Seeking records of USS Hoel (DDG-13)

Dear Mr. Prosser,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations, 1941 - 1983 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24) that include the deck log of the USS Hoel (DDG-13) for January 1976 through December 1977. The deck logs you seek are closed for digitization. Please see the blog CLOSED - Vietnam War-era U.S. Navy & Coast Guard Deck Logs for Digitization Project for more information. When these records are reopened we will post a follow up reply. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you.

U.S. Navy accident reports for this time period are in the custody of the Commander, Naval Safety Center, Code 055, 375A Street, Norfolk, VA 23511. To request these records, contact their FOIA staff via email at safe.foia@navy.mil. Provide as much information as you can about the incident.

If there was a court martial as the result of the incident, the records of the court martial would be in the custody of the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1322 Patterson Ave., Suite 3000, Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5066. To request individual courts-martial records of a trial, submit a request to the Criminal Law and Military Justice Division. Instructions on how to submit a request are available on their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) page.

Also, the  Naval History & Heritage Command (NHHC), 805 Kidder Breese Street, SE, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC 20374-5060 may have Command Operations Reports of the USS Hoel for this time period. Please contact them via email at archives@navy.mil.

We hope this information is helpful. Best of luck with your research!