USS Badger (DE-1071/FF-1071) was a in service in the United States Navy from 1970 to 1991. She was sunk as a target in 1998.
History The first was named for Commodore Oscar C. Badger (a cousin of Secretary of the Navy George Edmund Badger), the father of Rear Admiral Charles J. Badger, the son of the commodore and the father of the admiral, was also honored by the naming of the destroyer (q.v.), and the grandfather of Admiral Oscar C. Badger. This Badger (FF-1071) honors all four men.
Commissioning Badger was laid down on 17 February 1968 at Todd Shipyards, Los Angeles Division, San Pedro, California; launched on 7 December 1968; sponsored by Mrs. Oscar C. Badger; and commissioned at Long Beach, California, on 1 December 1970.
Badger completed fitting out at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in January 1971 and then spent most of the spring engaged in tests and shakedown training. She completed final contract trials in May, during which Badger set the speed record for Knox class frigates, over 30 knots. The following month, entered the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for post-shakedown availability. During that availability, she received extensive modifications including the addition of a basic point defense missile system (BPDMS) and of an independent variable depth sonar system. Because of those changes, Badger underwent a post-shakedown availability that lasted until mid-November. From that time until mid-March 1972, the destroyer escort conducted a series of underway tests and training evolutions and underwent readiness inspections. On 16 March 1972, she weighed anchor and stood out of Long Beach on her way to the Far East. Along the way, Badger stopped at Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Guam before arriving in Subic Bay on 7 April.
1970s On the following evening, Badger stood out of Subic bound for the Vietnam War zone. She arrived in Danang, South Vietnam, two days later and, after a four-hour layover, again got underway, bound for the northern gunline near the mouth of the Cua Viet River. She began gunfire support missions on the 11th and, on the 13th, received her first counterbattery fire. Two days later, she suffered superficial damage from a communist shore battery after her had been put out of action by a fouled bore and an overheated barrel. Later that day, the ship headed back to Danang to have her 5-inch gun barrel replaced by the repair ship . She returned to sea on the 16th and soon arrived back on the gunline. On the 19th, Badger was switched to plane guard duty for the aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin. That assignment lasted two days short of a month. On 17 May, destroyer escort relieved her, and Badger shaped a course for Sasebo, Japan.
1972 Following a week of availability and liberty, Badger departed Sasebo on 29 May 1972 and, on 2 June, joined guided missile cruiser on the middle sea-air rescue (SAR) station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Four days later, however, she was reassigned to plane guard duty, this time for the ASW support carrier . After spending 20 days supporting the carrier, Badger returned to gunfire support missions on 26 June. On 7 July, the warship resumed plane guard duties, this time for the carrier , and departed Vietnamese waters in company with that carrier. The following day, the ships moored in Subic Bay.
Following upkeep, Badger headed back to the combat zone on 17 July 1972. Two days later, she resumed gunfire support duties. During that assignment, the ocean escort joined five other American ships in providing gunfire support for operations carried out in Military Region II by the South Vietnamese Army's 22d Division. On 9 August, she was assigned duty interdicting communist waterborne logistics and remained so engaged until 12 August when she relieved guided missile frigate as plane guard for Midway, once again headed for Subic Bay. The two ships reached their destination on 14 August but departed again the next day bound for Hong Kong. Badger conducted an upkeep and liberty period at that port from 17 to 23 August and got underway on the latter day to return to the Philippines. She arrived in Subic Bay on 24 August for repairs before putting to sea on the 30th, bound for Vietnamese waters.
Upon her return to the combat zone, the warship took up position as escort for the guided missile cruiser on the middle SAR station. During that tour of duty, she also kept an eye on two Chinese merchantmen in the area. When the guided missile frigate relieved Long Beach, Badger continued on station until 10 September, when she was relieved of middle SAR station escort duties by her sister ship and proceeded to rendezvous with the carrier . Badger provided plane guard services for the carrier as she made her final air strikes of the war and then escorted Hancock to Subic Bay, arriving there on 15 September. After four days in port, the destroyer escort put to sea and shaped a course for Yokosuka, Japan, where she made an overnight stop on 22 and 23 September before setting sail for the United States in company with Hancock. After a nonstop voyage across the Pacific, highlighted by several fueling-at-sea operations, Badger arrived back in Long Beach on 4 October. The usual post-deployment stand-down ensued as did a restricted availability at the Todd Shipyard in Los Angeles, California. The latter began on 8 January 1973 and included the conversion of her main propulsion system to Navy distillate fuel and the installation of a light airborne multipurpose system (LAMPS).
1973–1975 Badger completed those modifications on 18 May 1973 and put to sea for trials and single ship exercises in the southern California operating area. Normal west coast operations out of Long Beach occupied her time until 9 July, the day she got underway for her new home port, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The warship made the voyage in six days, entering Pearl on 14 July. Training in the Hawaiian operating area occupied her until early September. On 11 September, Badger put to sea to participate in the four-nation Exercise RIMPAC '73. However, a material casualty to her evaporators forced her to return to port for repairs on the 15th. She was back at sea the following afternoon; rejoined the exercise; and, following its conclusion, returned to Pearl on 21 September. Three days later, she set sail for Long Beach and arrived there on 1 October. The ship's crew then enjoyed a 16-day liberty call before the ship began her second deployment on the 17th.
