The
Shield outlined in blue and gold stands for the outstanding
achievements in battle of Admiral Burke against the naval
power of Japan, a formidable foe. The fist and mace
symbolize the offensive and defensive power of the new
destroyer. The mace, also a symbol of authority, represents
Admiral Burke's outstanding service as Chief of Naval
Operations. It also refers to Admiral Marc Mitscher, an
influential figure and mentor for whom Admiral Burke served
as Chief of Staff. Admiral Burke's Destroyer Squadron 23,
represented by the border of 23 ovals, was the only United
States Destroyer Squadron awarded a Presidential Unit
Citation, signified by the canton of blue, yellow, and red.
The ovals also refer to the year 1923 in which Midshipman
Burke was graduated from the United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis. Twenty-three also reflects Admiral Burke's
distinguished service on the staff of the Chief of Naval
Operations as(OP-23). The mounted figure of St. George
recalls Admiral Burke's celebrated victory in the Battle of
Cape St. George over Japanese naval forces. His mantle bears
a gold cross for the Navy Cross awarded to the Admiral. The
birch branch on the helmet represents Admiral Burke himself,
a reference to his name derived from his Scandinavian
heritage. The red sea dragon symbolizes Japanese naval power
assaulted by forces under Captain Burke's command. It is
gorged with the two gold stars he was awarded for
outstanding service. The lance impaling the dragon signifies
ordnance on target. The capabilities of the new destroyer,
the most powerful and survivable ever built, are signified
by the full armor and equipment of the warrior St. George.
The Admiral's nickname "31-Knot Burke" is recalled by the
number 31 on the horse.
USS Arleigh Burke DDG-51 General Description:
USS
Arleigh Burke is the lead ship of the Arleigh Burke
class of guided missile destroyers. These ships were the
first destroyers in the world equipped with the AEGIS
Weapons Systems. USS Arleigh Burke was the first U.S.
Navy ship designed to incorporate shaping techniques to
reduce radar cross-section to reduce their detectability
and likelihood of being targeted by enemy weapons and
sensors. Originally designed to defend against Soviet
aircraft, cruise missiles, and nuclear attack
submarines, this higher capability ship is to be used in
high-threat areas to conduct anti-air, antisubmarine,
anti-surface, and strike operations.
USS Arleigh Burke DDG-51 General Characteristics:
Dimensions: 153.8m x 20.4m x 9.3m
Guns: Mk45 127mm .54 (2) MK15 Block 1 Phalanx Gatling 20mm Gun
Missiles: (2) MK41 Vertical Launching Systems (MOD 0 forward, MOD 1 Aft)
with 29 cells forward and 61 aft to house SM-2 SAMs, Tomahawk and ASROC. (2)
MK141 quadruple launchers for RGM-84 Harpoon
ASW: (2) MK32 triple 324mm torpedo tubes for MK46 of MK50 ASW torpedoes
Electronics: SPY-1D, SPS-67, SPS-64 radars (3) SPG-62 directors for SAMs
used with AEGIS FC system MK160 MOD4 gunfire control system including
optronic backup SQQ-89(V)6 sonar incorporating SQS-53C hull mounted and
SQR-19 towed array sonars used with MK116 MOD7 ASW fire control system.
Propulsion: (4) GE LM 2500-30 Gas Turbines giving 100,000 hp to two
shafts
Speed: 30+ Knots
Crew: 300+
Aircraft: Helicopter Platform
USS Arleigh Burke DDG-51 Namesake History:
Arleigh Burke's Name Sake Arleigh Albert Burke, the
grandson of a Swedish immigrant, was born on a farm in the
foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, Colorado on
19 October 1901, the first of six children. He attended a
one room elementary school through the eighth grade and then
high school in Boulder. Deciding early that farming fitted
neither his talents nor desires, he sought and received a
congressional appointment to the US Naval Academy. He
entered the Naval Academy in June 1919 and graduated on 7
June 1923, standing 71 in a class of 413. On the afternoon
of Graduation Day, he was married in the Naval Academy
Chapel to Roberta Gorsuch of Washington, D.C. who became his
beloved wife, his best friend and lifelong companion, and,
at age 97, his only survivor. Following graduation Burke
served in the battleship USS ARIZONA (BB-39) for five years.
