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The Commanding Officer, Officers and Men of the
UNITED STATES SHIP TOPEKA
request the honor of your presence
on the occasion of the commissioning of the
UNITED STATES SHIP TOPEKA
New York Navy Shipyard, Navy Base, Brooklyn, New York
on the afternoon of
March twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred and sixty
at three o'clock

R.s.v.p.

On April 15, 1957, TOPEKA arrived in New York for a complete face lifting. She was stripped from stem to stern, and some of the superstructure was torn away to make way for, missilery equipment. She would emerge as one of a new guided missile light cruiser class.

From the second day of December until she underwent her habitability inspection on February 26, 1960, TOPEKA was a constant beehive of activity. She was dry docked; engines were tested; new connivances were installed; latest equipment replaced the old; and her five and six inch guns were tested. Finally on March 18, 1960, one thousand officers and crew men began moving aboard the new USS TOPEKA (CLG-8)

On March 26, 1960, Vice Admiral Thomas S. Combs, USN ordered the guided missile light cruiser into active service, and Captain Frank L. Pinney, Jr. USN, took the helm as her new commanding officer. The ship and her crew were ready to live up to former Secretary of the Navy William B. Franke's confidence that "TOPEKA will meet the challenge of her tasks in defense of our country in such a manner as to reflect the highest credit upon the U.S. Navy."

Originating the "can - do" spirit which would stay with the ship, the new TOPEKA crew worked for another three months to get their ship fitted out for operations. Soon she was ready to accept any challenge, and in July, 1960, TOPEKA  left the Atlantic for the more familiar Pacific and her new homeport of Long Beach, California. She made  first transit of the Panama Canal as CLG-8 and joined the Cruiser-Destroyer Force of the Pacific. Calling for the strong support of her crew, TOPEKA was put to the big test of refresher training, climaxed by the first firing of the advanced Terrier Missiles from a cruiser.

COMMISSIONING CLG-8 -- Captain F. L. Pinney, Commanding Officer. gave the order for the USS TOPEKA (CLG-8) to be placed into commission on March 26, 1960 marking the beginning of TOPEKA's career as a guided missile light cruiser in the Space Age Navy.

DONNED IN HONOR -- The ship and crew commemorate the day of commissioning with a colorful background of flags and ceremony decorations. That day, the Boatswain's Mate sounded the first watch of the new TOPEKA, and the new ship came to life. The Navy had made an old ship into a dependable new one.

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