USS Edson

USS Edson (DD-946)
History
United States
Name	Edson
Namesake	Merritt A. Edson
Awarded	27 January 1956
Builder	Bath Iron Works, Bath ME
Laid down	3 December 1956
Launched	4 January 1958
Sponsored by	Mrs. M. A. Edson (widow)
Acquired	31 October 1958
Commissioned	7 November 1958
Decommissioned	15 December 1988
Stricken	31 January 1989
Homeport	Long Beach, California, Newport, Rhode Island (1977-1988)
Identification	NJRE (radio call sign)
Nickname(s)	"Fast Eddie", "The Grey Ghost of the Vietnamese Coast"
Honors and awards	Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Navy Unit Commendation, Vietnam Service Medal, National Defense Medal, Combat Action Medal, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation (with Operational "O" device)
Status	Museum ship at Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum, Bay City, Michigan since 2013
General characteristics
Class and type	Forrest Sherman-class destroyer
Displacement	2,800 tons standard. 4,050 tons full load
Length	407 ft (124 m) waterline, 418 ft (127 m) overall.
Beam	45 ft (14 m)
Draft	22 ft (6.7 m)
Propulsion	4 × 1,200 psi (8.3 MPa) Babcock & Wilcox boilers, Worthington steam turbines; 70,000 shp (52,000 kW); 2 × shafts.
Speed	32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range	4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	17 officers, 218 enlisted
Armament	3 × 5 in (127 mm)/54 calibre dual purpose Mk 42 guns; (3x1) 4 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 calibre Mark 33 anti-aircraft guns (2x2); 2 × mark 10/11 Hedgehogs; 6 × 12.75 in (324 mm) Mark 32 torpedo tubes
USS Edson
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location	Bay City, Michigan
NRHP reference No.	90000333
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	21 June 1990[1]
Designated NHL	21 June 1990[2]

USS Edson (DD-946) is a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer, formerly of the United States Navy, built by Bath Iron Works in Maine in 1958. Her home port was Long Beach, California and she initially served in the Western Pacific/Far East, operating particularly in the Taiwan Strait and off the coast of Vietnam. Her exceptionally meritorious service in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin was recognized with the first of three Navy Unit Commendations. During the following years she was shelled by North Vietnamese land forces, and apparently received friendly fire from the US Air Force.

Following an onboard fire in 1974, Edson returned to the West Pacific and was later commended for her roles in the evacuation of Phnom Penh and Saigon.

She was decommissioned in 1988, but the following year became a museum ship at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York. Returning to Navy lay-up in 2004, it was agreed in 2012 that she should again become a museum ship, at Bay City, Michigan. A National Historic Landmark, she is one of only two surviving Forrest Sherman-class destroyers, the other being the USS Turner Joy.^[3]