USS Biddle (DLG-34/CG-34) was a guided missile frigate/cruiser of the United States Navy. She saw action in Vietnam, where she is believed to be the last ship to down an enemy aircraft with hand-loaded guns. She was involved in the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1981. The cruiser was decommissioned on 30 November 1993 and sold for scrap on 4 December 2000.
History Biddle was laid down by the Bath Iron Works Corporation at Bath, Maine on 9 December 1963, launched on 2 July 1965 and commissioned as DLG-34 on 21 January 1967. She was named for Captain Nicholas Biddle of the Continental Navy. Her call sign was "Hard Charger".
Five months after commissioning, Biddle completed preparations for her final acceptance trials, concluded those trials, and conducted shakedown training out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She completed shakedown on 29 May and headed, via Yorktown, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts. The Destroyer Leader "guided-missile" arrived in Boston on 2 June and began post-shakedown availability at the Boston Naval Shipyard five days later. Biddle completed the availability on 30 October and got underway for her new home port, Norfolk, Virginia, the following day. The warship entered Hampton Roads early in November, but stayed only four days, putting to sea on 7 November for the first in a series of exercise and weapons-qualifications cruises to the Caribbean. Those at-sea periods occupied her until mid-December when she began holiday standdown and preparations for overseas movement.
On 22 January 1968, Biddle put to sea bound ultimately for the combat zone off the coast of Vietnam. Along the way, she transited the Panama Canal and made stops at Pearl Harbor and Guam before reaching her base of operations at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 24 February. After an availability, the guided-missile cruiser departed Subic Bay for Vietnamese waters on 3 March. She entered port at Danang, South Vietnam, on 5 March and, the following day, was on her way for a PIRAZ (Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone) station. For the next four months, Biddle alternated between periods at sea—either carrying out PIRAZ duty, serving as an antiair warfare (AAW) picket, or acting as a sea-air rescue (SAR) vessel—with time in port at Subic Bay or Yokosuka, Japan.
On 14 July, the warship completed her final tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam. She returned to Subic Bay for the period 16 to 19 July and then got underway for the voyage home. During the voyage, she completed a circumnavigation of the world and visited such diverse places as Singapore, Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique, the Cape Verde Islands, Lisbon in Portugal, and Copenhagen in Denmark. The warship arrived back in Norfolk on 12 September and remained in port until mid-November. On the 15th, Biddle got underway for missile exercises in the West Indies. She returned to Norfolk on 25 November and remained there through the end of the year.
On 13 January 1969, she got underway from Norfolk bound for Philadelphia. The warship spent five days there for fire fighting and damage control training, returning to Norfolk on 20 January. Biddles sojourn at Norfolk lasted until 28 March when she put to sea, bound for the Caribbean. While there, the warship conducted tests on recent modifications to her radar and made six missile shoots. Returning to the Hampton Roads area, she loaded missiles, torpedoes, and ammunition at Yorktown, Virginia, on 30 April before reentering Norfolk on 1 May.
On 26 May, Biddle departed Norfolk on her way to the western Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 31 May and 1 June and then set a course for Hawaii. The guided-missile cruiser stopped at Pearl Harbor from 10 to 12 June before resuming her voyage. She made a brief stop at Guam for fuel on the 20th and arrived in Subic Bay on 24 June. After a four-day stop, Biddle stood out of Subic Bay on her way to South Vietnam. The warship made a brief stop at Danang on 30 June before relieving the cruiser on 1 July as strike-support and search-and-rescue ship. The guided-missile cruiser kept watch off the Vietnamese coast for the next month. The only event of note occurred near the end of the month when she rescued several North Vietnamese fishermen adrift in their boat.
Relieved by Chicago on 1 August, Biddle dropped the fishermen off at Danang and then headed for the Philippines. The warship spent a week at Subic Bay and three days at Manila before heading back to Vietnam on 13 August. On 15 August, she relieved Chicago on station in the Gulf of Tonkin. She served as strike-support and search-and-rescue ship until 22 August when she relieved Chicago as PIRAZ (Positive Identification Radar Advisory Zone) ship. The warship alternated between those two tasks until 10 September when she was relieved on PIRAZ station by the destroyer . The guided-missile cruiser entered Yokosuka, Japan on 14 September, after a brief stop at Subic Bay to disembark her helicopter detachment.
Biddle completed a two-week tender availability on 27 September and departed Yokosuka for the combat zone. Steaming by way of Subic Bay, she arrived back on Yankee Station on 2 October. Between the 2d and the 6th, Commander, Destroyer Squadron (ComDesRon) 3, rode in Biddle and served as antiair warfare coordinator for Task Force (TF) 77. On the 6th, the warship resumed PIRAZ duty, relieving Jouett. For almost a month, she operated alternately as PIRAZ ship and as strike-support and search-and-rescue ship. Relieved by the cruiser on 27 October, Biddle put into Hong Kong on 29 October for a six-day liberty call. The guided-missile cruiser departed Hong Kong on 4 November, made a fuel stop at Subic Bay, and then headed back to Vietnam.
