Reunion 2027
The anchor's down. The contract is signed, and registration is open — St. Petersburg, Florida, June 21–27.
The word on 2027 Reunion
We're running a longer event this time so there's more room to breathe — more time to catch up, and a couple of days for excursions before the big dinner. You don't have to book the full week. But why wouldn't you?
Inshore and offshore fishing charters run both days — book your seat in the payments section below. Golf, dolphin watching and a Tampa Bay Rays game are in the works; details to follow as we get closer.
Banquet & excursion payments
PayPal or Venmo. Put your name — and your guests' names — in the notes so we can match you to the muster.
Knox-class frigate
DE-1064 / FF-1064
A Knox-class frigate built during the Cold War as a dedicated antisubmarine warfare ship — and a ship whose service ran far past that one mission. Vietnam. Early Harpoon testing. Thirteen years forward deployed to Japan. Nearly twenty-three years, wherever the Navy needed her.
Named for Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, who commanded the Pacific submarine force in World War II. Naming an ASW ship for one of America's great submariners was a fitting piece of business. Some served when she was DE, some knew her later as FF — every sailor shared the same ship, the same horizon, the same deck.
Todd Pacific Shipyards, Seattle. Keel laid 3 November 1967, launched 5 September 1968, commissioned 5 December 1970 as USS Lockwood (DE-1064). In 1975 the Navy-wide reclassification made her FF-1064 — destroyer escort to frigate, same ship.
Two high-pressure boilers, one geared turbine, about 35,000 shaft horsepower on a single screw. That single shaft was the most argued-over feature of the Knox class: lighter, cheaper, fewer men — and no second shaft if the plant went down. The class earned its reputation anyway.
Her real weapon was under the bow. The AN/SQS-26 was a low-frequency bow-mounted sonar that could hold a submarine at long range in the right water, backed by the AN/SQS-35 variable-depth set for when the layers wouldn't cooperate. Once she had a contact: ASROC, lightweight torpedoes, and an embarked SH-2 Seasprite that could carry sensors and weapons well past the ship's own reach.
In 1972, during the Easter Offensive, Lockwood joined the ships on the gunline off Vietnam. Her 5-inch/54 fired in support of South Vietnamese forces, and when the weather shut down air support, naval gunfire was what there was. She operated in waters where coastal artillery answered back.
An antisubmarine ship spent that deployment as a gunfire-support ship. The crew came home with the Combat Action Ribbon, the Vietnam Service Medal with campaign stars, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the RVN Gallantry Cross Unit Citation.
Back from Vietnam, Lockwood became a test platform for the new Harpoon antiship missile and took part in some of its early operational firings off California. Surface ships that had lived by the gun could now reach out and hit a ship over the horizon. Harpoon went on to become one of the most widely used antiship missiles in the world. Lockwood helped prove it.
In 1975 she was homeported at Yokosuka with Destroyer Squadron 15 — forward deployed, not visiting. For more than a decade she worked the Seventh Fleet: Japanese waters, the Philippine Sea, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, often screening the Midway battle group. Port calls and exercises the length of Asia and the Pacific.
Most of that work was routine by design. A good escort spends long stretches making sure nothing happens. The carriers got the headlines; ships like Lockwood kept them safe.
She changed with the fleet. The Sea Sparrow point-defense system of her early years gave way to Phalanx — a radar-controlled 20mm Gatling for the last layer of defense. A photo of her from 1972 doesn't look much like one from 1990.
On 10 December 1985 she collided with the Philippine freighter Santo Niño near Yokosuka. Crewmen were injured and the ship was damaged; accounts differ on the count. She was repaired and went back to work.
She left Yokosuka in July 1988 after roughly thirteen years forward deployed and shifted to Long Beach — still operational, still in the exercise rotation. In January 1990 she was among the ships that rescued sailors off the sinking Chinese merchant ship Huazhu near northern Luzon; her Seasprite flew in the effort.
Decommissioned 30 September 1993 at Naval Station Long Beach, struck from the register the same day. Not transferred to a foreign navy — sold and dismantled around 1999–2000. The ship is gone. Her history is not.
She was never a battleship, a carrier, or a famous flagship. She was a working warship — built to go where ordered, remain ready, and do the job. Secure Against the Waves.
Lockwood arrived on the NGFS (Naval Gunfire Support) line, having left Kaohsiung two days before. There was a huge offensive underway in Vietnam — North Vietnamese forces had begun a massive push south, and the Navy was called in to provide gunfire support.
We rearmed from USS Pyro. Shortly after midnight we fired our first rounds of NGFS. One of the ships close to us, USS L.K. Thomas, a FRAM II destroyer, got hit by coastal mortar fire that ripped a hole in her hull above the waterline. We were at GQ because of a MIG threat.
I noted in my journal that on this day Lockwood took its first return fire. Shore batteries fired at us while we were taking targets under fire. We took some air bursts, but they did not come too close. I wonder if that made us eligible for a pay increase. Hmmmmm.
