USS Benjamin Stoddert (DDG-22) - 1980s

1980s

Continued boiler trouble kept the guided-missile destroyer in port, save for a few local operations, for the remainder of the year. Then, following a series of tests and inspections, Benjamin Stoddert commenced a major overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 3 January 1980. After five months in drydock, she moved to a berth for continued industrial work; and it was not until 30 November that the guided-missile destroyer got underway for her first sea trials. The crew spent the next five months putting the warship through full power exams, sonar tests, and weapons system acceptance trials. During the latter, on 31 March 1981, she successfully fired six Standard missiles on the Pacific missile range. The warship then conducted training and other local operations out of Pearl Harbor through the summer and into the fall. On 19 October, she set out for San Francisco, arriving there on the 29th. After a week of liberty, the guided-missile destroyer cruised south to San Diego, mooring at the naval station on 6 November. Benjamin Stoddert then participated in Exercise "ReadiEx 1-82", the highlight of which was a missile firing exercise held on 23 November. Steaming to Hawaii the next day, she moored alongside Jason (AR-8) in Pearl Harbor on 1 December for voyage repairs.

On 22 February 1982, Benjamin Stoddert departed Hawaii for her ninth western Pacific cruise. After a brief stop at Guam on 6 March, she proceeded on to the Philippines. While enroute to Subic Bay, the warship conducted both antisubmarine and antiair warfare exercises, an underway routine she would continue throughout this deployment. Following a week in Subic Bay, the guided-missile destroyer steamed to Korea and, between 28 and 30 March, participated in amphibious Exercise "Team Spirit 82." She then sailed between Hong Kong, Subic Bay, and Yokosuka before anchoring in Shimoda-ko, Japan, on 15 May. In the latter port, she took part in the Black Ship Festival, commemorating Commodore Matthew C. Perry's opening of Japan to foreign trade in 1854. Benjamin Stoddert returned to Subic Bay on the 24th.

Leaving the Philippines on 2 June, the guided-missile destroyer sailed to Sattahip, Thailand, anchoring there on the 6th. That same day, tension between the Soviet Union and the West increased after Israel invaded Lebanon. International friction notwithstanding, the warship joined the previously scheduled exercise "Cobra Gold 82" in the Gulf of Thailand on the 7th. Her participation included naval gunfire support for an amphibious landing exercise and ASW operations with three Royal Thai Navy warships. Still, heightened Cold War tension intruded when, just before midnight on 8 June, Aneroid — a Soviet intelligence gathering trawler — fired an illumination flare over Thai ship HTMS Khirirat.

Departing Pattaya, Thailand, on 19 June, Benjamin Stoddert, guided-missile cruiser Sterett (CG-31), and two other destroyers passed into the South China Sea on their way to Subic Bay. The next evening, Soviet aircraft — presumably from bases in Vietnam — began shadowing the American warships. At around 22:00, a Soviet aircraft dropped 16 flares over Turner Joy (DD-951). A few minutes later, Lynde McCormick (DDG-8) received .30-caliber machinegun fire from an unidentified ship in the vicinity. The warship responded in kind, deliberately aiming high; and the foreign ship ceased fire. Although tension remained high the rest of the night, no other incidents occurred; and the warships arrived at Subic Bay on 23 June. After that, however, Stoddert passed her remaining five weeks in the western Pacific without incident; and, following two "war-at-sea" exercises in the waters off Japan, she steamed for home on 6 August.

Mooring at Pearl Harbor on 12 August, the warship spent the rest of the year doing maintenance work on her boilers and standing several regular safety and readiness inspections. During the first three weeks of 1983, Benjamin Stoddert prepared for a joint Navy-Air Force exercise in the Hawaiian Islands. This refresher training included helicopter operations, naval gunfire support, damage control drills, and antisubmarine systems' tests. The highlight of Exercise "MidPacTraEx," held between 31 January and 3 February, was a defensive ASW operation with Harold E. Holt (FF-1074) and Willamette (AO-180). Later that month, she served as "surface deep dive safety ship" for Sargo (SSN-583).

In a scenery shift from her familiar operational zone, the guided-missile destroyer sailed from Pearl Harbor to the southern California operating area on 31 March. There, she conducted a "war at sea" exercise with DesRon 17 in early April. The warship then joined Ranger (CV-61) and operated with her battle group along the west coasts of California and Central America for the next four weeks. These evolutions were intended, in part, to demonstrate American resolve in checking the spread of communism in Central America.