Thereafter, he served afloat in fleet auxiliary USS PROCYON
(AG-11), heavy cruiser USS CHESTER (CA-27), fleet auxiliary
USS ANTARES and fleet auxiliary USS ARGONNE. Ashore he
completed postgraduate study in Ordnance Engineering and
served two tours in the Bureau of Ordnance. In June 1937, he
was ordered to his first destroyer as prospective Executive
Officer of USS CRAVEN (DD-382), under construction in Boston
Navy Yard. In August 1938 - early in his sixteenth year of
commissioned service - he was promoted to Lieutenant
Commander and in June 1939 took command of USS MUGFORD
(DD-389), sister ship to CRAVEN. During his tour, MUGFORD
excelled in gunnery and participated in the development of
high speed night gunnery and torpedo attack tactics. After
little more than a year in command, Burke was relieved and
reassigned to the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. and
was there when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Despite
his persistent requests for sea duty, he remained there
until the end of 1942. In January 1943, he was awarded
command of DESTROYER DIVISION 43 and hoisted his flag in USS
WALLER (DD-466) which, in March 1943, blew up a Japanese
destroyer in the Central Solomons. In May, he shifted to
command of DESTROYER DIVISION 44, flagship USS CONWAY
(DD-507), where he received wounds while escorting convoys
in the Solomons. Captain Burke took over DESTROYER SQUADRON
12 in August 1943 and DESTROYER SQUADRON 23 (Little Beavers)
in October. In addition Burke commanded one of the
squadron's two divisions, DESTROYER DIVISION 45, with his
flag in USS CHARLES AUSBURNE (DD-570). In October, Burke was
detached from DESRON TWELVE and ordered to command DESRON
TWENTY THREE. During the next four months the squadron
participated in 22 separate engagements and destroyed one
Japanese cruiser, nine destroyers, one submarine, several
smaller ships and approximately 30 aircraft. Between
operations the U.S. surface combatants exercised at night
high speed tactics, where, thus far, the Japanese had
excelled. Burke was a leader in this effort. Notable among
these actions was the battle of Empress Augusta Bay,
Bougainveille, in early November and later that month the
Battle of Cape St. George, New Ireland, where Burke led his
destroyers in night torpedo attacks on Japanese surface
forces. This battle is regarded by many naval historians as
the perfect naval engagement. He was awarded the Navy Cross
for "extraordinary heroism in operations against an armed
enemy" in the Battle of Cape St. George. The ships of the
time were capable of 34 knots, but while enroute to a
rendezvous prior to that battle, a boiler casualty had
limited his group's top speed to 30 knots. When the fleet
commander signalled him to make best speed, they mustered an
extra knot and he answered "Proceeding at 31 knots" The
response, addressed to "31-knot" Burke was a "rib", but
captured the imagination of the press and the public and
conveyed the image of a dashing, hard-charging combat
commander - an accurate description of Arleigh Burke. Early
in the new year the decision was made to bypass Rabaul in
favor of the Admiralty Islands, 300 miles farther west.
DESRON 23 supported landings at Cape Gloucester, in the
Green Islands, and participated in the bombardment of Rabaul
and its backup base at Kavieng. On the morning of 22
February, Burke's destroyers sank a large Japanese naval tug
and rescued 73 survivors. When the captain, who had chosen
to fight rather than capitulate, was not among the
survivors, Burke ordered a brief prayer service in his
honor, an action which gained him great respect in post-war
Japan. In March, Burke, to his great surprise, received
orders to report to Commander Carrier Division THREE, Vice
Admiral Marc Mitscher, as Chief of Staff. Mitscher had
recently become Commander Fast Carrier Task Forces Pacific
(CTF 58) and was one of the great naval leaders of W.W.II.