She arrived back in the Gulf of Tonkin on 7 November and spent the next six days serving as plane guard for the aircraft carrier . On 13 November, the warship cleared Vietnamese waters. She stopped at Subic Bay from 15 to 18 November and then embarked on the long voyage home. After a brief fuel stop at Guam and a three-day liberty call at San Francisco, California, Biddle arrived in the Canal Zone on 16 December. She completed the canal transit on the 17th and shaped a course for Norfolk. Upon her arrival in Norfolk on 21 December, her crew began a combination post-deployment and holiday standdown.
1970–1971 Biddle spent the first three months of 1970 in port at Norfolk. During that period, she underwent several inspections and received modifications to some of her equipment, notably to her radar. On 13 April, the guided-missile cruiser stood out of Norfolk on a five-week cruise to the Caribbean for training and for technical evaluation of her new and modified radar equipment. She returned to Norfolk on 5 June and remained in the area until the end of July getting ready for her first regular overhaul. She entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 31 July and spent the remainder of 1970 undergoing overhaul.
The guided-missile cruiser completed overhaul in mid-January 1971. On 19 January, she got underway for post-repair trials in the Virginia Capes operating area and returned to port the following day. For the next four months, Biddle spent most of her time in port at Norfolk, getting underway infrequently for brief drill sessions in the immediate vicinity. On 1 June, she departed Norfolk for two months of refresher training in the West Indies. The warship reentered Norfolk on 1 August. For the remainder of the year, Biddle operated out of Norfolk conducting training missions and technical evaluations on equipment. The most notable training mission came late in September when she joined several other Navy ships, a Canadian ship, and a Dutch ship in a NATO seapower review.
1972–1973 The warship began 1972 with several more periods of technical evaluations at sea in January and February. In March, she entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to be modified to carry a LAMPS (Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System) helicopter. That work came to a conclusion early in April; and, on 12 April, Biddle departed Norfolk on her way back to southeast Asia. Along the way, she transited the Panama Canal and visited Pearl Harbor and Guam before arriving in Subic Bay on 11 May. On 14 May, the warship put to sea for the combat zone. She entered the zone on 15 May and, the following day, relieved the destroyer on the northern Search and Rescue (SAR) station. Biddle spent over a month on station operating as a SAR picket and directing antiair warfare before returning to Subic Bay on 26 June.
On Independence Day, the warship got underway for her second tour of duty off Vietnam. After a week on the northern SAR station, she relieved Sterett again on 13 July, but this time as PIRAZ ship. On the night of 19 July, five MiGs attacked Biddle in two raids. In the first raid, the guided-missile cruiser's Terrier missiles destroyed one of the intruders. She claimed a possible kill in the second raid and credited it to her gun batteries. The warship drove off the remaining attackers and suffered no damage herself.
Biddle remained on station serving as either SAR picket or PIRAZ ship until early in August. She visited Hong Kong from 12 to 15 August and was in Subic Bay from 17 to 20 August. The guided-missile cruiser returned to duty on the northern SAR station on 22 August. Thereafter, she again alternated between SAR and PIRAZ assignments until mid-September. Long Beach relieved her for the last time on 17 September, and Biddle unloaded equipment at Subic Bay between 20 and 24 September. On 24 September, she began the long voyage back to Norfolk. Following stops at Guam, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego, she transited the Panama Canal on 22 October and arrived back at Norfolk on 26 October to close out the year in port.
Throughout 1973 and the first five months of 1974, Biddle operated out of Norfolk conducting training missions and technical evaluations. During those operations, she visited not only waters of the western Atlantic but also those of the West Indies and the Caribbean Sea. Late in the fall of 1973, the warship participated in a joint exercise with other elements of the Atlantic Fleet and with ships of the Canadian Navy.
1974 On 14 June 1974, Biddle stood out of Norfolk on her way to the Mediterranean Sea. She arrived in Rota, Spain, on 24 June and relieved the destroyer . On 26 June, the warship departed Rota and entered the Mediterranean in company with Task Group (TG) 60.2. After about a month of 6th Fleet operations and port visits, Biddle was dispatched to waters adjacent to Cyprus on 22 July to join in special operations. On 1 August, the warship received orders to the area north of Crete and later operated to the west of that island. On 19 August, the United States ambassador to Cyprus was assassinated; soon thereafter, Biddle joined a special task group off the island to assist in the event of an evacuation of American citizens.