View source for USS Jonas Ingram

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938) underway in June 1957.jpg
|Ship caption=USS ''Jonas Ingram'' underway in June 1957
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1983}}
|Ship name=
|Ship namesake=[[Jonas H. Ingram]]
|Ship ordered=3 February 1954
|Ship builder=[[Bethlehem Steel]], [[Fore River Shipyard]]
|Ship laid down=15 June 1955
|Ship launched=7 August 1956
|Ship acquired=10 July 1957
|Ship commissioned=19 July 1957
|Ship decommissioned=4 March 1983
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=15 June 1983
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship honours=
|Ship fate=Sunk as target, 23 July 1988
|Ship notes=
|Ship motto=*''Magnanimus Esto''
*Be great of mind
}}
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|Ship class={{sclass|Forrest Sherman|destroyer}}
|Ship displacement=3,807 t
|Ship length={{cvt|418|ft|5|in}}
|Ship beam={{cvt|45|ft|1|in}}
|Ship draught=
|Ship draft={{cvt|14|ft|6|in}}
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|Ship speed=over {{convert|30|kn|lk=in}}
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|Ship complement=311
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|Ship armament=3x [[5"/54 caliber Mark 42 gun|5"/54 (127 mm/54)]], 5x [[3-inch/50-caliber gun|3" (76 mm)]], 4x [[torpedo tube]]s, 2x ASW [[Hedgehog (weapon)|hedgehog]], 1x [[depth charge]] track
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'''USS ''Jonas Ingram'' (DD-938)''', named for Admiral [[Jonas H. Ingram]] USN (1886–1952), awarded the [[Medal of Honor]] when a [[Lieutenant]] (junior grade) for his actions during the engagement of [[Veracruz, Veracruz|Vera Cruz]] on 22 April 1914, was a [[Forrest Sherman class destroyer|''Forrest Sherman''-class destroyer]] laid down by the [[Bethlehem Steel]] Corporation at [[Quincy, Massachusetts|Quincy]] in [[Massachusetts]] on 15 June 1955, launched on 7 August 1956 by Mrs. Lawrence Hays, Jr., daughter of Admiral Ingram and commissioned on 19 July 1957 at Boston Naval Shipyard. USS ''Jonas Ingram'' was decommissioned on 4 March 1983, stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on 15 June 1983 and sunk as a target on 23 July 1988.

==History==
Following shakedown in the Caribbean and along the western coast of [[South America]], ''Jonas Ingram'' departed Boston 26 February 1958 for patrols in the West Indies. She sailed from [[Newport, Rhode Island]], 2 September for the Mediterranean to join the 6th Fleet and participate in NATO exercises.

She returned to Newport 12 March 1959 and sailed 16 June for [[Naval Station Mayport|Mayport, Florida]], her new home port. She acted as recovery ship for an experimental [[Project Mercury]] nose-cone which splashed off the Florida coast 25 June.

The destroyer, as flagship for Rear Admiral E. C. Stephen, Commander South Atlantic Forces, sailed for the South Atlantic 24 August and conducted joint exercises with the French and South African navies visiting nine African countries from Tanganyika before returning May-port 15 November.

Highlights of the next 16 months of operations out of Mayport were duty providing air-sea rescue cover for [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Eisenhower]]'s flights to and from the abortive [[1960 Paris Summit|Paris Summit]] Conference in May 1960 and a role in another Project Mercury space test late in the year. The hardy destroyer departed 15 March 1961 for the African coast to support United Nations peace-keeping efforts in the Congo. Richard York, who was known for his contributions to the vessel, was commissioned on the ship September 1973, and decommissioned in 1975.

Returning home 8 September, she sailed 18 October for NATO exercises in Northern European waters and returned 21 December. For the next two years ''Jonas Ingram'' alternated Mediterranean deployments with operations out of Mayport. On 21 September 1964 she was one of our representatives at Malta during ceremonies at which Great Britain granted independence to the island. During this cruise she embarked four Turkish naval officers for a 4-week visit under the NATO exchange program. She returned from the Mediterranean in time to serve as one of the recovery ships for the unmanned Gemini space shot GT-2 in December. Atlantic Fleet ASW exercises in the North Atlantic during February 1965 were followed by Operation "Springboard" in the Caribbean in March. In the summer Jonas Ingram got underway on a people-to-people cruise in Middle Eastern waters and visited such parts as [[Djibouti]], [[French Somaliland]]; [[Berbera]], [[Somalia]]; [[Aden]], [[Yemen]]; [[Karachi]], [[Pakistan]]; and [[Beirut]], [[Lebanon]].