Burke was disappointed in the assignment which took him away
from his beloved destroyers; Mitscher was equally
disappointed to find that his highly capable aviator chief
of staff was to be relieved by a surface officer. (Admiral
Ernest King had directed that a surface officer commanding a
fleet or task force must have an aviator chief of staff and
vice versa.) Burke and Mitscher soon formed an exceptionally
close relationship which was to endure throughout the war
and into the postwar years. During the next fifteen months,
TF 58, with four carrier task groups, roamed the western
Pacific, striking enemy airfields, shipping, and industrial
facilities in their island strongholds; in the Philippines
and on Formosa and Okinawa; and in the Japanese home
islands. The task force participated in all the major
actions of the Pacific war; the assault on the Marianas -
Guam, Tinian, and Saipan - in June and the ensuing battle of
the Philippine Sea; the return to the Philippines and the
battle of Leyte Gulf in October; the invasion of the
Carolines and the capture of Iwo Jima in February and March
of 1945; and the invasion of Okinawa in April and May. On
the morning of 11 May, Mitscher's flagship, USS BUNKER HILL,
operating in the vicinity of Okinawa, was hit and grievously
damaged by two kamikaze aircraft. Flag spaces, including the
flag office and radio central, were hard hit and a large
number of the TF 58 staff were killed. Burke led the effort
to rescue survivors, helping to drag the wounded and injured
men from radio central. Because of the severity of the
damage to BUNKER HILL, Mitscher, Burke, and the remainder of
the staff transferred to ENTERPRISE. Three days later
ENTERPRISE, too, was hit in a kamikaze attack and put out of
action. The staff again shifted flagships, this time to USS
RANDOLPH. On 28 May 1945, Mitscher, Burke, and the staff of
TF 58 were relieved and departed for the United States. For
them, combat operations had ended. Burke, who had earlier
been promoted to the wartime rank of Commodore, reverted to
his permanent rank of Captain and was reassigned to the Navy
Department in Washington to head a new section for defense
against kamikaze attacks. He was there when the war ended.
After a brief tour in the Bureau of Ordnance, Burke returned
to sea with VADM Mitscher early in 1946 as Chief of Staff of
the Eighth Fleet, being formed for Mediterranean duty. In
midsummer, plans for deployment of the fleet were placed on
hold and Admiral Mitscher was ordered to relieve Admiral
Jonas Ingram as CINCLANTFLT which he did in September. Burke
continued to serve as his Chief of Staff until February 1947
when Mitscher, who had been ill throughout much of the war
and had never regained his health, suffered a heart attack
and died. Thus ended the long, close relationship of two of
the great combat leaders of WWII. Reassigned to the Navy's
General Board in Washington after Mitscher's death, Burke,
recognizing that his experience had been limited through
necessity to warfighting skills, began a serious effort to
broaden his understanding and knowledge of history,
economics, science, politics, and international relations.
He foresaw a need to study and define the future national
security interests of the United States and the role of the
Navy in pursuing those interests. This eventually led to a
comprehensive paper, completed in mid-1948, entitled
"National Security and Naval Contributions for the Next Ten
Years." The paper, as such, had little impact but it
contributed mightily to the development of Arleigh Burke as
a strategic thinker and to his reputation. In July 1948,
Burke took command of the light cruiser, USS HUNTINGTON,
then deployed to the Sixth Fleet. After fewer than six
months in command, he received an unexpected set of orders
to report immediately to the staff of the Chief of Naval
Operations in Washington to head the OPNAV section which
dealt with matters concerning unification of the armed
services. There he became a key player in what was to become
known as "the revolt of the Admirals." A primary issue was
the strategic role and relative capability of the Air Force
B-36 bomber vis-à-vis the Navy's proposed supercarrier. In
hearings before the House Armed Services Committee in
October 1949, Secretary of the Navy Mathews led off by
supporting Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson's position
favoring the B-36 and relegating Navy aviation to a
secondary role. He was followed by CINCPACFLT, Admiral
Arthur Radford; by the naval leaders of WWII - King, Nimitz,
Halsey, Spruance and others including Burke; and by the CNO,
Admiral Louis Denfield. The naval officers uniformly took
issue with the SECDEF and SECNAV position. (Burke and his
small staff had been instrumental in orchestrating the Navy
position.) Following the hearings, Secretary Mathews forced
Admiral Denfield into retirement prior to completion of his
term and attempted to remove Burke's name from the promotion
list to Rear Admiral. This latter action was over-ruled by
President Truman. The Committee Report of 1 March 1950
offered no opinion on the B-36/aircraft carrier dispute and
concluded that the government should accept the advice of
the military professionals of each service regarding
weapons. By the time the Committee report was issued the new
CNO, Admiral Forrest Sherman, had disbanded Burke's OPNAV
office and Burke had been reassigned as the Navy
representative on the Defense Research and Development
Board. He was promoted to Rear Admiral on 15 July 1950 and
in August ordered to the staff of Commander, Naval Forces
Far East as Deputy Chief of Staff. The Korean War was, by
then, in its third month and there was an urgent need for a
senior officer with warfighting experience on the staff (as
well as for a trusted emissary who could, and would, report
directly to Admiral Sherman on the conduct of operations.
