USS Frank Knox DDR-742
by Dave Becker

1/350 USS Frank Knox DDR-742 (BWN now Yankee Modelworks)

Kit is an old Blue Water Navy Gearing class destroyer.  Part of the bridge and hull are the only original pieces left of the kit. Everything else has been scratch built or taken from the spare parts box.  I built the kit as the USS Frank Knox as she appeared in the 1960's after emerging from a DDR FRAM II conversion. In 1960-1961 Frank Knox was modernized under the FRAM II program, which gave her updated Hull Sonar, Variable Depth Sonar (VDS), SPS-10 AND SPS-29 surface and air-search radars,  AN/SPS-8 long range height finder, TACAN and new communication equipment.

The F. Knox 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.