The Navy will remove the display ship Barry from Washington Navy Yard by next summer to avoid the ship becoming landlocked, and there are no plans to replace the decommissioned destroyer with another platform to draw visitors, the commanding officer of Naval Support Activity Washington told USNI News.
Commissioned in 1956, Barry served 26 years in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleet. Barry supported the 1958 Marine and Army airborne unit landing in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1962, she was a member of the task force that quarantined Cuba in response to evidence that Soviet missiles had been installed on the island. In Vietnam, the destroyer operated in the Mekong Delta and supported Operation Double Eagle, the largest amphibious operation since the landings in Korea. Barry was credited with destroying over 1,000 enemy structures, and for her service in the Vietnam conflict Barry earned two battle stars. In the early 1970s, she was docked in Athens, Greece, as part of the Navy’s forward deployment program.
USS Barry was decommissioned on November 5, 1982 and began her new career as a permanent public display ship in 1984. Used for training and shipboard familiarization, and as a ceremonial platform the Barry is one of the most popular visitor destinations on the Washington Navy Yard. The USS Barry (DD933) is one of only three remaining Forrest Shermans, and the fourth vessel to bear the name of the illustrious Revolutionary War naval hero, Commodore John Barry.
The former-USS Barry (DD-933) has been docked at Navy Yard since May 1983 and has not been to a dry dock for maintenance since its 1982 decommissioning, Capt. Monte Ulmer said Wednesday. The ship’s hull was proven structurally sound in a hull survey conducted last year, but after sitting in the Anacostia River for so many decades without work, “there are some deteriorations to the hull” that would eventually need repair.
Starting next summer, however, that would be nearly impossible to do. Washington, D.C., officials are getting set to begin construction on a new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to cross the river, and this one will be a fixed-span bridge instead of a drawbridge – and there will only be 50 feet between the top of the water and the bottom of the bridge.
Apart from the decision to get rid of the display ship, NSA Washington is demolishing two of its four piers and reconditioning Pier 2, where Barry currently sits. Ulmer said planning for that project began three to five years ago, and the Pier 2 work will continue even though DS Barry will be leaving and therefore there will be less foot traffic. The display ship saw about 9,000 visitors last year, Ulmer said.
The ship is not open for tours just yet, but check out the website for information regarding the ship’s final season in D.C.
From: H-DC