USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089)

USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089)
USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089)
USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089) sailing through Cuban waters in 1979.
History
United States
Name: USS Jesse L. Brown
Namesake: Jesse L. Brown
Ordered: 25 August 1966
Builder: Avondale Shipyard, Westwego, Louisiana
Yard number: 1157
Laid down: 8 April 1971
Launched: 18 March 1972
Sponsored by: Mrs. Gilbert W. Thorne
Acquired: 8 December 1972
Commissioned: 17 February 1973
Decommissioned: 27 July 1994
Struck: 11 January 1995
Identification: FF-1089
Motto: Versatility Victory Valor
Fate: transferred to Egypt, 27 July 1994
Egypt
Name: Damiyat
Leased: 27 July 1994
Purchased: 25 March 1998
Identification: F961
Status: in active service, as of 2007[1]
General characteristics
Class and type: Knox-class frigate
Displacement: 3,201 tons (4,182 tons full load)
Length: 438 ft (134 m)
Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
Draught: 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m)
Propulsion:
  • 2 × CE 1200psi boilers
  • 1 Westinghouse geared turbine
  • 1 shaft, 35,000 shp (26,000 kW)
Speed: 28 1⁄2 kn (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph) in service
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 26 ft (7.9 m) Motor Whale Boat and Captain's Gig in port and starboard powered davits mounted amidships
Complement: 18 officers, 267 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • AN/SPS-40C Air Search Radar
  • Originally AN/SPS-10F Surface Search Radar, later AN/SPS-67 Surface Search Radar
  • AN/SQS-26 Sonar
  • AN/SQR-18 towed array sonar system
  • Mk68 Gun Fire Control System
Electronic warfare
& decoys:		 Originally equipped with AN/SLQ-26 Electronic Warfare System consisting of AN/WLR-1C (Mod) with AN/ULQ-6C. Later removed and replaced by AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite
Armament:
Aircraft carried: one SH-2 Seasprite (LAMPS I) helicopter
Aviation facilities: Retracting hangar forward of flight deck. Flight deck originally designed for the canceled DASH robotic ASW helicopter. Expanded and modified to support LAMPS program

USS Jesse L. Brown (DE/FF/FFT-1089) was a Knox-class frigate of the United States Navy. She was named for Jesse L. Brown, the first African-American naval aviator in the U.S. Navy. The ship was eventually decommissioned and sold to the Egyptian Navy and was renamed Damiyat (F961). The name is also transliterated as Damyat and Damietta by some sources.

History

Jesse L. Brown, a 3963-ton Knox-class escort ship built at Westwego, Louisiana, was commissioned in February 1973. In July 1975, she was reclassified as a frigate and designated FF-1089. Her career was spent with the Atlantic Fleet, and included several deployments to the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and northern European waters. Jesse L. Brown also participated in two joint operations with Latin American Navies, UNITAS XX in 1979 and UNITAS XXX a decade later.

Jesse L. Brown was operating off the Guantanamo Bay area during January 1979 when USS Farragut mistakenly fired upon a Soviet oceangoing tug and Foxtrot-class submarine being given to the Cuban Navy. Farraguat mistook the radar return for the US Navy fleet tug and towed target. During the next approximate 48 hours, Jesse L. Brown and the other ships maintained General Quarters while a state of near war existed, which included constant threat of attack by Cuban missile patrol boats and medium bombers.

Jesse L. Brown (in an episode foreshadowing her later service) was credited with a drug bust as a result of the rescue of an approximate 40 feet (12 m) sailboat in Casco Bay, Maine, while undergoing post yard refit sea trials from Bath Iron Works. The ship bears the marks of this operation to this day with visible dents in her hull from the strikes from the large sailboat while transferring the seasick crew in heavy sea conditions. The sailboat crew was later transferred to a former Navy ATF Coast Guard Cutter out of Portland, Maine, after a failed towing attempt of the sailboat.

Jesse L. Brown's motto was "Versatility, Victory, Valor!". In one episode during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the ship recovered an SH-3 Sea King that couldn't refuel in flight and didn't have enough fuel to return to its carrier. Jesse L. Brown's commanding officer ordered ship into the wind and recovered the Sea King onto the limited space flight deck, even though was not rated for helicopters the size of the Sea King. The helicopter landed with her tail wheel in the safety nets and less than 18 inches (46 cm) of clearance between her rotors and the collapsed helicopter hangar. Quick repairs by both the helicopter's and ship's crew remedied the helicopter's fuel problem, and it was able to lift off and properly refuel airborne.

Jesse L. Brown and her crew were the first ship to escort three Pegasus-class patrol hydrofoils from Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, to Key West, Florida, by using her helicopter refueling system as an underway replenishment refueling rig to refuel the three hydrofoils underway.

Jesse L. Brown served as the U.S. liaison and on-scene commander for rescue attempts and subsequent body recovery for a diving bell from the Phillips Petroleum oil-exploration ship MV Woodeco 5 off the Ivory Coast in October 1979.

During the later 1980s and early 1990s, she engaged in counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean area.

Jesse L. Brown was transferred to the Naval Reserve in January 1992, and was redesignated FFT-1089. She was actively involved in training reservists while participating in operations in the western Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico area. In 1993, she transited the Panama Canal and paid a visit to Ecuador. Jesse L. Brown was decommissioned on 27 July 1994 and leased to the Egyptian Navy the same day. Named Damiyat (F961) in Egyptian service (but also transliterated as Damyat or Damietta in some sources), she was purchased outright by the Egyptians on 25 March 1998. As of 2010, Damiyat remained active with the Egyptian Navy as seen making a sortie out of the harbour at Alexandria by cruise ship passengers.[1]

Awards and decorations
Bronze star
Bronze star
Bronze star
1st Row
Joint Meritorious Unit Award (with two bronze oak leaf clusters)
Navy Unit Commendation (with one bronze service star)
2nd Row
Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation
Navy "E" Ribbon (3)
Navy Expeditionary Medal (with one bronze service star)
3rd Row
National Defense Service Medal (with one bronze service star)
Sea Service Deployment Ribbon
Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon

References

  1. 1 2 Wertheim, Eric, ed. (2007). "Egypt". The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems (15th ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-59114-955-2. OCLC 140283156.
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