Returning to Pearl Harbor on 25 May, the guided-missile destroyer remained in port for the next eight weeks. Between 21 and 24 July, the warship took part in a joint ASW exercise with Sample (FF-1048), Cochrane (DDG-21), Harold E. Holt, and three Japanese warships before getting ready to deploy overseas once more. On 26 August, Benjamin Stoddert put to sea with Ranger’s battle group and steered for the Philippines, arriving in Subic Bay on 14 September. Earlier in the year, and partly in response to the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War in 1980, the United States had established Central Command (CentCom) in the western reaches of the Indian Ocean to protect American security interests in the Middle East; and Ranger’s group received orders to patrol the northern portion of the Arabian Sea in support of CentCom's mission.

Departing Subic Bay on 26 September, the battle group set course for the Strait of Malacca. The unit's transit of the South China Sea was interrupted on the 30th, however, when Benjamin Stoddert rescued 39 Vietnamese refugees from their sinking boat, an act that later brought her the Humanitarian Service Medal. Once the refugees had been passed along, the group continued on south and west, passing through the Strait of Malacca and entering the Indian Ocean on 4 October. Linking up with a British force built around HMS Invincible, the warships sailed northwest and arrived on station in the Arabian Sea on 12 October. Stoddert remained in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf through the end of the year, helping to assure Western access to oil and countering the spread of Soviet influence in the region. During this period, she paid two visits to El Masirah, Oman, and called at Karachi, Pakistan.

On 15 January 1984, the American task group turned east for the long voyage back to Hawaii. After stops in Singapore and Subic Bay, Benjamin Stoddert moored in Pearl Harbor on 22 February. Six days later, she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a major equipment overhaul. During the ensuing 15-month shipyard period, the guided-missile destroyer received new radar and fire-control systems, the navy tactical data system (NTDS), the integrated automatic detection and tracking system (IADTS) and a modernized steam engineering plant. In addition to her combat systems' overhaul, she had her antiship capabilities enhanced by the installation of Harpoon missile launchers. Completing the overhaul on 9 July 1985, Stoddert occupied the rest of the year with a series of local operations and inspections. These ranged from a joint ASW exercise with Australian and New Zealand warships at sea to the more mundane propulsion plant and ordnance safety inspections while in port.

The warship's first exercise in the new year took place between 23 and 28 January 1986. Benjamin Stoddert operated as part of an "enemy" surface and submarine force that "attacked" the Enterprise battle group. Two more individual ship exercises followed in February. Then, after a command inspection in late March and a nuclear weapons certification inspection in early April, Stoddert got underway for "RimPac 86", an international naval exercise held in Hawaiian waters between 21 May and 12 June. As a unit of the "Blue Force," she served as communications link ship with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force warships involved in the maneuvers. The guided-missile destroyer also covered a SEAL team insertion and extraction mission during the exercise.

After five more months of local training operations and other preparatory tasks, Benjamin Stoddert finally got underway for another Middle East deployment on 28 November. Steaming in company with Hepburn (FF-1055) and Mahlon S. Tisdale (FFG-27), she first sailed to the Philippines. After a week of upkeep at Subic Bay, Stoddert set out south on 21 December, stopping at Singapore on the 25th before passing the Strait of Malacca on the 26th and ending the year with a fuel stop at Colombo, Sri Lanka. The guided-missile destroyer continued on to the Middle East in the new year and relieved Goldsborough on station in the Persian Gulf on 6 January. Although Iranian and Iraqi attacks on neutral tankers had begun to increase in early 1987, no firm American policy regarding this "tanker war" had yet been established. This limited Stoddert’s mission, therefore, to surveillance operations against Iranian forces, especially "Silkworm" missile sites in the Strait of Hormuz, and to the provision of communications and other data links to friendly aircraft in the region.

