Name USS Harwood Commissioned 28 September 1945 Struck 1 February 1973 Launched 22 May 1945 | Laid down 29 October 1944 Decommissioned 1 February 1973 Construction started 29 October 1944 Length 119 m | |
Fate Sold to Turkey, 17 December 1973 Builders Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Pedro | ||
Ww2 usnavy uss harwood dd 861 ww2 us marine uss harwood dd 861
USS Harwood (DD/DDE-861) was a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was named for Commander Bruce L. Harwood USN (1910–1944) who was twice awarded the Navy Cross, and killed in action during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Harwood was laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at San Pedro in California on 29 October 1944, launched on 22 May 1945, by Mrs. Bruce Lawrence Harwood, widow of Commander Harwood and commissioned on 28 September 1945.
Harwood alternated operations along the east coast and in the Caribbean Sea with the 2nd Fleet with deployments to the Mediterranean Sea with the 6th Fleet, underwent an extensive Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhaul at the New York Naval Shipyard between 2 May 1961 and 2 February 1962.
Harwood was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 February 1973, transferred to the Turkish Navy on 17 December 1973, and renamed TCG Kocatepe (D 354). The ship was sunk in error by Turkish aircraft on 22 July 1974, mistaking it for a Greek vessel during Turkish landings on Cyprus. Sixty-seven Turkish marines and members of her crew were killed in the incident.
