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USS Coontz (DLG-9/DDG-40)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Coontz (DLG-9/DDG-40)

USS Coontz (DLG-9) was launched 6 December 1958 by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard; sponsored by Mrs. Robert J. Coontz; and commissioned 15 July 1960, Commander H. H. Ries in command.

For the remainder of 1960, USS Coontz (DLG-9) engaged in tests and training off the coast of southern California. Coontz was overhauled and her missile weapons systems extensively modernized from October 1963 to April 1964 at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. From December 1965 to January 1966, USS Coontz (DLG-9) received a Helicopter Landing and Handling Capability in San Diego. In the early 1970s she transferred to the east coast and spent the remainder of her service years in the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Persian Gulf.

In January 1971, shortly after her last Seventh Fleet tour, USS Coontz (DLG-9) departed San Diego via the Panama Canal for Atlantic waters and a major overhaul and modernization at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. 

As part of a major re-designation of several classes of ships, USS Coontz (DLG-9) was redesignated guided-missile destroyer 40 (DDG-40) on 1 July 1975. In the fall of 1981, USS Coontz (DLG-9) deployed again. This cruise included port visits in Western Africa as part of the West African Training Cruise, operations in the Mediterranean Sea and a transit into the Black Sea followed by a port visit to Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. In 1984, USS Coontz (DLG-9) underwent pre-deployment work up including refresher training and a major fleet exercise. Upon completion, USS Coontz (DLG-9) deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in October conducting operations in the Eastern Mediterranean off the coast of  Beirut, Lebanon and in the Black Sea. USS Coontz (DLG-9) was decommissioned in 1989, and sold for scrap five years later.