Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., then Chief of Naval Operations, gave a speech at the launching ceremony for the USS Brewton on Saturday, 24 July 1971 at Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, Louisiana. Admiral Zumwalt graciously donated the text of that speech, which you can read by clicking here. Admiral Zumwalt's wife Mouza was the ship's sponsor, and christened her on 23 June 1971. Admiral Zumwalt also knew John Brewton personally, and his speech is a testament to the courage and honor shown by John, and the other young men and women that served in Vietnam.

Admiral Zumwalt was also the author of a wonderful book entitled On Watch which details his experiences as CNO, and over his 30 year naval career.

Admiral Zumwalt passed away on Sunday, January 2, 2000, at the age of 79. Senator Russell Feingold from Wisconsin gave a tribute to him in the 2nd session of the 106th congress. You can read the text of that tribute here.

The USS Brewton carried the remains of the unknown soldier from the Vietnam war from Honolulu to Alameda NAS, San Francisco from 17 May 1984 to 24 May 1984. An honor guard of Marines stood watch over the casket in the helo bay for the entire trip. For more information on the ceremony click here.

Sea Classics Magazine published a great article about the Brewton by Richard Shrader in June, 1988. You can read the text of the article by clicking HERE. It contains a great amount of information about the first few years of the USS Brewton's service, and also about John C. Brewton himself. You can also view the original article complete with pictures here: [ Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7 ]

Do you enjoy building model kits? There is a model of the Brewton available from AFV. (Actually it's a model of the USS Robert E. Peary FF-1073, but it includes extra decals for the Brewton, as well as the USS Kirk FF-1087). You can see a picture of the box cover HERE. The kit is a 1/700 scale model, which is about 8" long. The kit is out of print, but you may be able to find model shops still carrying it. There is also usually at least one up for sale on Ebay at any given time. You can see pictures of a completed kit by clicking HERE, HERE, and HERE. This kit was built by Rob Mackie (AFV model club)

For the more serious model builder, a 54" long remote control version is also available from BaD Ship Models for about $200. You can see a picture of it HERE.

A large size model of the Knox class is finally available from Iron Shipwright models. This is 1:350 scale (about 18 inches long) and very detailed. You can see pictures of a completed kit here, here, here, and here (built by Dave Judy). This is a resin kit and fairly expensive, at about $165. I'm told that resin kits are expensive because the mold can only be used a certain number of times before it's no good, and must be redone. You can read reviews of the kit here, and here. To order, visit Iron Shipwright. If anyone out there is a professional model builder, I'd be interested in quotes on what it would cost to have this kit built out at museum quality. E-mail me for for more info.

You can see Deck plans for the Knox class frigates, second deck here. This is a large file, and you will need to use the scroll bars in your web browser to move around and see it all. If it looks "squashed" or distorted, make sure that your web browser has Automatic Image Resizing turned OFF. In Internet Explorer you can do this by selecting "Tools/Internet Options/Advanced", move down to the "Multimedia" section, and uncheck "Enable Automatic Image Resizing". (b/w 256k - picture from USS Capodanno FF-1093 New Personnel Guide)