Since 1981, the most famous and sole remaining Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, USS Laffey (DD 724), has been berthed at Patriots Point Naval Museum, Charleston, South Carolina.
   Attached to DesRon 60, Laffey engaged the enemy at “Utah Beach” as part of the Normandy invasion before her transfer to the Pacific, where she participated in operations in the Philippines and Iwo Jima. While on radar picket duty off Okinawa on 16 April 1945, she was attacked by twenty-two enemy planes. Despite direct hits by three 500-pound bombs and five kamikazes, she remained afloat. Her commanding officer, later-Admiral F. Julian Becton, later wrote about the battle in his book “The Ship That Would Not Die.”
   In recent years, however, Laffey had been losing her war against rust and the condition of her hull had became critical: beginning in October 2008, she had sustained five major leaks that required de-watering. Even without a hurricane or other triggering event, she could have sunk at her berth had the State of South Carolina not come through with a $9.2 million loan.
   During the summer, the area around her pier was dredged and docks at a neighboring marina that enclosed her were moved. Then, on 19 August, she was towed up the Cooper River to the former Charleston Navy Yard, now Detyens Shipyard, where she entered dry dock. There, under the direction of Project Manager Joe Lombardi of Gloucester, Massachusetts, she had her bottom sand blasted.
   Between mid-August and mid-October, her hull was re-plated with 3/8” steel up to the 13-foot waterline, well above the current waterline, to remove any riveted seams and replace the badly-pitted shell plating found when the doubler plates were removed. By the end of October, the machinery spaces (B-1 & B-2) were also completed—all wasted transverse and longitudinal frames, keel and bulkheads from the machinery spaces were removed and new framing and bulkhead plating were installed as needed.
   A decision was made to replace the keelson from the stem to the end of the skeg as this was also riveted plating. When doubler plating over the keel blocks was removed, it was found that many sections were badly deteriorated and holed; the decision was made to re-plate to eliminate any possible future leakage—no “Band-Aids” were installed.
   Other tasking coming up is to coat all interior shell plating, bulkheads and frames with two coats of epoxy and a stripe coat for sharp edges and welds to ensure the interior will remain rust-free for many years down the road. This tasking is being done now to preclude the presence of condensation that would have compromised the coating system had it been applied once the ship was waterborne.
   Once all of the keelson work is completed, the exterior of the ship will be hydroblasted, primed and painted with a high-end, zinc-rich epoxy premium coating.