USS Jonas Ingram ( DD - 938 ) USS " Jonas Ingram " ( DD - 938 ) , named for Admiral Jonas H . Ingram USN ( 1886 – 1952 ) , awarded the Medal of Honor when a Lieutenant ( junior grade ) for his actions during the engagement of Vera Cruz on 22 April 1914 , was a Forrest Sherman class destroyer laid down by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation at Quincy in Massachusetts on 15 June 1955 , launched on 7 August 1956 by Mrs . Lawrence Hays , Jr . , daughter of Admiral Ingram and commissioned on 19 July 1957 at Boston Naval Shipyard , Cmdr . G . L . Rawlings in command . USS " Jonas Ingram " was decommissioned on 4 March 1983 , stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 June 1983 and sunk as a target on 23 July 1988 . History . Following shakedown in the Caribbean and along the western coast of South America , " Jonas Ingram " departed Boston 26 February 1958 for patrols in the West Indies . She sailed from Newport , Rhode Island , 2 September for the Mediterranean to join the 6th Fleet and participate in NATO exercises . She returned to Newport 12 March 1959 and sailed 16 June for Mayport , Florida , her new home port . She acted as recovery ship for an experimental Project Mercury nose - cone which splashed off the Florida coast 25 June . The destroyer , as flagship for Rear Admiral E . C . Stephen , Commander South Atlantic Forces , sailed for the South Atlantic 24 August and conducted joint exercises with the French and South African navies visiting nine African countries from Tanganyika before returning May - port 15 November . Highlights of the next 16 months of operations out of Mayport were duty providing air - sea rescue cover for President Eisenhower ' s flights to and from the abortive Paris Summit Conference in May 1960 and a role in another Project Mercury space test late in the year . The hardy destroyer departed 15 March 1961 for the African coast to support United Nations peace - keeping efforts in the Congo . Returning home 8 September , she sailed 18 October for NATO exercises in Northern European waters and returned 21 December . For the next 2 years " Jonas Ingram " alternated Mediterranean deployments with operations out of Mayport . On 21 September 1964 she was one of our representatives at Malta during ceremonies at which Great Britain granted independence to the island . During this cruise she embarked four Turkish naval officers for a 4 - week visit under the NATO exchange program . She returned from the Mediterranean in time to serve as one of the recovery ships for the unmanned Gemini space shot GT - 2 in December . Atlantic Fleet ASW exercises in the North Atlantic during February 1965 were followed by Operation " Springboard " in the Caribbean in March . In the summer Jonas Ingram got underway on a people - to - people cruise in Middle Eastern waters and visited such parts as Djibouti , French Somaliland ; Berbera , Somalia ; Aden , Yemen ; Karachi , Pakistan ; and Beirut , Lebanon . The destroyer returned to Mayport in the fall to become a recovery ship for Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford ' s Gemini 6 spacecraft in December . After operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean early in 1966 Jonas Ingram returned to the Mediterranean for service with the 6th Fleet . In September 1966 she accompanied Stribling ( DD - 867 ) to Port Said , the first U . S . warships to visit Egypt in almost 15 years . " Jonas Ingram " returned home 20 October where she prepared for Exercise " Lantflex 66 - 2 . " The fleet exercise took the destroyer to the Caribbean late in November and lasted through mid - December . Jonas Ingram operated out of Mayport until sailing for the Mediterranean 17 July 1967 . She reach Gibraltar 29 July and steamed with the 6th Fleet into the fall . The Jonas Ingram was decommissioned and modernized during an overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . One of the three five inch gunmounts was removed and an ASROC ( anti - submarine rocket weapons system ) was installed . The propulsion system was also upgraded to run on JP5 ( jet fuel ) rather than " bunker C " . The ship was recommissioned in Philadelphia in 1970 before returning to homeport in Mayport , Florida . On 25 June 1972 USS " Jonas Ingram " ( DD938 ) received an SOS from the Indian vessel Saudi , which had capsized in heavy seas off the coast of Somalia . Steaming through the night " Jonas Ingram " , at dawn , came upon the survivors of the Saudi clinging to debris . Many sailors were rescued , eight bodies were recovered , with 97 missing . The survivors and bodies were put to shore at Djibouti . The crew of the " Jonas Ingram " received a Meritous Unit Citation . On 4 October 1976 USS " Jonas Ingram " ( DD 938 ) rescued seven survivors of a Finnish motor craft that sank in the Baltic Sea . The survivors were put ashore at Karlskrona , Sweden . Fate . The first live fire test of the Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo resulting in the sinking of ex - " Jonas Ingram " on 23 July 1988 .