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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # K-67405:  USS Frank Knox underway near Hawaii, January 1969

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Frank Knox (DD-742, later DDR-742 and DD-742), 1944-1971

USS Frank Knox, a 2425-ton Gearing class destroyer, was built at Bath, Maine. Commissioned in December 1944, she arrived in the western Pacific war zone in mid-June 1945, in time to participate in the final carrier air raids on the Japanese home islands as part of Task Force 38. She was present in Tokyo Bay when Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945 and remained in the Far East until early February 1946. The ship made additional deployments to the region during the later 1940s and was reclassified as a radar picket destroyer (DDR) in March 1949.

Frank Knox again steamed across the Pacific to take part in hostilities in early July 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War. During this combat tour, which lasted into 1951, her missions included support of the Inchon invasion, shelling enemy targets ashore and patrolling the Taiwan Straits. Two more Korean War cruises followed in 1952 and 1953, and for the rest of the decade Frank Knox deployed regularly to "WestPac" for Seventh Fleet service.

In 1960-1961 Frank Knox was modernized under the FRAM II program, which gave her updated radars and other new equipment. She was based in the Far East from late 1961 until mid-1964, then returned home via Australia and the south Pacific. Again deployed in June 1965, she briefly served off Vietnam conducting naval gunfire support and coastal patrol operations. While underway in the South China Sea on 18 July, Frank Knox ran aground on Pratas Reef, and was only freed after a very difficult salvage effort. Though she was badly damaged, and relatively elderly, her command and control capabilities justified an extensive repair job, which was carried out at Yokosuka, Japan, over the next year.

Frank Knox rejoined the active forces in November 1966 and resumed her pattern of nearly annual Seventh Fleet cruises, frequently taking part in Vietnam combat missions. Redesignated DD-742 at the beginning of 1969, she completed her final deployment in November 1970 and was decommissioned at the end of January 1971. USS Frank Knox was transferred to the Greek Navy a few days later. Renamed Themistoklis, she served for another two decades before being placed out of commission in the early 1990s. The old ship was sunk as a torpedo target by the Greek submarine Kyklon on 12 September 2001.

USS Frank Knox was named in honor of Frank Knox (1874-1944), who was Secretary of the Navy in 1940-1944.

This page features all the views we have of USS Frank Knox (DD-742, later DDR-742 and DD-742) and provides links to other images concerning this ship.

For other pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) -- Grounding and Salvage, July-August 1965;
  • USS Frank Knox (DD-742) -- Construction, 1944.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 51089

    USS Frank Knox
    (DD-742)

    Underway at high speed on a trial run off Rockland, Maine, 2 December 1944.
    Photographed from an aircraft based as Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine.
    The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 33A, Design 28D.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99049

    USS Frank Knox
    (DDR-742)

    Off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, at the conclusion of her FRAM II modernization, 25 April 1961.
    Note that hull numbers painted on her bow have not yet had countershading applied.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 88KB; 750 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99050

    USS Frank Knox
    (DDR-742)

    Off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, at the conclusion of her FRAM II modernization, 25 April 1961.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 96KB; 750 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99051

    USS Frank Knox
    (DDR-742)

    Off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, at the conclusion of her FRAM II modernization, 25 April 1961.
    Note that variable-depth sonar (VDS) gear has not yet been installed on her fantail.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 75KB; 750 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99048

    USS Frank Knox
    (DDR-742)

    Off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, at the conclusion of her FRAM II modernization, 25 April 1961.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 106KB; 750 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99052

    USS Frank Knox
    (DDR-742)

    Underway off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 25 April 1961, at the conclusion of her FRAM II modernization.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 95KB; 750 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99053

    USS Frank Knox
    (DDR-742)

    Comes alongside USS Coral Sea (CVA-63), while operating at sea on 2 May 1964.
    Photographed by Wiggand.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 122KB; 750 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: K-67405

    USS Frank Knox
    (DD-742)

    Underway near Hawaii, January 1969.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 555 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-K-67405.
    Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

     
    Photo #: KN-17646

    USS Frank Knox
    (DD-742)

    Underway off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 15 January 1969.
    Photographed by PH2 S.C. Wyckoff.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 135KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-KN-17646.
    Though reproductions of this photo from the Naval Historical Center's collections are available in black & white only, those from the National Archives should be available in color.

     
    Photo #: NH 67262-KN (color)

    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742)

    Jacket patch of the ship's insignia, as used during the 1960s.
    Its design is partially based on the flag of the Secretary of the Navy, an office held by Frank Knox from 1940 until his death in 1944.

    Courtesy of Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 146KB; 600 x 675 pixels

     


    In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at other views of USS Frank Knox (DD-742, later DDR-742). The following list features some of these photographs:

    The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
    DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • Photo #: 80-G-288124
    USS USS Frank Knox (DD-742) underway at high speed during trials off Rockland, Maine, 2 December 1944. Photographed from an airplane based at NAS Brunswick, Maine
    Starboard bow aerial view.


  • Photo #: 80-G-637382
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) anchored in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, 28 June 1952.
    Starboard broadside low aerial view.

  • Photo #: USN 1045470
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) underway circa the early or middle 1950s. Photo was received by the Naval Photographic Center in December 1959, but was taken some years earlier.
    Port bow low aerial view.

  • Photo #: USN 1045475
    As USN 1045470, but starboard bow low aerial view, with other destroyers following astern.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1078446
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 11 February 1953.
    Starboard bow surface view.


  • Photo #: USN 1054651
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, at the conclusion of her FRAM II modernization, 25 April 1961.
    Port broadside surface view.

  • Photo #: USN 1059161
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 18 October 1961. Photographed by PH2 B.L. Mason of Utility Squadron 1 (VU-1).
    Port broadside (rather toward the bow) low aerial view.

  • Photo #: USN 1059162
    As USN 1059161, but taken from directly astern.

  • Photo #: USN 1075223
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) underway at sea, 1 April 1963.
    Port broadside aerial view.

  • Photo #: USN 1096050
    USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) underway at sea, 14 January 1965. Photographed by Moen, of USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63).
    Starboard broadside (somewhat toward the stern) aerial view.


    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • For other pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Frank Knox (DDR-742) -- Grounding and Salvage, July-August 1965;
  • USS Frank Knox (DD-742) -- Construction, 1944.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 31 December 2003