Relieved by Waddell (DDG-24) on 4 April after three months on station, the warship steamed toward home, passing into the Indian Ocean and stopping at Colombo on the 9th to refuel. Following port visits to Phuket, Thailand, between 13 and 16 April and at Hong Kong between 23 and 27 April, the guided-missile destro

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.yer moored at Pearl Harbor on 9 May. After a four-week leave and upkeep standdown, Benjamin Stoddert resumed the familiar routine. This included various weapons and supply inspections, equipment alterations in the shipyard, and training ashore for crew members. In addition, the warship participated in a joint Navy-Coast Guard exercise in late June, took part in ASW drills in mid-August, and served as ready duty destroyer during the month of September. She then began a phased maintenance availability at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 26 October.

With the repairs and upgrades to her engineering plant finished on 9 February 1988, Benjamin Stoddert began preparing for an upcoming fleet exercise. The warship set out for San Diego on 15 March, completing a transit exercise — including service as the target for simulated attacks by two attack submarines — before mooring in San Diego harbor on the 31st. On 8 April, she put to sea for "FleetEx 88-2", a carrier battle group exercise held off southern California, in which Stoddert’s crew took "revenge" for the transit exercise by successfully engaging a target submarine with an exercise torpedo. Later, she joined the Carl Vinson (CVN-70) battle group and, in simulated air attacks, shot down three target drones with as many Standard SM-1 missiles. After more than two weeks of intensive training, the warship sailed for home, arriving in Pearl Harbor on 30 April.

Although originally scheduled for an overseas deployment in June, the warship delayed her departure until September so she could join the Nimitz (CVN-68) battle group. Her crew spent the summer testing new maintenance procedures, passing safety inspections, and taking the warship to sea for exercises such as the combined American, Australian, Canadian, and Japanese "RimPac 88" battle problems held between 7 and 17 July. Finally embarking on her deployment on 20 September, the warship joined Waddell, Hepburn, Barbey (FF-1088), Kiska (AE-35), and Willamette (AO-180) in Battle Group "Bravo" for the voyage west to the Persian Gulf. After a stop at Subic Bay between 7 and 11 October, the group conducted a few days of gunnery practice at the Tabones range in the Philippines before sailing to Hong Kong for liberty. Departing the British Crown Colony on the 20th, the battle group headed south, navigated the Malacca Strait, and passed into the Indian Ocean. From there, the warships took up station in the northern part of the Arabian Sea on 30 October.

Although the "tanker war" in the Persian Gulf had ended on 20 August with the cease-fire between Iran and Iraq, American warships still patrolled the region, replacing tanker-escort duty with general "zone defense." Benjamin Stoddert remained in the Arabian Sea for the first 10 days of this mission before receiving a brief availability alongside Prairie at the Masirah anchorage between 10 and 16 November. From there, she moved to the Strait of Hormuz and relieved Antietam (CG-54) as patrol ship there. Turning over that patrol station to California (CGN-36) on 2 December, the warship returned to the Arabian Sea for another 10 days with Battle Group "Bravo". After 56 days at sea, the crew displayed palpable relief when the guided-missile destroyer put into Abu Dhabi for a three-day port visit on 14 December. While returning to her unit on the 18th, Stoddert provided medical assistance to three injured crew members of the British merchant vessel British Trident. Shortly thereafter, the group sailed east, passing through the Malacca Strait and anchoring at Singapore on 31 December.

Following a six-day port visit, the group steamed back into the Indian Ocean for a quick drop south of the equator on 9 January 1989 before returning through the Strait of Malacca on the 19th. The warships then steamed north into the South China Sea for four days of ASW exercises with units of the Royal Thai Navy, followed by a three-day visit to Pattaya Beach, Thailand. Benjamin Stoddert then sailed independently for Subic Bay, arriving there on 1 February to begin a week-long upkeep and maintenance availability dedicated to main propulsion plant repairs. Departing the Philippines on 8 February, Stoddert steamed across the Pacific and moored in Pearl Harbor on 21 February.

At the end of a four-week post-deployment standdown, the guided-missile destroyer began preparations for a series of engineering and general survey inspections set for late spring. Those inspections ended late in June, and July passed relatively slowly, marked by an overnight "tiger cruise" for crew dependents on the 18th, and a port visit to Hilo, Hawaii, between 19 and 25 July. A week after that, Benjamin Stoddert departed Pearl Harbor for two weeks of law enforcement operations with the United States Coast Guard. The warship used her surface search radars and other equipment to spot small craft, which were then boarded by Coast Guard detachments in search of drug smugglers. Back in port on 11 August, Stoddert spent the next week training submarine prospective commanding officers.