USS Albert David (FF-1050) was a destroyer escort, later reclassified as a frigate, in the United States Navy. She was named for Lieutenant Albert David, a Medal of Honor recipient. His was the only Medal of Honor awarded to a member of the Navy in the Atlantic Theater of Operations in World War II. Laid down on 28 April 1964 and commissioned on 19 October 1968, Albert David served in the Pacific, including performing gunfire support operations in Vietnam during the 1970s. She was briefly deployed to the Arabian Sea in September and October 1982. On 18 September 1989 she was leased to the Brazilian Navy, and then sold to Brazil where she served as the destroyer Pará (D 27) until 12 November 2008 when she was decommissioned and put in reserve. She appears to have been scrapped as of 2015.
Construction Albert David was laid down on 28 April 1964 at Seattle, Washington, by the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Co.; launched on 19 December 1964; sponsored by Mrs. Lynda Mae David; and commissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 19 October 1968.
History For the remainder of 1968, Albert David completed outfitting at Bremerton, Washington, and conducted post-commissioning trials and tests. Those examinations continued into 1969. A voyage to Hawaii followed in March. Early in April, the ocean escort began five weeks of refresher training out of San Diego. On 1 May 1969, she was assigned to Long Beach, California, as her home port. She concluded refresher training eight days later and arrived in Long Beach on 10 May. On 12 May, however, Albert David headed back to Bremerton for an eight-week, post-shakedown availability at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The warship returned to sea on 7 July, bound for the coast of southern California and several days of operations out of San Diego. She returned to Long Beach on the 18th.
Albert David carried out normal operations from the base at Long Beach until the beginning of the second week in October. On 8 October, she stood out of Long Beach on her first deployment to the western Pacific. After steaming via Pearl Harbor and Midway Island, the warship arrived in Yokosuka, Japan, on 31 October. Albert David then served two weeks on the Taiwan Strait patrol and visited Subic Bay in the Philippines before reporting at Danang, South Vietnam, on 24 November to begin Vietnam War gunfire support duty. That assignment lasted until 10 December when, after a brief stop at Da Nang, the ocean escort headed for the Gulf of Tonkin. From 11 to 18 December, she operated on the south air-sea rescue (ASR) station in the gulf. On 16 December, Albert David joined company with the aircraft carrier for two days of plane guard duty. The warship left station in the Gulf of Tonkin on 18 December and headed for Bangkok, Thailand, where her crew enjoyed a five-day port visit. On 30 December, she rendezvoused with the carrier and began five weeks of plane guard duty with the carriers of Task Force 77 (TF 77).
1970s Early in February 1970, she left the Gulf of Tonkin to make port visits at Subic Bay and Hong Kong. On her way back to Vietnamese waters, Albert David visited Okinawa and, during that visit, put to sea to investigate a Soviet trawler loitering in the area. She returned to Danang on 27 February to resume gunfire support missions for the troops fighting ashore. At the beginning of the second week in March, she left the gunline to rejoin the carriers of TF 77 in the Gulf of Tonkin. Eight days later, she pulled into Subic Bay to make preparations for the voyage back to the United States. On 21 March, Albert David stood out of Subic Bay on her way home.
The warship made stops at Guam, Midway and Pearl Harbor before arriving in Long Beach on 9 April. Following post-deployment standdown, Albert David settled into the normal schedule of training operations carried out by warships between overseas deployments. Those evolutions occupied her time until the beginning of November when she entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. Albert David's first regular overhaul lasted more than eight months.
On 1 July 1971, she put to sea for post-overhaul trials and drills, and she remained so occupied for the remainder of the month. August brought refresher training out of San Diego, and September saw her resume normal 1st Fleet operations out of Long Beach.
On 12 November 1971, Albert David departed Long Beach on her second deployment to the Far East. En route, she spent more than a week in the Hawaiian Islands before continuing on to the Philippines. She arrived in Subic Bay on 9 December and remained there almost a week. On the 15th, she put to sea bound for the Gulf of Tonkin, arriving on station two days later. Albert David spent the following six weeks on gunfire support station off the coast of Vietnam. At the end of January 1972, she headed back to Subic Bay to rest, rearm, and reprovision. The warship returned to the combat zone this time in the Gulf of Siam off the shores of South Vietnam's IV Corps on 6 February and resumed duty as a seaborne heavy artillery battery supporting ground forces ashore.
