The Navy decommissioned the 37-year-old cruiser Leyte Gulf this month at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, months after the ship concluded its last deployment.
The ship’s decommissioning comes amid stress in recent times between the Navy and Congress relating to how briskly to section cruisers out of the fleet. Whereas the Navy seems to decommission extra cruisers to safe funds for brand spanking new ships and upkeep, lawmakers have pushed to maintain them in service longer to cowl any functionality gaps.
Retired Vice Adm. Eugene Black III, who served because the commanding officer of the Leyte Gulf in 2010 and 2011, spoke on the decommissioning ceremony on Sept. 20, together with the ship’s last skipper, Cmdr. Brian Harrington.
“What an awesome alternative to have fun the Sailors who introduced this ship to life, saved her working on the highest degree and prepared for a battle all through her lengthy and illustrious profession of service to our nation,” Black stated, in accordance with a Navy information launch.
Commissioned in 1987, Leyte Gulf will head to the Navy’s Inactive Ship’s facility in Philadelphia in October, and be positioned in a Logistical Assist Asset standing.
The ship is known as after the 1944 World Conflict II Battle of Leyte Gulf within the Philippine Sea, the biggest naval battle in historical past.
The ship returned from its final deployment in Might, after months underway within the Caribbean Sea and South Atlantic within the U.S. 4th Fleet’s space of operations. Whereas deployed, the ship carried out drug interdiction missions with the Coast Guard.
Altogether, the Leyte Gulf workforce seized 4,100 kilograms of cocaine through the deployment – together with greater than 2,000 kilograms of “illicit medicine” from a drug smuggling submarine that the Navy later sunk in an train.
