duty. In December 1991 MCCANDLESS was
transferred to the Naval Reserve Force and redesignated FFT-1084. She was decommissioned on May 6,
1994 and transferred to the Turkish Navy as TCG Trakya (F-254). Webpage last updated 12/01/2001 |
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