GQ again. “Charley” kept firing back, and this time he came a little too close — several surface bursts in our wake. Fortunately Capt. Woods, our CO, was good at maneuvering around the return fire. He kept his cool, kept the conn, and outmaneuvered Charley again.
The crew was up by 0200 for a working party rearming from USS Haleakala. Four to five hours. Everybody was exhausted. Then we proceeded to fire off a lot of what we had just taken on. Par for the course on the NGFS line.
Plane-guarding Kitty Hawk. Later in the day the carrier had a man overboard — Lockwood sprang into action and picked him up. By unwritten rule the carrier paid a “ransom” of the man’s weight in ice cream, so Lockwood had an ice cream party. (I was on watch and missed it.)
A day that should live in Lockwood history. Off the DMZ, taking targets under fire, we came under missile fire. Chief Richards was at the plotting table on the sound-powered phones: “Missile coming directly at us … ten yards.” Then, “Another missile … one hundred yards.” One flew right over the mack. As far as I know, the closest Lockwood ever came to getting hit. I remember Ens. Marc Helgeson saying, “Tell Main Control they have to give us everything they got!” Somebody on the bridge taped the whole thing on cassette, and half the crew made copies. What a night.
President Nixon ordered a blockade of North Vietnamese ports, including the mining of Haiphong Harbor — that’s why so many ships had been heading north. The captain made it known to the crew over the loudspeaker.
Arrived Sasebo, Japan for upkeep. I had quarterdeck duty that night and watched a stream of drunken sailors coming across the gangway. Hey, after 51 straight days at sea, might not one expect that?
Boatswain’s mates were “deck apes.” We radarmen were “scope dopes.” Sonarmen were “ping jockeys.” The boiler men and machinist’s mates were collectively “snipes.” Anybody remember any other names for the rates?
We lost a day crossing the International Date Line westbound — so eastbound we did 22 August twice. The second one was a bizarre holiday: boxing on the helo deck and a pie-eating contest. I represented OI Division.
Lockwood completed her first WESTPAC deployment and arrived home in San Diego, families waiting on the pier. The XO put “Hot flesh and cold beer” in the Plan of the Day.
Sea trials with our new boilers. We got twelve miles off the coast and then — the boilers petered out. Dead in the water for several hours awaiting a tow. Back in San Diego around 2100.
Harpoon missile tests off Southern California. This time we got it right — direct hit! We were the Pacific Fleet test ship for Harpoon, in and out of Port Hueneme (“Port My Weenie”) the whole time.
Enroute Hawaii for RIMPAC. Lockwood was fitted with a “chaff stack” to throw a bigger radar picture and fool the other ships into thinking we were a carrier — and a string of Christmas tree lights across the boat deck to sell the ruse.
Lockwood’s first dependents’ cruise, that I’m aware of — wives and families of the crew aboard for a trip a few miles off the California coast.
Ship’s picnic at Grande Island, Subic Bay. Food, beer, softball.
Liberty in Bangkok. At a native Thai restaurant, sitting on the floor at a low table, I poured a whole cruet of “gravy” over my meal. It was hot curry sauce. And I mean HOT. It took at least three beers to get through it.
Hong Kong. Many of us had suits made and shipped home. At the China Fleet Club a young British chap named Hannibal Hayes joined us for beers. I offered a toast to the Queen, as befits good manners; Hannibal returned the favor with a toast to our president — this in the thick of Watergate. When we laughed, we had to explain the Queen and the President weren’t quite the same job.
Eastbound across the Date Line again, so we did Tuesday the 14th twice. The second one was fun-and-games day — pie-eating contest and boxing on the helo deck.
Lockwood returned to San Diego from her second WESTPAC cruise.
“I spent three years on Lockwood, took part in two WESTPAC cruises, came under fire several times, and advanced to Operations Specialist Third Class. It was a great time in my life. Thanks for the memories!”Don Dalzell · OS3 · 1971–1974
From the cruise books
Wear the ship
We Have the Watch
There are names we still remember,
voices carried far from shore,
shipmates who once walked her decks
and stand beside us now no more.
They knew the roll of open water,
the midnight watch, the morning haze,
the steel beneath their weathered boots,
the long deployments, distant days.
They knew the sound of Lockwood moving,
her engines steady through the sea,
the number painted on her bow,
one-zero-six-four, their history.
Some served when she was DE,
some knew her later as FF,
but every sailor shared the same ship,
the same horizon, the same deck.
Years carried all of us away.
The Navy changed. The ship grew still.
Yet bonds forged underway remain
when uniforms and orders will not.
And when another shipmate passes,
we do not say the crew grows small.
We add another name to muster,
another story to recall.
Their watch is finished.
Ours is not.
We carry forward what they gave us:
the laughter, hardship, pride, and scars,
the memories made in foreign ports,
the nights beneath unfamiliar stars.
So rest now, shipmates of the Lockwood.
Your duty here is finally done.
Fair winds and following seas.
We have the watch.
A name missing? Send it in and we'll add it to the muster.