The destroyer returned to Mayport in the fall to become a recovery ship for [[Walter Schirra]] and [[Thomas P. Stafford|Thomas Stafford]]'s [[Gemini 6]] spacecraft in December. After operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean early in 1966 Jonas Ingram returned to the Mediterranean for service with the 6th Fleet. In September 1966 she accompanied Stribling (DD-867) to Port Said, the first U.S. warships to visit [[Egypt]] in almost 15 years.

''Jonas Ingram'' returned home 20 October where she prepared for Exercise "Lantflex 66-2." The fleet exercise took the destroyer to the Caribbean late in November and lasted through mid-December. Jonas Ingram operated out of Mayport until sailing for the Mediterranean 17 July 1967. She reach Gibraltar 29 July and steamed with the 6th Fleet into the fall.

[[File:USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938) underway at sea in 1972.jpg|thumb|''Jonas Ingarm'' in 1972, after her ASW-modernization.]]

The Jonas Ingram was decommissioned and modernized during an overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.  One of the three five inch gunmounts was removed and an [[ASROC]] (anti-submarine rocket weapons system) was installed.  The propulsion system was also upgraded to run on JP5 (jet fuel) rather than "bunker C".  The ship was recommissioned in Philadelphia in 1970 before returning to homeport in Mayport, Florida.

On 25 June 1973 USS ''Jonas Ingram'' received an SOS from the Indian vessel merchantman and freighter ''Saudi'', which had capsized in heavy seas off the coast of Somalia. Steaming through the night ''Jonas Ingram'', at dawn, came upon the survivors of the Saudi clinging to debris. ''Jonas Ingram'' rescued the 58 surviving passengers and crew, and nine bodies were recovered, with 31 missing. <ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19730627&printsec=frontpage&hl=en "Indian Ship Sinks, 40 Die, 58 Saved"], ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', June 30, 1973, p. 1</ref> The survivors and bodies were put to shore at Djibouti. The crew of the ''Jonas Ingram'' received a Meritorious Unit Commendation.

On 4 October 1976 USS ''Jonas Ingram'' rescued seven survivors of a Finnish motor craft that sank in the Baltic Sea. The survivors were put ashore at [[Karlskrona]], [[Sweden]].<ref>[http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display_history.asp?story_id=2741  This Day in Naval History – Oct. 04] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010153224/http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display_history.asp?story_id=2741 |date=10 October 2008 }}. [http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/humanitarian.htm A Sampling of U.S. Naval Humanitarian Operations] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225055037/http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/humanitarian.htm |date=25 December 2014 }}.</ref>

==Fate==
[[File:USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938) sinking.jpg|thumb|Sinking, 23 July 1988.]]
The first live fire test of the [[Mark 48 torpedo|Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo]] resulting in the sinking of ex-''Jonas Ingram'' on 23 July 1988.<ref>NAVAIR Warfighter's Encyclopedia. [https://wrc.navair-rdte.navy.mil/warfighter_enc/weapons/torpedo/mk48.htm MK-48] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041106002553/https://wrc.navair-rdte.navy.mil/warfighter_enc/weapons/torpedo/mk48.htm |date=6 November 2004 }}. Accessed 5 May 2007.</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of destroyers of the United States Navy]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/j/jonas-ingram.html}}
*{{Naval Vessel Register|{{Naval Vessel Register URL|id=DD938}}}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040225090019/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/j4/jonas_ingram.htm Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships – Jonas Ingram]
*{{Naval Vessel Register URL|id=DD938|title=Naval Vessel Register – DD938}}

{{Forrest Sherman class destroyer}}
{{1988 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonas Ingram (DD-938)}}
[[Category:Forrest Sherman-class destroyers]]
[[Category:Cold War destroyers of the United States]]
[[Category:Ships built in Quincy, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1956 ships]]
[[Category:Ships sunk as targets]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1988]]