USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5)

USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5) was a Charles F. Adams-class guided missile destroyer commissioned into the United States Navy in 1962, originally named USS Biddle before being renamed in honor of Admiral Claude V. Ricketts in 1964. The ship served extensively during the Cold War, participating in NATO exercises, Mediterranean deployments, and crisis response operations, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Lebanon crisis of 1982. Claude V. Ricketts was notable for being the first American naval ship to operate as a fully integrated multinational crew under the "Mixed Manning Demonstration" with personnel from several NATO countries. After a distinguished career spanning over two decades, the destroyer was decommissioned in 1989 and subsequently scrapped.