It’s no misprint and no time warp. It’s the new USS Spruance.

A headline I spotted a short time ago on the Navy Times Website declaring: “Destroyer Spruance commissioned in Key West” certainly gave me quite a start. For awhile, since I was pursuing another article of interest, I didn’t know whether I was in a time warp or had caught some kind of unusual online news site blunder.

I was confused because I seemed to remember that the destroyer U.S.S. Spruance had been decommissioned some time back and was sunk in a missile test. This is an end that, sadly, comes to more and more of our warships which have supposedly outlived their usefulness. The one and only ship on which I sailed lies in 400 fathoms on the Pacific floor some 150 miles West of San Diego thanks to such weapons testing back in 1982.

My ship, the U.S.S. Agerholm, and the destroyer Spruance, seemed so linked together in time since the “Aggie” was the oldest destroyer on active duty when it was decommissioned in 1978. The Spruance was the first of a new “Spruance class” or “900-class” of destroyer which would replace the World War II-era destroyers of which the Aggie was the last to serve actively.

But it turns out that the headline I read today was right even though I still find myself feeling as if I am in a bit of a time warp. The U.S.S. Spruance, the newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, was put into active service after a Saturday twilight ceremony in Key West.

A ship’s hull number — for those who don’t know much about naval vessels — further identify a ship and also gives a clue as to its history. Hull numbers are preceded by two or three letters which tell the ship type. Destroyers of the past were DD, as the Agerholm was DD-826. The first destroyer Spruance was DD-963. These are sometimes but not always sequential numbers. But the Agerholm was launched in 1946. The DD-963 Spruance was placed in action in 1975. The new Arleigh Burke-class are called guided missile destroyer, with a DDG hull identification.  The ship classification of DDG sets it apart from the older DDs which relied primarily on big guns for armament where the newer ship relies on a variety of missiles.

Actually, the older ships did not rely strictly on guns. The Agerholm also had torpedoes which were eventually fired as anti-submarine rockets (ASROC) from a vertical launcher. The Aggie is known for firing the first nuclear-tipped ASROC in 1962, which happened during testing in the South Pacific. The destroyer Spruance had two 5-inch guns, or cannons, somewhat similar to the two 5-inchers on the Agerholm. But the DD-963 was also capable of launching Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile, the Harpoon anti-ship missile, the Tomahawk cruise missile as well as ASROCs and sported the Phalanx close-in-weapons system. The latter incorporates electronics and weaponry such as 20-mm Gatlin guns to provide a weapon of last defense against a variety of incoming threats.

The new DDG has one 5-inch gun — which still can pack quite a wallop — along with an assortment of new computer-guided missiles. The newest Spruance also has some innovations in its construction and engineering. It likewise uses the stealth technology that is seen in the ships of its class.

I can only guess the newer ship has more creature comforts than my old tin can had. Even the DD-963 had more individual space for sleeping in berthing areas than did the old canvas-hammock type “racks” we had for our nod time.

It is still kind of hard to imagine in retrospect that the “old” Spruance served 30 years at sea before being retired. She, as Navy ships are known as, was sunk in 2006.

One might still ask why, after only five years that the DD-963 has been under water, would the Navy name another ship the Spruance? Is it part of the 80s nostalgia fad? You know, as with the movies and their rampant remakes. Why, another “Footloose” will be released next week, for heaven’s sake!

Actually, the two ships’ namesake was a heralded figure in World War II naval history although perhaps not to the extent of the four fleet admirals the war produced, most notably Chester Nimitz and William “Bull” Halsey. Adm. Raymond Spruance played a large part in a number of the naval and marine operations in the Pacific including leading a task force during the Battle of Midway. He was also commander of the fleet in the Central Pacific, or Fifth Fleet, during the middle of the war. Spruance was named ambassador to The Philippines in the early 1950s by President Eisenhower.

In short, even though the Navy now wears essentially the same battle dress uniform that makes it hard to tell sailor from soldier from airman, it still is steeped in tradition. And perhaps more so than the rest of the services with the possible exception of maybe the Marine Corps, which is likewise a part of the naval service.

Thus, I guess in the “Navy way” it is fitting that the fleet not sail for very long without a Spruance.