Ship History
USS Stethem (DDG 63) is the 13th Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyer. Construction of the Stethem began on 18 May 1992 with the ship's keel being laid down at the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi on 11 May 1993. She was launched on 17 June 1994 and was christened Stethem on 16 July 1994 by Mrs. Patricia L. Stethem, the mother of the ship's namesake: Steelworker Second Class (SW2) Robert Stethem, the United States Navy Seabee diver murdered in Beirut during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985. The vessel then transited the Panama Canal and was officially commissioned on 21 October 1995 in Port Hueneme, California. On 15 February 1996 she successfully completed her Post Delivery Test and Trials and was thus cleared for combat operations. She was assigned to her home port, San Diego, California.
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