USS Port Royal

Not to be confused with USS Port Royal (Gunboat)

## USS Port Royal (CG-73)

USS Port Royal

**USS *Port Royal* (CG-73)** was a *Ticonderoga*-class guided missile cruiser that served in the United States Navy. She was commissioned on 9 July 1994, as the 27th and final ship of the class. *Port Royal* was named in honor of the two naval battles of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, one during the American Revolutionary War, the other during the American Civil War. She was decommissioned on 29 September 2022. The ship is the second to bear the name, with the first being a steam-powered, side-wheel gunboat, from New York City, in commission from 1862 to 1866.

### Construction

The second *Port Royal* (CG-73) was assigned hull number **CG-69** on 9 May 1989, but that number was reassigned to guided missile cruiser USS *Vicksburg* and CG-73 to *Port Royal* on 8 December 1989; was laid down on 18 October 1991, at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Litton Industries; launched on 20 November 1992; sponsored by Susan G. Baker (wife of James A. Baker III, Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush and former Secretary of State); and commissioned at Savannah, Georgia, on 9 July 1994.

### Operational History

On 5 February 2009, at 21:00, *Port Royal* ran aground about a half-mile south of the Honolulu International Airport's Reef Runway. The ship had just come out of a dry dock after undergoing maintenance and was undergoing her first sea trials. No one was injured in the incident and no fuel was spilled. On 9 February 2009, *Port Royal* was pulled off the coral reef at around 2:00. No one was injured during the recovery effort, though damage to the reef was extensive, both from the ship's hull and the cables used to drag the ship off the reef. Captain John Carroll was relieved of his duties and, along with the ship's executive officer, commander Steven Okun and three other sailors, subsequently disciplined for dereliction of duty and improperly hazarding a vessel. Carroll had been the commanding officer of *Port Royal* since 23 October 2008. Rear Admiral Dixon R. Smith, who was aboard the ship, assumed temporary command on that day, and on 9 February, Captain John Lauer III, an official in Smith's Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific, assumed command.

The warship suffered heavy damage to the underwater bow sonar dome and to her propellers and propeller shafts and was dry-docked for repairs. Captain Neil Parrott was assigned to preside over the investigation into the grounding. On 18 February, the ship entered Dry Dock Number 4 at Pearl Harbor. The navy estimated that repairs would cost between $25 and $40 million. The ship left dry dock on 24 September 2009 but needed several more weeks of repair and assessment before returning to duty.

In May 2013, to answer queries made by Congress, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) reported that the condition of the ship was comparable to certain other cruisers in the same class and that the effects of the grounding might not have been as severe as had been previously thought. A full report on the ship and her condition was anticipated in early August 2013. An April 2014 report by the GAO found that *Port Royal* was no more expensive to repair than other cruisers slated for retention.

#### Deployments

* 24 June 2011 – 13 February 2012 West PAC- Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf After repairs were effected, the cruiser departed on an eight-month deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East but was forced to stop in Bahrain to have structural cracks repaired. Navy command was said to have lost confidence that the vessel had been restored to seaworthiness and, because of that, the ship was included on a list of seven cruisers slated for early retirement. Decommissioning in anticipation of eventual dismantlement was set for 31 March 2013.

* 25 August 2016 – 24 March 2017 West Pac-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf On 24 March 2017, *Port Royal* returned to Pearl Harbor after a 212-day independent deployment to the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, South China Sea, Western Pacific, and Indian Ocean. During this time the ship conducted joint maritime security exercises with South East Asia partners, theatre anti-submarine operations, joint counterterrorism/smuggling exercises, Pacific presence operations in the South China Sea, 5th Fleet sector air defense, and carrier strike group operations with USS *Dwight D. Eisenhower* and USS *Carl Vinson*. *Port Royal* also conducted straits transits, providing protection for U.S. and international commerce and projecting sea control in the vicinity of Yemen and Somalia.

* November 2020 – 27 April 2021 West LAC – Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf

* 10 January 10 2022 - 18 July 2022 - Western Pacific and Persian Gulf

### Decommissioning

In 2020, a U.S. Navy budget plan proposed putting *Port Royal,* as well as her sisters USS *Monterey*, USS *Shiloh*, and USS *Vella Gulf*, on a path to early decommissioning, as they had not been modernized.

In December 2020 the U.S. Navy's Report to Congress on the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels stated that the ship was planned to be placed Out of Commission in Reserve in 2022.

The ship was officially decommissioned at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii on 29 September 2022 She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry on 30 September 2022. As of October 2022, her final disposition remains pending.

### Awards

* Navy Unit Commendation – (Oct 1997 – Apr 1998, Dec 1995 – May 1996, Jan – Dec 1998)
* Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation – (Jan 1999 – Sep 2001, Oct 2016 – Jan 2017)
* Navy E Ribbon – (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2021)