The Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy is awarded each year to the ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet which displays the greatest improvement in battle efficiency during the competitive year. In 1968 the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy was won by the USS Frank Knox. This is a praiseworthy achievement for any ship. For the Frank Knox it was more than that. In the year 1964 this ship was on of the top destroyers in the Pacific Fleet, displaying battle efficiency "E"'s in all major departments, with hash marks under many of them. She had just been voted "Ship of the Year" for 1963 by OUR NAVY MAGAZINE, and awarded the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award. One of the few laurels not received was the Arleigh Burke Trophy. But on 18 July 1965, these merits seemed of secondary importance as the Frank Knox lay stranded on the coral heads of Pratas Reef, in the South China Sea. Extensive salvage operations finally freed her, and she made her way slowly to Japan. Over a period of 386 days in dry dock in Yokosuka, Japan, the Frank Knox was resurrected through the skill and industry of Japanese yard workers and her dedicated crew members. She was recommissioned in November 1966.
In July of 1967 Frank Knox deployed to the waters of Southeast Asia and began a climb that has brought her to the level she previously held as one of the most distinguished ships in the Pacific Fleet. During the competitive year 1968 she walked off with the Battle Efficiency "E" for Destroyer Squadron Seventeen plus individual awards in gunnery, engineering and anti-submarine warfare. Then on 20 November 1968, two years and one day after she was recommissioned, Frank Knox was formally awarded the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy. This achievement is testimony to the spirit and ability characteristic of the Navy in general and the destroyerman in particular. (Quoted from the 1968 cruise book of USS Frank Knox).
In July of 1967 Frank Knox deployed to the waters of Southeast Asia and began a climb that has brought her to the level she previously held as one of the most distinguished ships in the Pacific Fleet. During the competitive year 1968 she walked off with the Battle Efficiency "E" for Destroyer Squadron Seventeen plus individual awards in gunnery, engineering and anti-submarine warfare. Then on 20 November 1968, two years and one day after she was recommissioned, Frank Knox was formally awarded the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy. This achievement is testimony to the spirit and ability characteristic of the Navy in general and the destroyerman in particular. (Quoted from the 1968 cruise book of USS Frank Knox).
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