Figure 1: USS Patterson (DE-1061) underway in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, 27 August 1970. Photographed by PHCS W.H. Long, USN. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Patterson (DE-1061) underway in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, 27 August 1970. Photographed by PHCS W.H. Long, USN. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Patterson (DE-1061) underway, circa the early 1970s. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Patterson (DE-1061) visiting a German port, circa June-July 1971. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Patterson (FF-1061) at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, 1984, while serving as a unit of the Naval Reserve Force. Photographed by Francis M. Cox. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: A port view of USS Patterson (FF-1061) at sea on 14 September 1990. The date on this, and the next photograph, has to be incorrect. Patterson went through the Knox Class hull upgrade program prior to 1987, per ex-crewmember Brian Wells. US Navy photo DVID #DN-ST-90-11618 by PHCS Long. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: A port-bow view of USS Patterson (FF-1061) at sea on 14 September 1990. The date on this photograph has to be incorrect. Patterson went through the Knox Class hull upgrade program prior to 1987, per ex-crewmember Brian Wells. US Navy photo DVID #DN-ST-90-11617 by PHCS Long. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after Commodore Daniel Todd Patterson (1786-1839), a naval hero from the War of 1812, USS Patterson (DE-1061) was a 3,011-ton Knox class destroyer escort that was built by the Avondale Shipyard at Westwego, Louisiana, and was commissioned on 14 March 1970. The ship was approximately 415 feet long and 46 feet wide, had a top speed of 27 knots, and had a crew of 224 officers and men. Patterson was armed with one 5-inch gun, one Mk 16 ASROC missile launcher, four Mk 46 torpedoes, one Mk 25 BPDMS Sea Sparrow missile launcher, and one SH-2 Seasprite (LAMPS I) helicopter.
After being commissioned, Patterson conducted her shakedown cruise off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. From June to August 1971, the ship made her first overseas deployment to northern Europe. During the first half of 1974, she steamed to the Mediterranean Sea for service with the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet. All newer escort ships were reclassified as frigates in mid-1975, so Patterson was re-designated FF-1061. At this time, the ship was also modified. She received enlarged helicopter facilities and the Basic Point Defense Missile System, which included a launcher installed on her afterdeck for eight Sea Sparrow guided missiles.
Patterson completed a second deployment in the Mediterranean from late 1976 to mid-1977, and a third one from 1978 to early 1979. From September to October 1979, the ship returned to northern European waters and in mid-1980 Patterson provided help to the West Indies island of St. Lucia after it was hit by a massive hurricane. After returning to the Mediterranean in October 1980, Patterson continued eastward and sailed into the Persian Gulf towards the end of the year and during the first month of 1981. Patterson completed a fifth deployment with the Sixth Fleet from late 1981 into 1982, with a trip to the Red Sea at the end of that deployment. The ship earned a Meritorious Unit Commendation for her service during that period.
In June 1983, Patterson was assigned to the US Naval Reserve Force, based at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ship remained in this “non-deploying” status for the next eight years, but was used as a training ship for Naval Reservists. In this capacity, Patterson sailed in the western Atlantic, from Canada to the West Indies. In late 1990, Patterson conducted counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean, making a round-trip passage through the Panama Canal as part of that mission. On her final cruise, Patterson went to Bermuda in May 1991. The ship was decommissioned on 30 September 1991. USS Patterson was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register of ships on 11 January 1995. Although Patterson was considered for transfer to Greece as a source of spare parts, this never took place and the ship was sold for scrapping on 29 September 1999. Patterson was one of 46 Knox class frigates built in the United States and these ships provided excellent service during the final years of the Cold War, from 1969 to the end of the 1980s.
