USS Coontz (DLG-9/DDG-40) was a Farragut-class destroyer leader/frigate

Farragut class destroyer (1958)

The Farragut class was the second destroyer class of the United States Navy to be named for Admiral David Glasgow Farragut. The class is sometimes referred to as the Coontz class, since Coontz was first to be designed and built as a guided missile ship, whereas the previous three ships were...

 in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. She was named after Admiral Robert Coontz

Robert Coontz

Robert Edward Coontz was an admiral in the United States Navy, who sailed with the Great White Fleet and served as the second Chief of Naval Operations.-Background:Born in Hannibal, Missouri, Coontz graduated from the U.S...

, the US Navy's second chief of naval operations.

Commissioned in 1960, she spent the early part of her career in the Pacific, participating in four tours of duty during the Viet Nam War. In the early 1970s she transferred to the east coast and spent the remainder of her service years in the Caribbean, Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Persian Gulf.