page_title: USS Thomas S. Gates
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: USS Thomas S. Gates / History / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: The US Navy (USN) Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruiser USS THOMAS S. GATES (CG 51) sails under the Bridge of the Americas as it departs the port of Vasco Nunez de Balboa to conduct the at-sea portion of the PANAMAX 2005 exercise. PANAMAX 2005 is a training exercise in defense of the Panama Canal involving 15 countries.
context_page_description: USS Thomas S. Gates was a flight-I Ticonderoga-class cruiser that was used by the United States Navy. The warship was named after Thomas S. Gates, Secretary of Defense in the last years of the Eisenhower Administration.
  In a break from normal naming conventions for the Ticonderoga class cruisers, Thomas S. Gates is the only vessel of the class to be named after a person; all of the other cruisers are named after notable events in American military history.
context_section_description: Thomas S. Gates departed Pascagoula on 3 June 2002, with HSL 42, Detachment 9 (Proud Warrior) embarked, transited the Panama Canal on 7 June 2002 to conduct counter-drug ops in the eastern Pacific. During a three-month deployment, the cruiser conducted six patrols out of Rodman, Panama, during which she made two major drug seizures (4.5 tons of cocaine) from "Go-Fast" speedboats off El Salvador. The warship also conducted a special forces exercise called Trident Warrior and a submarine tracking and gunnery exercise with the Peruvian Navy.
  In March 2003, Thomas S. Gates was homeported at Pascagoula and was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 6.
  On 21 March 2004, Thomas S. Gates rendezvoused with cruise ship Celebrity Summit, of Royal Caribbean International Cruise Lines, in the central Caribbean. The cruiser's embarked USCG Enforcement Detachment boarding team, with the cooperation of the cruise ship's captain and security force, apprehended Jose Miguel Battle, Jr. the suspected leader of The Corporation, an organized crime outfit. Thomas S. Gates also provided an escort for the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan through the Strait of Magellan. Due to poor weather in the Pacific, Thomas S. Gates exited the strait via the Smyth Channel and conducted a 36-hour transit through restricted maneuvering waters. Thomas S. Gates was the first Ticonderoga-class cruiser to make that transit. The cruiser returned to home port on 2 August 2004.
caption: Thomas S. Gates sails under the Bridge of the Americas, August 2005.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "The US Navy (USN) Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruiser USS THOMAS S. GATES (CG 51) sails under the Bridge of the Americas as it departs the port of Vasco Nunez de Balboa to conduct the at-sea portion of the PANAMAX 2005 exercise. PANAMAX 2005 is a training exercise in defense of the Panama Canal involving 15 countries.", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D1X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "270", "Image YResolution": "270", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2006:03:30 10:11:22", "Image Artist": "A1C VERONICA PIERCE, USAF", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Copyright": "Copyright,", "Image ExifOffset": "652", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1096", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1210", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4787", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2002:03:08 18:50:43", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2002:03:08 18:50:43", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "47/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Flash", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "62", "EXIF SubSecTime": "12", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "12", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "12", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2704", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1931", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 0]"}