USS Buchanan (DDG-14) Sinking (SINKEX), RIMPAC 2000

On 13 June 2000, the guided missile destroyer USS Buchanan (DDG-14) took part in the RIMPAC 2000 (Rim of the the Pacific) multinational exercises as a target ship at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, northwest of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

American, Canadian and Australian forces tried to sink her for more than 24 hours. She took three hits from Hellfire missiles fired from SH-60 LAMPS helicopters, three hits from Harpoon missiles fired from a US P-3 Orion sub hunter and the HMAS Adelaide (FFG-01) and a massive hit from a GBU-24 2400 lb laser-guided bomb dropped by an RAAF F-111. An MK-48 torpedo fired by the USS Buffalo (SSN-715) was to have been the coup de grace, but the torpedo malfunctioned.

Buchanan stayed afloat all night.

On the morning of 14 June 2000, a US Navy EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Team boarded her and placed 200 pounds of C-4 plastic explosive in key locations in the stern of the ship. Sixteen minutes and three seconds after igniting the time fuse, the USS Buchanan gracefully in a bow down attitude slide below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

At 21:26:30Z (11:26:30 AM HST) on 14 June 2000, Davy Jones piped her aboard at her final resting place at 22:54.38N, 160:27.68W, 64 nautical miles northwest of Kauai in 2,540 fathoms (15,240') of water.

(Adapted from: "The Final Mission", http://www.uss-buchanan-ddg14.org/.)

The video and audio are courtesy of the Pacific Missile Range Facility Public Affairs Office, with editing by Bruce Webster, son of Rear Admiral David A. Webster, first Commanding Officer of the USS Buchanan (February 1962 - August 1963).

To see the ship in its heyday, visit USS Buchanan - DDG-14 - 1963 Coral Se...

USS Buchanan, DDG-14
    Keel Laid: 23 April 1959
    Launched: 11 May 1960
    Commissioned: 7 February 1962
    Decommissioned: 1 October 1991
    Sunk as Target: 14 June 2000