USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58)
USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), navigates in the Caribbean Sea during an exercise, 9 April 2007.
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Samuel B. Roberts |
Namesake | Coxswain Samuel B. Roberts |
Awarded | 22 March 1982 |
Builder | Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine |
Laid down | 21 May 1984 |
Launched | 8 December 1984 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. Jack Yusen |
Commissioned | 12 April 1986 |
Decommissioned | 22 May 2015 |
Homeport | Mayport, Florida |
Identification |
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Motto | "No Higher Honor" |
Nickname(s) | "Sammy B" |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate |
Displacement | 4,100 long tons (4,200 t), full load |
Length | 453 feet (138 m), overall |
Beam | 45 feet (14 m) |
Draft | 22 feet (6.7 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | over 29 knots (54 km/h) |
Range | 5,000 nautical miles at 18 knots (9,300 km at 33 km/h) |
Complement | 15 officers and 190 enlisted, plus SH-60 LAMPS detachment of roughly six officer pilots and 15 enlisted maintainers |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Electronic warfare & decoys | AN/SLQ-32; Mark 36 SRBOC |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 2 × LAMPS III |
Aviation facilities |
USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) is one of the final ships in the
Commissioning and namesake
The frigate was named for
Samuel B. Roberts was the third U.S. ship to bear the coxswain's name, after Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413), a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort, commissioned in 1944 and sunk in the Battle off Samar later that year; and Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823), a Gearing-class destroyer, commissioned in 1946 and struck in 1970.
Samuel B. Roberts was
1988 deployment and mine strike
Samuel B. Roberts deployed from her homeport in
When U.S. divers recovered several unexploded mines, they found that their serial numbers fitted into the sequence on mines seized the previous September aboard an Iranian mine-layer named Iran Ajr. Four days later, U.S. forces retaliated against Iran in Operation Praying Mantis, a one-day campaign that was the largest American surface engagement since World War II.[6] U.S. ships, aircraft, and troops destroyed two Iranian oil platforms allegedly used to control Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf, sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Sahand (1969), damaged another, and sank at least three armed high-speed boats. The U.S. lost one Marine helicopter and its crew of two airmen in what appeared to be a night maneuver accident rather than a result of hostile operations.
Repairs
On 27 June 1988, Samuel B. Roberts was loaded onto
The repairs were completed three weeks ahead of schedule at a cost of $89.5 million, $3.5 million less than expected.[2] By comparison, Princeton, which was damaged by a moored mine during the 1991 Gulf War, was repaired for $24 million;[9] however, the cruiser was not directly struck by the mine and her displacement is nearly twice that of Samuel B. Roberts. The mine that nearly sank Samuel B. Roberts had an estimated cost of $1,500.[9]
After 13 months of repairs, Samuel B. Roberts was returned to service in a 16 October 1989 ceremony.
After repair
Samuel B. Roberts made her second deployment in 1990 for
"Sammy B", as the ship is sometimes called, was later homeported in Mayport, Florida.
On 30 August 1991,
Samuel B. Roberts was decommissioned at Mayport on 22 May 2015,[11] then towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.[12]
In late 2022, the ship was towed from Philadelphia to EMR International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping.[13]
Gallery
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MV Mighty Servant 2 carrying the mine-damaged Samuel B. Roberts on 31 July 1988
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Samuel B. Roberts in a dry dock in Dubai, UAE for temporary repairs.
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Samuel B. Roberts's damaged hull.
References
- ^ a b “Hold on to something!” — A Moment that Shifted the Fate of the USS Samuel B. Roberts Crew, Master Chief Gas Turbine Specialist (E-9) Alex Perez, www.thewarhorse.org, 2021-09-21 accessed 2022-09-08
- ^ ISBN 1-59114-661-5.
- ISBN 978-1-935352-41-9.
- ISBN 1-59114-661-5.
"Rinn donned sound powered phones and called Palmer in CIC. "How are my combat systems? What have we got?" The answer came back: "We got nothing, really. No surface search radar, no radios." The captain told the combat systems officer to cut the radar out of the ship's power system so that it wouldn't drag on the grid as the engineers worked to bring it back up. ... Still, this turned the frigate from a sitting duck into a deaf and blind one.
- San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 April 2008.
- ISBN 0-8117-1863-8p. 787
- ^ "NO HIGHER HONOR: Timeline". Navybook.com. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ^ "NO HIGHER HONOR: Photos: FFG 58 under repair at Bath Iron Works". Navybook.com. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ^ a b Annati
- ^ Evans, Mark L. (4 April 2019). "Samuel B. Roberts III (FFG-58), 1986–2015". Naval History and Heritage Command.
- ^ Peniston, Bradley (23 May 2015). "The Once—and Future?—USS Samuel B. Roberts". Defense One. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ^ BURGESS, RICHARD R. (3 July 2014). "U.S. Navy To Retire 17 ships in 2015". SEAPOWER Online. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
- ^ Henry, Ryan (29 November 2022). "Decommissioned USS Yorktown arrives for recycling in Rio Grande Valley". KLST-TV. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
Annati, Massimo Al diavolo le mine RID magazine, Coop. Riviera Ligure, Italy, n. 6/2005 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here. This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.
Further reading
- Peniston, Bradley (2006). No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-661-5.
- Wise, Harold Lee (2007). Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987–88. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-970-5.
External links
- USS Samuel B. Roberts official site
- Photo gallery of USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) at NavSource Naval History
- Samuel B. Roberts narrative and timeline
- Photos of Samuel B. Roberts during February 1986 sea trials
- Photos of Samuel B. Roberts being commissioned in April 1986
- Photos of Samuel B. Roberts being hauled from the Persian Gulf to Newport, R.I. aboard Mighty Servant 2 in 1988
- MaritimeQuest USS Samuel B. Roberts FFG-58 pages