USS Decatur (DDG-73) is an in the United States Navy. She is named for the former naval officer Stephen Decatur, Jr. This ship is the 22nd destroyer of her class. USS Decatur was the 13th ship of this class to be built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and construction began on 11 January 1996. She was launched on 10 November 1996 and was christened on 8 November 1996. On 29 August 1998 she was commissioned at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon.
Service history
Decatur was commissioned on 19 June 1998 in Bath, Maine, with the official ceremony taking place 29 August 1998, at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon. The guided missile destroyer arrived at her new home port of San Diego 4 September 1998. She spent the remainder of the year conducting acoustic trials and combat system evaluations. Decatur then spent three months in a post-shakedown availability in the Southwest Marine Yard.
In April 1999, the warship conducted a short cruise to the Northwest, visiting Decatur Island, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia, before returning to San Diego in early May. After a second visit to Washington in August, Decatur sent a boarding team of Damage Control Experts to assist MV Gardenia Ace—a car carrier—which had suffered a fire in her engine room.
Upon completion of her final missile tests and sea trials, Decatur commenced her first western Pacific deployment on 7 January 2000. After stopping at Pearl Harbor to load Tomahawk land-attack missiles, the guided missile destroyer proceeded to the Yellow Sea for Exercise Sharem 2000—a joint U.S. and South Korean naval exercise—in late January. On 30 January, the warship visited Chinhae, South Korea, and over the next two weeks also stopped at Yokosuka and Nagasaki, Japan. She then sailed south through the Taiwan Strait, made a three-day port visit to Hong Kong, and then commenced a South China Sea exercise with units of the Philippine Navy.
In February 2001, Decatur began various battle group and missile training off the West Coast. Following the terrorist plane hijackings and crashes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on 11 September, the destroyer put to sea for Operation Noble Eagle off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area. Returning to San Diego on 23 September, the warship spent seven weeks preparing for her deployment with the battle group on 12 November. Between 17 December 2001 and 16 April 2002, Decatur escorted the Amphibious Ready Group during which time her security team boarded three merchant ships, including one non-compliant boarding of MV Francisco Dagohoy on 10 April—in support of Maritime Interdiction Operations. Decatur returned to San Diego on 8 June 2002.
Decatur departed on her third deployment overall, and second deployment to the Persian Gulf, in August 2003. She made stops in Pearl Harbor and Singapore before arriving in the Persian Gulf. In December, Decatur seized a dhow on 15 December, discovering an estimated two tons of narcotics allegedly linked to an al-Qaeda smuggling operation. The drugs had an estimated street value of 8 to 10 million dollars.
In May 2004, Decatur entered dry-dock, her first dry-dock period since construction.
In January 2006, Decatur departed for her fourth deployment (third to the Persian Gulf) as part of a Carrier Strike Group, led by the aircraft carrier . Throughout the deployment, she conducted Maritime Security Operations in the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf; participated in three major anti-submarine warfare exercises (including Arabian Shark and Valiant Shield); and as part of the French-led Task Force 473, conducted Arabian Sea operations with the .
On 16 February 2007, Decatur was awarded the 2006 Battle "E" award. In June, Decatur tested her Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System by launching a RIM-161 Standard (SM-3). It was the first such test from a US Aegis destroyer.
In May 2008, Decatur departed on her fifth deployment overall, and fourth deployment to the Persian Gulf. She spent a significant amount of time in 7th Fleet, stopping in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore before proceeding in to the 5th Fleet area for duties. She returned to San Diego in November 2008. Decatur deployed for the sixth time in May 2009, returning to San Diego in November 2009.
In December 2010, Commander Shanti Sethi was promoted from Executive Officer to Commanding Officer. She is the 12th female commander in the U.S. Navy.