"USS Barry to be Dismantled" Topic

The Navy will remove the display ship Barry from Washington Navy Yard by next summer to avoid the ship becoming landlocked, and for now there are no plans to replace the decommissioned destroyer with another platform to draw visitors, the commanding officer of Naval Support Activity Washington told USNI News.

The former-USS Barry (DD-933) has been docked at Navy Yard since May 1983 and has not been to a dry dock for maintenance since its 1982 decommissioning, Capt. Monte Ulmer said Wednesday. The ship's hull was proven structurally sound in a hull survey conducted last year, but after sitting in the Anacostia River for so many decades without work, "there are some deteriorations to the hull" that would eventually need repair.

Starting next summer, though, that would be nearly impossible to do. Washington, D.C., officials are getting set to begin construction on a new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to cross the river, and this one will be a fixed-span bridge instead of a drawbridge – and there will only be 50 feet between the top of the water and the bottom of the bridge…

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Touring that ship was the first place I ever felt old. The sailors assigned to the ship to do tours were fresh out of Great Lakes (I also happened to have been on the tour with my father and, unknown until the end of the tour, the new commander of the tour crew). All during the tour the sailor kept saying "way back in the 80's" like it was 100 years ago. Then I realized that she had probably not been born when the ship was decommissioned. Right then I was officially old.

Huh. Used to see her everyday when I was assigned to NAVSEA. Kinda sad to see her go.

I drive past it twice a day. Will be weird to see it disappear.

OMG am I old. USS Barry was my youngster cruise (3rd class Mid'n) ship in 1975 where I chipped and painted part of the VDS gear. Many weeks in Greece as the Greeks had invited Desron 12 to "Go home Yanks. Also the ship over which my retirement flag was flown around 30 years later.

Named after the illustrious former mayor of Washington DC, I presume?

Snicker.

That's a shame. I remember touring the ship back in the early 90s when I visited the Navy Yard for research.

She has become a sad and lonely boat. I hope she finds a new home. With all the strengthened security measures after the yard shooting she doesn't get allot of visitors anymore.