USS MASSEY returned to her homeport – Mayport, Florida in March of 1961. The ship moved in April 1961 to the Charleston Naval Shipyard for the installation of the Variable Depth Sonar (VDS). This took a prominent place on the fantail where a large reel of support and electronics cable led to the ‘fish’. With this towed array sonar, MASSEY’s FRAM II modernization was completed. This new variable depth sonar could now probe for submarines through the thermal layers of the ocean that heretofore had been the submarine’s protection from hull mounted sonar detection. Submarines did not like the idea of a destroyer in the area with a deployed VDS for other reasons too – they could get a ding in their sail!
After a special mission to the Caribbean in August 1961, Massey returned to Mayport for a tender repair availability (TAV) and additional carrier escort operations. In the late fall the MASSEY entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard for an interim repair availability.
In November 1961 CDR. Robert H. Cook relieved CDR. Stephen L. Rusk as Commanding Officer.
MASSEY returned to Mayport in December 1961 for the Christmas holiday. On 1 January 1962, USS MASSEY was re-assigned to Destroyer Squadron 10, homeported in Newport, Rhode Island. During the winter months, the ship worked with the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory of New London, Connecticut conducting various tests with the new Variable Depth Sonar (VDS).
The spring and summer of 1962 were spent participating in Project Mercury- the space shot of astronaut Scott Carpenter. During this period, the ship visited the Canary Islands. MASSEY also worked with Task Group Alfa, a submarine hunter-killer group, in a VDS demonstration for the Secretary of the Navy. The ship then made a goodwill visit to South Amboy, New Jersey.
MASSEY left for the Mediterranean in early September 1962 and participated in many SIXTH Fleet and ASW exercises. The ship’s ports of call included Naples, Italy; Iraklion, Crete, Rhodes, Greece; Messina, Sicily; Toulon and Gulfe Juan, France as well as Barcelona, Spain. The ship’s band became quite a hit and the MASSEY adopted a French orphanage for Christmas.
(Click picture for full size) Christmas 1962, Toulon, France, Catholic girls orphanage. Picture shows BM1 Broussard leading the MASSEY Support Team
Returning home in April 1963, the MASSEY went through a regular overhaul in the Boston Naval Shipyard. She was one of the first FRAM II ships to go through a regular overhaul. During this time her DASH helicopter installation was completed. MASSEY headed for Key West, Florida in November 1963 to provide live operator training at sea for the land based Sonar School students. It was here in Key West that CDR Philip J. Rush relieved CDR Robert H. Cook. MASSEY went on to GTMO for refresher training then returned to Newport for Christmas.
Want to know more about this particular time of MASSEY history? Click here to read the Fall 1962 Family Gram authored by then Capt Bob Cook for the folks at home that details ship events during the deployment.
Note: The historical information provided on this web site is not the official history of the USS MASSEY. It is based in part on the recollection of many authors, some former Commanding Officers, all former MASSEY shipmates, who contributed to developing the chronology of events that marked some of the noteworthy contributions of this fine Man O' War to our Navy's history over nearly 30 years of active service.
