USS Turner Joy (DD-951) is one of 18 s of the United States Navy. She was named for Admiral Charles Turner Joy USN (1895–1956). Commissioned in 1959, she spent her entire career in the Pacific. She participated extensively in the Vietnam War, and was one of the principal ships involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident as well as serving as destroyer squadron 13 lead flagship under Captain George S. Grove and Commander Robert Huntley Pidgeon, litigated and inspired the Vietnam Paris Peace Accords, War Powers Resolution of 1973 and ended the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
Decommissioned in 1982, she is now a museum ship in Bremerton, Washington.
Construction and commissioning Turner Joy was built by the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company of Seattle and commissioned at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. Her keel was laid on 30 September 1957. She was launched on 5 May 1958, sponsored by Mrs. C. Turner Joy, and was commissioned on 3 August 1959.
Pre-Vietnam War operational duty Following a pre-shakedown goodwill cruise to Central and South American ports and shakedown out of San Diego, Turner Joy began, early in 1960, duty as flagship both of Destroyer Squadron 13 (DesRon 13) and Destroyer Division 131 (DesDiv 131). Based at Long Beach, California, she formed part of an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) task group built around . She conducted exercises along the California coast until 17 May 1960, when she sailed with the task group for the western Pacific.
After stops at Pearl Harbor and Apra, Guam, she stood air-sea rescue duty near the Marianas for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's flight to visit several Asian nations. After returning to Apra briefly, the destroyer moved via the Philippines to Bangkok, Thailand. Turner Joy crossed the president's path once more in July 1960, when the Chinese used the latter's visit to Taiwan as a pretext for shelling the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, once again. A tense month of duty with the Taiwan Strait patrol followed as the United States Navy demonstrated America's support for one of her allies. In mid-August 1960, the warship moved north for exercises with 7th Fleet carriers along the coast of Japan. That duty rounded out her first western Pacific deployment, and the destroyer got underway for Yokosuka, Japan, and headed home.
Turner Joy returned to Long Beach on 16 November 1960. Over the next 18 months, she completed an extensive overhaul and participated in numerous 1st Fleet exercises along the California coast. In October 1961, the destroyer was transferred to DesDiv 191 of DesRon 19 and assumed duty as flagship for both. On 2 June 1962, she stood out of Long Beach with an ASW task group built around Hornet. On her way to the Far East, the warship participated in exercises with Amphibious Squadron 5 in the Hawaiian Islands. Later, she joined the screen of , operating off the southern coast of Honshū, Japan.
Her second deployment to the Orient was characterized by a series of exercises with ships of the 7th Fleet and of allied navies. Areas of operations included the Sea of Japan, the Pacific east of Japan, and the South China Sea. After a final series of drills conducted with , the destroyer completed that tour of duty at Yokosuka, Japan, early in December. On 7 June, she headed back to the United States where she arrived on 21 June. The ensuing 14 months brought another overhaul as well as further 1st Fleet exercises in the waters along the west coast. Those evolutions continued into 1964; and, in March, the destroyer began preparations for overseas movement.
Gulf of Tonkin incident
On 13 March 1964, Turner Joy departed Long Beach to embark upon her most celebrated tour of duty in the Far East. The third western Pacific deployment of her career began routinely enough. After calling at Pearl Harbor on her way west, the destroyer joined a task group built around for operations in the Philippine Sea, followed by a cruise through the South China Sea to Japan. Further training operations and port visits ensued, as the deployment continued peacefully. During late July 1964, Turner Joy, while attached to a carrier task group built around , began making "watch dog" patrols off the coast of Vietnam where a guerrilla war had been raging at varying levels of intensity since the end of World War II.
In the afternoon of 2 August 1964, , engaged in a DESOTO patrol, called for assistance when three Vietnam People's Navy (VPN) P 4-class torpedo boats from the 135th Torpedo Squadron attacked her.Moise, p. 78. As Maddox engaged the boats, firing over 280 five-inch shells, the contact was broken, and each combatant withdrew from the contact. While retreating to the North Vietnamese coastline, the three torpedo boats were attacked by four Navy F-8 Crusader jets from Ticonderoga which fired rockets and strafed with 20mm cannon fire, damaging two torpedo boats and leaving one boat in apparently sinking condition.Moise, pp. 82–83. Meanwhile, Turner Joy raced to Maddox to provide additional surface strength. By the time she reached Maddox, the torpedo boats were no longer in the area.
