Mark 37 ‘Long Threes’ Preserved

A recent addition to Naval Station Norfolk’s Gate 2 are a pair of historic, and rare, Cold War era twin mounts: two twin 3″/70 Mark 26 guns in Mark 37 mounts. The guns came from the old USS Norfolk (DL-1), the one-off ASW destroyer flotilla leader commissioned in 1953. The first major warship not built to a WWII design, she was as big as a light cruiser (5,600 tons, 540-feet), carried eight 21-inch torpedo tubes, 4 twin 3″/70 Mark 37s, and Weapon Alpha/Able, the latter a gee-whiz sub-buster that could toss a dozen 525-pound ASW rockets to 800 yards USS Norfolk (DL-1) was one of the few ships outfitted with Weapon Alpha. Two of the four mounts can be seen side-by-side forward of the bridge. Note two of her twin 3″/70s forward. She is seen here in 19 September 1957. NH 94160 While Weapon Alpha was replaced by ASROC, the rapid-fire 3″/70s were almost as quickly phased out with four mounts on the command light cruiser USS Northampton (CLC-1), four on Norfolk, and two each on the four…