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Entering San Diego Harbor
Career
Ordered:	19 January 1993
Laid down:	11 January 1996
Launched:	8 November 1996
Commissioned:	29 August 1998
Decommissioned:
Status:	Active in service as of 2007
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	8,315 tons
Length:	505.25 feet (154 meters)
Beam:	67 feet (20.4 meters)
Draught:	30.5 feet (9.3 meters)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed:	30+ knots
Range:
Complement:	23 Officers 24 Chief Petty Officers 291 Enlisted Personnel
Armament:	1 x 29 cell, 1 x 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems, 90 x RIM-67 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc, missiles 1 x 5/54 in (127/54 mm), 2 x 25 mm, 4 x 12.7 mm guns, 2 x Phalanx CIWS 2 x Mk 46 torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	1 SH-60 Sea Hawk helicopter can be embarked
Motto:	In Pursuit of Peace

USS Decatur (DDG-73) is an Arleigh Burke class destroyer. The fifth ship to carry the name, Decatur was laid down on 11 January 1996 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; launched on 9 November 1996, sponsored by Mrs. Joan E. Shalikashvili, wife of John M. Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and commissioned 19 June 1998, Commander Mike Knollmann in command. She is named in honor of Stephen Decatur.

Following a combination shakedown and transit cruise to the west coast, during which Decatur visited San Juan, Puerto Rico; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico she was commissioned on June 19, 1998 in Bath, Maine with the ceremony taking place August 29, 1998, at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland, Oregon. The guided-missile destroyer arrived at her new home port of San Diego on 4 September. She spent the remainder of the year conducting acoustic trials and combat system evaluations. Decatur then spent three months in a post-shakedown availability in the Southwest Marine Yard.

In April 1999, the warship conducted a short cruise to the Northwest, visiting Decatur Island, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia, before returning to San Diego in early May. After a second visit to Washington in August, Decatur sent a boarding team of Damage Control Experts to assist MV Gardenia Ace--a car carrier--which had suffered a fire in her engine room.

Upon completion of her final missile tests and sea trials, Decatur commenced her first western Pacific deployment on 7 January 2000. After stopping at Pearl Harbor to load Tomahawk land-attack missiles, the guided-missile destroyer proceeded to the Yellow Sea for Exercise Sharem 2000--a joint U.S. and South Korean naval exercise--in late January. On the 30th, the warship visited Chinhae, South Korea, and over the next two weeks also stopped at Yokosuka and Nagasaki, Japan. She then sailed south through the Taiwan Strait, made a three-day port visit to Hong Kong, and then commenced a South China Sea exercise with units of the Philippine Navy.

In early March, Decatur visited Malaysia and Guam before sailing south across the Equator to Fiji in April. After visits to American Samoa, and numerous ports in Australia, the guided missile destroyer returned to San Diego on 8 June.

Following upkeep and voyage repairs, the warship operated locally out of San Diego for the rest of the year. In February 2001, Decatur began various battle group and missile training off the West Coast. Following the terrorist plane hijackings and crashes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on 11 September, the cruiser put to sea for Operation NOBLE EAGLE in southern California waters. Returning to San Diego on the 23d, the warship spent seven weeks preparing for her deployment with the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) battle group on 12 November.

The warships steamed west and, after stops at Hong Kong and Singapore, transited the Strait of Malacca on 11 December. Sailing northwest into the Indian Ocean, the battlegroup moved into Central Commands AOR to participate in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, in Afghanistan. Between 17 December 2001 and 16 April 2002, Decatur escorted the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) Amphibious Ready Group -- during which time her security team boarded three merchant ships (including one non-compliant boarding of M/V Francisco Dagohoy on 10 April -- in support of Maritime Interdiction Operations. During this period, the warship made three short port visits to Manama, Bahrain. Departing the region on 2 May, the warship sailed for home, stopping in Phuket, Thailand; Bali, Indonesia; Dili, East Timor; Apra, Guam; and Pearl Harbor before arriving in San Diego on 8 June 2002. Decatur spent the rest of the year in upkeep or training out of San Diego.

The Decatur departed on their second deployment to the Persian Gulf in August of 2003. She made stops in Pearl Harbor and Singapore before arriving in the Persian Gulf. The Decatur made a port visit to the Seychelles for four days in November. In December of 2003, the Decatur seized a 40-foot dhow on 15 December, discovering an estimated two tons of narcotics allegedly linked to an al-Qaeda smuggling operation. The drugs had an estimated street value of 8 to 10 million dollars.

On 16 February 2007, Decatur was awarded the 2006 Battle "E" award. [1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

USS Decatur (DDG-73)

• Official USS Decatur DDG-73 Website
• CNN report, 19 December
• U.S. Navy Christening Press Release
• U.S. Navy Commissioning Press Release
• DDG-73 Personnel Roster at HullNumber.com

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.