On 3 August 1964, the Turner Joy was ordered to accompany the Maddox for another DESOTO mission,Moise, p. 94. on 4 August Turner Joys radar screens picked up a number of what appeared to be small, high-speed surface craft approaching, but at extreme range. As a precaution, the two destroyers called upon Ticonderoga to furnish air support. By nightfall, the unidentified radar echoes suggested that VPN torpedo boats were converging upon the two American warships from the west and south. Turner Joy reported that she sighted one or two torpedo wakes, then rang up full speed, maneuvered radically to evade expected torpedoes, and began firing in the direction of the unidentified blips.Moise, pp. 178–179. Over the next two and a half hours, Turner Joy fired approximately 220 five-inch shells, while planes from Ticonderoga fired at the supposed torpedo boats.Moise, p. 160.
Reports claimed that at least two of those were sunk by direct hits and another pair severely damaged, and that the remaining boats retired rapidly to the north. A sailor in the Gun Director on the USS Maddox, Patrick Park, reviewed radar and sonar records for the next three days after the incident on orders from his superiors. His conclusion, there were no attacks on 4 August 1964 against the Maddox and the Turner Joy. This has been supported by evidence from the Vietnamese since the end of hostilities. In addition, Admiral Moore reported on 7 August 1964 to Admiral Sharpe that "Freak weather effects on radar and overeager sonar men may have accounted for the many reports."
On 1 and 2 July 1966, the three torpedo boats from VPN Torpedo Squadron 135; T-333, T-336, and T-339, which had attacked the USS Maddox on 2 August 1964, came into the Tonkin Gulf again to attack two more US destroyers, only to be promptly sunk by US jets from the aircraft carriers and .Moise, p. 195. Nineteen VPN sailors were taken as prisoner of war from those sunk torpedo boats, and they made it clear that no VPN torpedo boats had been sunk in 1964. It could well have been that bad weather and freakish radar conditions for which the Gulf of Tonkin is famous, caused radar echoes to appear on Turner Joys screen and prompted her captain and crew to take defensive action in consideration of the events two days earlier.Moise, pp. 106–107.
In any event, the "Tonkin Gulf incident" prompted American retaliation. Constellation joined Ticonderoga off North Vietnam the following day, and together they launched Operation Pierce Arrow, sixty-four sorties against the bases from which the attacks had been launched and against an oil storage depot known to have been used to support those bases. Planes from Constellation hit the VPN bases at Hongay and Loc Chao in the north while Ticonderoga aircraft went after three targets in the south: the motor torpedo boat bases at Quang Khe and Phuc Loi as well as the Vinh oil storage depot. At the last-named target, American planes set fire to 12 of the 14 oil storage tanks sending almost 10 percent of North Vietnam's oil reserves up in smoke. Of more lasting significance both to the warship and the country, however, the incident prompted the United States Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the legal foundation for the United States to deploy conventional US military forces and directly confront North Vietnam in open warfare; which would ultimately involve the United States in a bloody and costly war in Indochina for the ensuing eight and a half years. Throughout that period, the Turner Joy would serve repeatedly throughout the conflict.
Vietnam War operations Following the excitement of the first week in August, the destroyer resumed more routine operations in the South China Sea. She concluded her deployment when she reached Long Beach on 2 October—two months to the day since she had rushed to the aid of Maddox. The destroyer conducted normal operations out of Long Beach until 18 December when she entered the naval shipyard for a three-month overhaul. Late in March, she began refresher training out of San Diego. West coast operations occupied her until 10 July, when she departed Long Beach with DesRon 19, bound once again for duty in the Orient. At the end of a 21-day transit, Turner Joy joined near the end of the month. During August and the first three weeks of September, the destroyer served both as an escort for the carrier and as a detached radar picket ship.
On 23 September, she moved into the Gulf of Thailand near the west coast of South Vietnam to participate in one of the earliest naval gunfire support missions conducted along that section of the coastline. After a brief respite in Subic Bay for upkeep, the warship returned to the "gunline" in October, this time along South Vietnam's southeastern coast between Cape St. Jacques and Chu Lai. On 25 September, she provided call-fire for American and South Vietnamese forces operating ashore in the vicinity of Chu Lai itself. During the mission, her guns destroyed a number of enemy positions and figured prominently in the repulse of a Viet Cong attack. Near the conclusion of that 24-hour action, a 5-inch round misfired; and, during the ensuing efforts to clear the chamber, the shell detonated. The explosion damaged the gun mount, killed three sailors, and wounded three more. That event forced her departure from the combat zone. After landing the three casualties at Da Nang, Turner Joy set course for Subic Bay in the Philippines. After a week of repairs, the destroyer departed Subic Bay in company with Ticonderoga for screening duty in the South China Sea, followed by port calls at Hong Kong and at Yokosuka, Japan. At the end of the year, she returned to naval gunfire support duty off the coast of South Vietnam.