Burke did this, but with the full knowledge of VADM Joy,
COMNAVFE.) Burke arrived on station just in time to
participate in the planning for the Inchon landing and for
support of the subsequent drive north to the Chinese border.
The UN offensive ended in November when the Red Chinese
armies crossed the Yalu River and drove the allied forces
back down the peninsula. The battle line eventually
stabilized in mid-January just south of Seoul. After a brief
sojourn in command of Cruiser Division FIVE, Burke was again
ordered to Korea on "temporary duty" to join the UN team,
headed by VADM Joy, appointed to negotiate an armistice with
the North Koreans. He remained in this assignment as one of
the two principal negotiators for the UN until a cease fire
line was established in November. Returning to Washington,
Burke assumed duty as Director of the Strategic Plans
Division in OPNAV. Following the inauguration of President
Eisenhower in January 1953 and the introduction of the "New
Look" defense policy, Burke was again called upon to define
and defend the Navy's roles, missions, and command structure
and philosophy. He remained until March 1954, when he was
relieved and reassigned as Commander, Cruiser Division SIX.
He was there for the rest of the year until ordered to duty
as Commander Destroyer Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet
(COMDESLANT). Four months later in May 1955, he was selected
over 99 officers senior to him - every four and three star
officer in the Navy and a number of senior two star officers
- to relieve Admiral Robert Carney as the Chief of Naval
Operations. Upon becoming CNO on 17 August 1955, Admiral
Burke could look back upon a naval career of 32 years in
which he had served his apprenticeship at sea, completed
postgraduate study and acquired technical expertise in shore
assignments, demonstrated brilliance and achieved fame as a
wartime commander, gained broad experience in the
application of military power and, through self-study, in
the wider fields of history, economics, politics, and
national security affairs. He was a tough taskmaster who
insisted on the best efforts of his people and was
intolerant of laxity and poor work. He worked
extraordinarily long hours and demanded the same from his
staff. He believed that an overworked staff was more
productive than one that worked routine hours. He was
modest, however, about his own achievements and loyal to his
associates. One of his greatest attributes was his ability
to set clear objectives and goals and then allow his
subordinates leeway to achieve them without interference or
undue supervision. He was well and thoroughly prepared to
lead the Navy. He was reappointed to a second two year term
in 1957, a third in 1959, and declined a fourth in 1961. One
of Burke's first and foremost priorities as CNO was the
development of a solid propellant fleet ballistic missile.
He established the Special Projects Office, appointed RADM
William Raborn as head, and gave him wide latitude to
accomplish the objective. Polaris was the result. Another
priority was construction of nuclear powered surface ships -
carriers, cruisers, and destroyers. USS LONG BEACH and USS
ENTERPRISE were authorized and built, and USS BAINBRIDGE and
USS TRUXTUN followed. He pressed for conversion of cruisers
to employ guided missiles and their introduction in other
ships to defend against air attack. Antisubmarine warfare
programs were accelerated and an Atlantic Fleet
Antisubmarine Defense Force was established to test and
evaluate sensors and weapons, and to develop tactics and
coordination of air, surface, and submarine forces. He took
pains to ensure that the Navy achieved and maintained a high
state of readiness. He was the chief spokesman for the Navy
and was tireless in his efforts to educate the public on sea
power and the Navy. He functioned as a member of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff and continued, not always successfully, his
fight against further centralization in the Department of
Defense. On 25 July 1961 in ceremonies at the U.S. Naval
Academy, Admiral Burke was relieved as the Chief of Naval
Operations and retired. He remains the longest serving Chief
of Naval Operations in the history of the U.S. Navy.