A mannequin in a crewmember's jacket seems to point to a handmade model of the USS Orleck in a former berthing area of the veteran Navy destroyer. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on February 4, 2025 at 4:25 pm
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An interactive look into life on board a decorated Navy destroyer will get underway Saturday, when the USS Orleck unveils multiple new displays.
What was once a berthing area for crew during the Korean and Vietnam wars is now home to museum exhibits that track the 80-year-old destroyer’s history from 1945 to its current home on the St. Johns River three years ago.
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A ribbon-cutting is set for 10 a.m. after 18 months of work to restore below-deck areas. The new museum adds more than a dozen exhibits as well as a gift shop, Orleck manager Greg Allen said.
“We had a lot of artifacts that we needed to display from the various parts of the history of the ship, and this space, when we got the ship, were basically empty,” he said. “You tell stories about the sailors lives on here, and it was amazing that there were 300 people on board this ship, and what they had to go through to make this ship go. It’s an amazing story.”
The Gearing-class destroyer first operated in the Navy’s 7th Fleet after it was launched in 1945. It was named after Lt. Joseph Orleck, who died when the Navy tugboat he was on sank during an amphibious invasion of Italy in 1943.
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The Orleck went to the western Pacific in early 1948, then became part of the Navy’s Korean War efforts. Renovated in 1962, the 390-foot warship served during the Vietnam War and earned 14 Battle Stars. It became a training ship before the Turkish Navy bought it. It was renamed the TCG Yücetepe until its final decommissioning in 2000.
The Orleck became a museum in 2000 in Texas, then moved in 2010 to Lake Charles, Louisiana, at another attraction. The Jacksonville Naval Museum towed it Downtown in March 2022. Thirteen months later, it was moved to Pier One east of the Berkman Plaza marina.
Since then, volunteers have worked to restore much of 2,250-ton warship for visitors.
In March, an interactive display opened inside the MK 38 twin-mount gun on the aft deck of the historic warship once known as the “Grey Ghost.” Strobe lights and loud booms reenacted a 1968 battle during the Vietnam War. The first of three renovated crew berthing areas was opened, as was a rebuilt Vietnam War-era drone hangar with flight deck.
Now a $250,000 renovation, most funded from state grants, resulted in a museum accessible through another renovated berthing area in the operations and weapons area. Visitors walk past a “Don’t Give Up The Ship” flag to get there.
The museum’s first gallery shows stacked bunks with items a sailor would have, like flashlight, pocket knives and money, next to a mannequin in classic uniform.
“It’s set up to look like it was back in those days with the racks and the lockers,” Allen said.
Soon, a video projection will let visitors hear — and see — a sailor writing home.
“You will see the letter, the writing going as you hear the voice writing the letter — ‘Dear Mom and Dad, this place is too hot,’ and that kind of stuff,” said Charles Davis, the Orleck’s maintenance officer.
There is a display dedicated to Lt. Orleck, with a highly detailed 8-foot model of the Orleck.
“This replica was built in the 1990s by Hal Mather,” Davis said. “He will be our guest of honor on Saturday at the ribbon cutting. … This is fully radio controlled — the guns will move and go up and down, and it has all the sound effects. He built this from scratch.”
Next, visitors walk past American, Chinese and Japanese rifles, then intricate models of aircraft carriers based at Naval Station Mayport, ending with the USS John F. Kennedy (1995-2007).
The gift shop in the gallery includes the original Command Information Center plotting board, where tactical officers would draw locations of enemy planes — from behind, Allen said.
“Kids can come up behind here and practice writing backwards, like the sailors used to do in the old days,” he said as he demonstrated.
The ship’s engine and boiler rooms will be restored and open next year, Davis said. In the meantime, two new displays occupy the bridge area.
Next to the captain’s chair, a film narrated by former News4Jax anchor Tom Wills lets visitors see how the USS Orleck’s guns destroyed a North Korean supply train as it passed between tunnels on Yang-do Island. Then the Command Information Center shows video of a life-size lieutenant and tactical officer tracking an incoming enemy.
“We continually add things to the ship to help have people come back to see it,” Allen said. “We are looking for return visitors because there is so much more to see.”
For more information about the ship’s operating hours and admission fees, go to jaxnavalmuseum.org.
