USS Quentin Walsh (DDG-132) is a planned United States Navy Arleigh Burke-class Flight III guided missile destroyer, the 82nd overall for the class.[1][4] She will be named for Captain Quentin Walsh (1910–2000), a United States Coast Guard officer who earned the Navy Cross during the World War II.[5]
_artist_depiction.jpg) Graphical depiction of USS Quentin Walsh (DDG-132)
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Quentin Walsh |
| Namesake | Quentin R. Walsh |
| Awarded | 21 December 2018[1] |
| Builder | Bath Iron Works |
| Identification | Hull number: DDG-132 |
| Status | Under construction[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Arleigh Burke-class destroyer |
| Displacement | 9,217 tons (full load)[3] |
| Length | 510 ft (160 m)[3] |
| Beam | 66 ft (20 m)[3] |
| Propulsion | 4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbines 100,000 shp (75,000 kW)[3] |
| Speed | 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)[3] |
| Complement | 380 officers and enlisted |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | Kevlar-type armor with steel hull. Numerous passive survivability measures. |
| Aircraft carried | 2 × MH-60R Seahawk helicopters |
| Aviation facilities | Double hangar and helipad |
Namesake
editThen-Commander Walsh served on the command staff of US Naval Forces Europe, where he helped draw up plans to seize the strategic port of Cherbourg on the northern edge of Normandy's Cotentin Peninsula during the planning for Operation Overlord. Walsh's plan called for the formation of a specially trained naval reconnaissance unit to determine the condition of the port after its capture. He volunteered to lead the special mission, which after some training arrived off Utah Beach on 9 June 1944, only three days after D-Day.[6]
Walsh's 53-man unit landed and contacted elements of the US Army's 79th Infantry Division, which was engaging the Germans in fierce house-to-house fighting. Allied forces quickly captured the eastern part of the port, while most of the Germans retreated to the western section of the city. Knowing the port was essentially unusable with pockets of resistance remaining, Walsh personally led a 16-member unit of his special task force on a raid to an arsenal area and adjacent waterfront on the western side of the port city. Armed with bazookas, hand grenades, rifles, and submachine guns, he and his party overcame sniper fire and blew open steel doors of underground bunkers, capturing 400 Germans.[7] Walsh and one other officer then approached the German command post at Fort Du Homet under a flag of truce and bluffed its commander into surrendering, capturing a further 350 Germans and liberating 52 American paratroopers being held as prisoners of war. Only then did Walsh begin restoring vital port operations as Port Director. For his actions at Cherbourg, he received the Navy Cross.[citation needed]
He later assisted with reconnaissance of the Brittany Peninsula, including the port of Brest, and Le Havre port.
References
edit- ^ a b "Walsh (DDG 132)". Naval Vessel Register. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- ^ "Quentin Walsh (DDG 132)". Naval Vessel Register. Naval Sea Systems Command, Shipbuilding Support Office. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
- ^ a b c d e "DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class". Federation of American Scientists. FAS.org. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
- ^ "SECNAV Names Future Destroyer in Honor of US Coast Guard, World War II Navy Cross Recipient" (Press release). U.S. Navy. 6 June 2019. NNS180312-11. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- ^ Cone, Allen (7 June 2019). "U.S. Navy names destroyer after Coast Guard hero Quentin Walsh". UPI Defense News. United Press International. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
- ^ "Quentin R. Walsh" (PDF). Commandant's Bulletin. United States Coast Guard. June 1994. pp. 26–27. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ^ Walsh, Quentin R. "Memoirs of a "BIGOT" Operation Overlord Phase Neptune" (PDF). United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
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