Destroyer USS Glennon. Her 1:100 scale model is part of our Modern Naval Warfare exhibition on deck 5 of the museum.
The American Gearing-class destroyers were an upgrade of the Allen M. Summer-class. Two of their most important features were a larger fuel tank, which gave the ships a greater radius of action, and improved air defenses. This made them better suited for combat in the Pacific theatre of war during World War II. The first of the 98 Gearing-class destroyers were commissioned in mid-1945, so they saw very limited, if any, wartime service. The ships of this class served in the US Navy until the 1970s. After that, many of them were transferred or sold to other navies, some of which were still in service until recently. Gearing class ships and their subclasses served in the Republic of China Navy or ROC (Taiwan) as the Yang class, in the Greek Navy, in the Republic of Korea Navy as the Chungbuk class, in the Spanish Navy as the Churruca class, in the Turkish Navy, in the Pakistani Navy, in the Argentine Navy, in the Brazilian Navy as the Marcilio Dias class, in the Mexican Navy, in the Ecuadorian Navy and in the Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The model represents the USS „Glennon“, built by the Bath Iron Works in Maine and commissioned in October 1945. She spent most of her career in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean. Between 1962 and 1963, she served as a recovery ship for Project Mercury, the first manned American space project. In 1963, she participated in the search for USS “Thresher”, the first nuclear submarine ever lost at sea. She took part in numerous missions during the Vietnam War and was finally decommissioned in 1976. USS „Glennon“ was sunk as a target ship off Puerto Rico in 1981.
Her 1:100 scale model is part of our Modern Naval Warfare exhibition on deck 5 of the museum.