USS Mason

## USS Mason (DDG-87)

**USS *Mason* (DDG-87)** is an *Arleigh Burke*-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She is named in honor of the non-segregated crew serving on board USS *Mason* (DE-529). This ship is the 37th destroyer of her class. USS *Mason* was the 21st ship of this class to be built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and construction began on 19 January 2000. She was launched and christened on 23 June 2001. On 12 April 2003, a commissioning ceremony was held at Port Canaveral, Florida. She is currently homeported in Mayport, Florida.

### Etymology

his is the third U.S. Navy warship with the name USS *Mason*. The first *Mason* (DD-191), in service from 1920 to 1941, was named for John Young Mason, well known for his service as the Secretary of the Navy for two American Presidents. The second *Mason* (DE-529) was named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason, a Naval Aviator who was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This ship is named for the crew of the second *Mason* (DE-529) as this was the first ship in the US Navy with this distinction of a predominantly black crew.

### Service History

USS *Mason* conducted her maiden deployment with the USS *Harry S. Truman* Carrier Strike Group in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2004. *Mason* returned home after six months on 18 April 2005.

On 3 October 2006, *Mason* departed Naval Station Norfolk for a seven-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of the Global War on Terrorism. She participated in Exercise Neon Falcon. *Mason* returned home in May 2007.

*Mason* deployed with the aircraft carrier USS *Theodore Roosevelt* on 12 September 2008 for a scheduled deployment.

On 12 March 2011, she sailed through the Suez Canal en route to the Mediterranean, to support possible humanitarian or military action in response to the Libyan Civil War. In April 2011, a boarding team from the ship successfully liberated five Yemeni hostages from eleven Somali pirates who had taken over the Yemeni-flagged ship F/V *Nasri*. The pirates had seriously injured two other fishermen in their attack, left the wounded ashore, and then taken *Nasri* to sea as a pirate mothership. Assault weapons, ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, and launchers were destroyed by the boarding team.

On 22 July 2013, she deployed to the 5th and 6th Fleet area of responsibility as part of the *Harry S. Truman* Carrier Strike Group. *Mason* returned to her homeport on 18 April 2014.

On 7 November 2015, *Mason*, acting as the flagship for Destroyer Squadron 26, completed the first East Coast Passing Exercise with the People's Republic of China's People's Liberation Army-Navy [PLA(N)] ships and U.S. Navy warships.

On 23 May 2017, *Mason* was awarded the 2016 Battenberg Cup, signifying she was the best all-around ship or submarine in the United States Navy's Atlantic Fleet based on crew achievements. *Mason* was only the fifth destroyer in the last 111 years to receive the award.

On 22 August 2022, *Mason* completed a homeport shift to Naval Station Mayport.

### Yemen 2016

On 3 October 2016, following an attack on the United Arab Emirates-operated HSV-2 *Swift*, *Mason* was deployed off the coast of war-torn Yemen, along with destroyers USS *Nitze* and USS *Roosevelt*, and USS *Ponce*, an amphibious transport dock being used as a forward landing base and laser test bed. According to an unnamed U.S. Department of Defense official, the purpose for sending the ships was "to ensure that shipping continues unimpeded in the strait and the vicinity."

On 9 October 2016, *Mason*, operating near the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, was targeted by two missiles fired from Houthi-controlled territory. Both missiles fell short and crashed into the water. The Houthi insurgency denied launching the attack on the warship. The United States Naval Institute reported that *Mason* fired two SM-2 Standard missiles and one RIM-162 ESSM missile to intercept the two missiles as well as deploying her Nulka missile decoy. One of two U.S. defense officials cited anonymously added that it was not clear whether the incoming missiles had been shot down or crashed into the water on their own. This marked the first recorded instance of ship-based anti-air missiles being fired from vertical launching cells in combat in response to an actual inbound missile threat.

On 12 October 2016 *Mason* was again targeted by missiles fired from Yemeni territory while operating in the Bab el-Mandeb strait. *Mason* was not hit by the two missiles, which were fired from near the city of Al Hudaydah. While the Navy is not certain whether the first incoming missile was intercepted or it just fell into the sea, officials claim *Mason* successfully intercepted the second missile at a distance of about 8 miles (13 km), marking the first time in history a warship destroyed an inbound anti-ship missile with a SAM in actual self-defense. On 13 October 2016, the U.S. attacked three radar sites in Houthi-held territory which had been involved in the earlier missile attacks with cruise missiles launched from *Nitze*. The Pentagon assessed that all three sites were destroyed.

On 15 October 2016, *Mason* was targeted in a third attack by five anti-ship cruise missiles while operating in the Red Sea north of the Bab el-Mandeb strait. *The Navy Times* reported the *Mason* fired a radar decoy, an infrared decoy, and several SM-2 Standard missiles in response, either neutralizing or intercepting four of the five incoming missiles. The Navy reported the fifth incoming missile as neutralized by a radar decoy launched from *Nitze*, after *Mason* alerted her to the threat.

### Israel-Hamas War

On 14 October 2023, Lloyd Austin directed *Dwight D. Eisenhower* and her carrier strike group, which includes the cruiser *Philippine Sea*, along with *Mason* and sister-destroyers *Laboon* and *Gravely*, to the eastern Mediterranean in response to Israel's war with Hamas. This is the second carrier strike group to be sent to the region in response to the conflict, following *Gerald R. Ford* and her group, which was dispatched only six days earlier.

### Awards

* Combat Action Ribbon - (9-15 Oct 2016)
* Navy Unit Commendation - (Oct 2006-May 2007, Sep 2008-Apr 2009)
* Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation - (Jan 2011-Nov 2012)
* Navy E Ribbon - (2004, 2005, 2016)
* Navy Expeditionary Medal - (Sep-Nov 2013)
* Battenberg Cup - (2016)