Badger rendezvoused with the carrier to form Task Group (TG) 37.4, and the two ships then shaped a course for the western Pacific. Augmented en route by the remainder of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 35, TG 37.4 reached Subic on 5 November 1973. On the 9th, Badger departed Subic Bay in company with destroyer escort and ammunition ship bound for the Persian Gulf and the CENTO Exercise MIDLINK '73. On the way, the ships stopped at Singapore. They arrived at Bandar Abbas, Iran, on the 23d. From that port, she participated in MIDLINK '73 until its conclusion on 2 December. After a brief liberty call at Bandar Abbas, Badger got underway on the 3rd to return to the Philippines, again in company with Brewton and Kiska. The voyage included another visit to Singapore, and Badger reentered Subic Bay on 21 December 1973. She immediately began a repair and upkeep period that lasted until 20 January 1974, when she headed for Guam. Four days later, the destroyer escort arrived at Guam whence she conducted special operations. Badger remained in the Mariana Islands until 13 February when she departed Guam to return to Subic Bay. The warship steamed into that port on 17 February and, for the next month, conducted training operations in local waters.
On 18 March 1974, Badger put to sea from Subic Bay for a series of port calls beginning with a stop at Hong Kong from 21 March to 1 April. From there, she moved to Keelung, Taiwan, for a visit between 3 and 8 April. On the 9th, she moored in the harbor at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for an eight-day stay before returning to Subic on the 18th. From 22 to 27 April, she operated in the South China Sea shadowing two Soviet submarines. She returned to Subic on the 27th and remained there until 5 May when the destroyer escort began the voyage back home to Hawaii. After a stop at Guam, she reached Pearl Harbor on 18 May.
Following leave and upkeep, Badger got underway for tests on her main propulsion plant and associated equipment on 21 June 1974. She returned to Pearl that night and remained in port until returning to sea on 11 July for final tests. During the full power run, the ship suffered a casualty to her low pressure turbine and was taken in tow by the large harbor tug . Later, relieved Waxahachie and pulled the stricken destroyer escort into Pearl Harbor on the morning of the 12th. The warship underwent a restricted availability at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard lasting until late October and resumed normal operations in the Hawaiian Operating Area in November. That employment occupied her for the last two months of 1974 and for the first two months of 1975. On 11 March 1975, she put to sea to participate in Exercise RIMPAC '75, the multifaceted combat readiness exercise that brought together units of the American, Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand navies. The exercise concluded on 21 March, and Badger returned to Pearl Harbor to prepare for overseas movement.
Badger put to sea on 17 April to rendezvous with sister ship and guided missile destroyer escort , and Kiska for the voyage to the western Pacific. The task group stopped at Guam for fuel on 28 April but, immediately after completing the operation, continued on to Subic Bay where, after a short diversion to the South China Sea to assist in the evacuation of Vietnam, they arrived on 4 May. The next day, Badger was back at sea escorting Midway to Guam with a load of American aircraft removed from Vietnam. The two warships arrived there on 11 May, unloaded the planes, and returned to sea on the 12th. En route back to Subic Bay, she received orders diverting her to assist in the recovery of the American container ship SS Mayagüez that had been seized by the Cambodians. The merchantman, however, was freed before Badgers arrival on the scene, and the escort resumed her original course and reentered Subic Bay on the 17th. She spent two days escorting Hancock in the local operating area before returning to port on 22 May. After a week of upkeep, she put to sea for Guam. Arriving in Apra Harbor on 2 June to begin another period of upkeep, she remained there until 13 June when she put to sea for special operations in company with Brewton.
Badger returned to Guam on 22 June, spent three days there, and headed back to Subic Bay on the 25th. On the last day of the month, she put to sea as a unit of TG 75.1 to begin a 60-day training cruise to the Indian Ocean. One day out, on 1 July 1975, Badger was reclassified a frigate and redesignated FF-1071. That extended voyage brought exercises of all types: refueling, replenishment, towing, communications, gunnery, and engineering. She also made port calls at Singapore, Port Louis in Mauritius, Mombasa in Kenya, Karachi in Pakistan, and Colombo in Sri Lanka. The ship concluded that voyage at Subic Bay on 11 September. Upkeep there, including a period in drydock, lasted until 29 September. On 1 October, Badger headed to Hong Kong. She arrived there on 3 October and with the exception of two days at sea from 5 to 7 October to evade a typhoon, remained in port until the 9th when she shaped a course for Guam. The warship arrived there on 15 October for two weeks of upkeep and operations locally for sea trials. On 29 October. She set a course for Pearl Harbor and pulled into her home port on 8 November. Her post-deployment standdown period was followed, in turn, by a holiday leave and upkeep period.
1976–1979