USS Stout

## USS Stout (DDG-55)

USS Stout underway

**USS *Stout* (DDG-55)** is the fifth *Arleigh Burke*-class guided missile destroyer. Built for the United States Navy by Ingalls Shipbuilding, she was commissioned on 13 August 1994 and she is currently home-ported in Naval Station Norfolk. She is part of Destroyer Squadron 26. *Stout* is named for Rear Admiral Herald F. Stout, who distinguished himself as the commanding officer of the destroyer USS *Claxton* during World War II. In November 1943, Commander Stout received two Navy Crosses in the span of three weeks for his actions in the Pacific. Stout aided Destroyer Squadron 23 in sinking five heavily armed Japanese warships and damaging four others during the Solomon Islands campaign as well as sinking four more Japanese warships and damaging two others to establish a beachhead on Bougainville Island. *Stout* was ordered on 13 December 1988, the keel was laid down on 8 August 1991, she was launched on 16 October 1992 and commissioned on 13 August 1994. As of July 2020 the ship is part of Destroyer Squadron 26 based out of Naval Station Norfolk. As of 2023 the Commanding Officer is Cmdr. Desmond Walker, MBA, RBLP-T.

### Ship History

#### Board of Inspection and Survey

In April 2008, the ship comprehensively failed her Board of Inspection and Survey examination and was declared "unfit for sustained combat operations." The ship has since passed 13 of 13 rigorous unit level training inspections. *Stout* deployed in March 2009 on routine security operations in the Sixth Fleet operational area. On 15 July 2009, Fox News Channel reported *Stout* was in the Black Sea cooperating with Georgian forces in training exercises.

#### Relief of Commanding Officer and Command Master Chief

On 1 March 2011 while on deployment to the Mediterranean Sea in support of the crisis in Libya, Commander Nathan Borchers, Command Master Chief Susan Bruce-Ross, six other chiefs, one junior officer, and one petty officer of *Stout* were relieved by the Commander Sixth Fleet. The cited cause was a "pervasive pattern of unprofessional behavior" among the ship's crew including "fraternization, orders violations and disregard for naval standards of conduct and behavior which contributed to poor crew morale and a hostile command climate."

#### Odyssey Dawn

On 19 March 2011, in conjunction with other US Navy ships, the destroyer launched Tomahawk cruise missiles at Libyan air defenses as part of Operation Odyssey Dawn.

#### Syrian Civil War

On 28 August 2013, the US Navy announced that a fifth *Arleigh Burke*-class destroyer, *Stout*, was en route to join the other four destroyers deployed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea amid allegations that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons during the ongoing Syrian civil war, including the 2013 Ghouta attacks.

#### Navy Record for longest stint at sea

On 3 October 2020, *Stout* moored in Rota, Spain, after 215 days consecutively at sea, surpassing the Navy's known record of 206 days at sea previously held by carrier USS *Dwight D. Eisenhower* (CVN-69) and cruiser USS *San Jacinto* (CG-56). The unusually long deployment was as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and operational requirements.

### Awards

On 16 February 2007, *Stout* was awarded the 2006 Battle "E".