Albert David left the Gulf of Siam on 24 February bound for the Gulf of Tonkin. She rendezvoused with the aircraft carrier on 29 February and served as the carrier's escort for two days of operations in the Gulf of Tonkin as well as during the voyage to Subic Bay. After 10 days of upkeep and repairs at Subic Bay, the ocean escort departed the Philippines for Hong Kong on 14 March. The port visit at Hong Kong lasted from 16 to 22 March. On the latter day, the warship laid in a course that took her via Okinawa to the Sea of Japan. She conducted antisubmarine warfare (ASW) exercises between 26 and 29 March and made a port call at Yokosuka, Japan, from 30 March to 5 April.
After a false start for home on the 5th and a return to Japan to reload necessary equipment, Albert David headed back to Vietnamese waters that same day. Reporting for gunfire support duty off the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North Vietnam and South Vietnam on 10 April she performed a variety of other tasks as well. On 11 and 12 April Albert David participated in action while encountering enemy hostile fire. The crew received the Combat Action Ribbon. After four days of gunfire support missions, the warship joined the cruiser for 10 days of escort duty on picket station. From 28 April to 12 May, she again provided gunfire support. Albert David concluded that tour of duty in the combat zone with four days of service with the landing platform dock on the notification line established to warn merchant ships about mines in North Vietnamese harbors.
On 17 May, she set out for Subic Bay in company with Constellation. The two warships visited Subic Bay from 19 to 22 May and then got underway for Singapore. After a four-day port call at Singapore, they returned to sea on 30 May on their way back to the waters surrounding Vietnam. Albert David parted company with Constellation on 2 June to render gunfire support to troops in I and II Corps in South Vietnam. At the end of 10 days on the gunline, she formed up with Constellation again on 12 June. The two warships stopped at Subic Bay on 15 June and returned to sea almost immediately. On 20 June, they arrived in Yokosuka for a two-day port call before beginning the voyage across the Pacific. Albert David and Constellation cleared Yokosuka on 22 June bound for the United States. Albert David escorted the carrier until 30 June when she received orders to proceed independently. The ocean escort entered Long Beach the following morning.
Following a month-long post-deployment leave and upkeep period, the ocean escort began normal 1st Fleet operations on 3 August with plane guard services for the carrier in the southern California operating area. On 26 August, she put to sea from Long Beach to participate in Operation "RimPac-72," conducted in the Hawaiian Islands with units of the navies of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Albert David returned to Long Beach from that exercise on 19 September and remained in port for three weeks. At that time, she resumed normal operations along the California coast.
The warship performed training duties out of Long Beach until near the end of the first week in January 1973. On the 5th, she stood out to sea on her way back to the Far East. Steaming in company with Constellation, Albert David completed the transit of the Pacific at Subic Bay on 22 January. Four days later, she embarked upon the voyage to the Gulf of Tonkin, again escorting Constellation. For the next three weeks, she provided plane guard services and antisubmarine protection for the carriers of TF 77 during what proved to be her last tour of duty in the gulf before the United States pulled out of the Vietnam War. Albert David returned to Subic Bay on 14 February and spent the next three weeks undergoing minor repairs and conducting training in the Philippines.
On 6 March, Albert David departed Iloilo on the island of Panay to return to Vietnamese waters. This time, however, her mission was a peaceful one. She was part of Operation End Sweep, the removal of mines from North Vietnamese waters. Her participation in that effort punctuated by port visits to Sasebo in Japan, Subic Bay in the Philippines, and Hong Kong lasted until the second week in June. The warship cleared Vietnamese waters on 9 June, visited Keelung on Taiwan on 12 and 13 June, and arrived in Yokosuka on the 17th. Two days later, the ocean escort returned to sea for the voyage back to the United States. She made brief stops for fuel at Midway Island and Pearl Harbor before reaching Long Beach on 3 July.
Post-deployment standdown followed by a lengthy restricted availability at the Todd Shipyard in San Pedro occupied her time until late November. She returned to Long Beach on 21 November but remained there only long enough to make preparations to move to San Diego, the new home port to which she had been assigned on 20 August. Albert David made the home port shift on 1 December and commenced local operations out of San Diego six days later. The warship continued that employment through the end of 1973 and during the first four months of 1974. On 23 April 1974, she left San Diego in company with the destroyers and bound for the western Pacific. Albert David and her travelling companions made fuel stops at Pearl Harbor and Midway Island before arriving in Yokosuka on 14 May. On 25 May, the ocean escort put to sea in a task group built around the aircraft carrier to conduct operations off the island of Honshū. Thus she began her first period of service with the 7th Fleet in which combat duty off the Vietnamese coast played no role. The warship alternated between periods of training at sea and port calls at such places as Yokosuka, Hong Kong, Guam, and Subic Bay.