USS Yorktown (CG-48) - History

History

Yorktown was commissioned on 4 July 1984 at Yorktown, Virginia, and was designed to take advantage of the American Aegis technology. Among its various weapon systems are surface to air missiles (SAMs), anti-ship/anti-submarine missiles, torpedo launchers, and a mounted cannon. Yorktown's first deployment was from August 1985 to April 1986 and, among other things, involved the Achille Lauro hijacker intercept, two Black Sea excursions, and a trio of operations off the Libyan coast.

Yorktown received the Atlantic Fleet's "Top Gun" award for outstanding naval gunfire support in 1987. During the second deployment from September 1987 to March 1988, Yorktown participated in numerous U.S. and NATO exercises, as well as multi-national exercises with Morocco, France, West Germany, Tunisia, and Turkey. It was on this Mediterranean deployment that Yorktown gained worldwide publicity from operations conducted in the Black Sea as part of Freedom of Navigation program. On 12 February 1988, while the Yorktown was exercising the "right of innocent passage" through Soviet territorial waters (a transit which, according to Richard L. Armitage, then Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, "from an operational standpoint" was "not necessary") the Soviet Burevestnik-class frigate Bezzavetnyy (Russian: Беззаветный) intentionally collided with Yorktown with the intention of pushing it out of Soviet territorial waters, in what some observers have called "the last incident of the Cold War".

In 1991, Yorktown was awarded the coveted "Old Crow's" award for electronic warfare excellence. In 1992 Yorktown was honored with the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for superb, sustained combat readiness.

Yorktown served as a stabilizing force during her third and fourth Mediterranean deployments as the world watched the end of the Cold War and the coalition victory in Operation Desert Storm. During the latter of these two deployments Yorktown participated in the first U.S. military exercises with the Romanian and Bulgarian navies, and played a key role in Operation Provide Comfort, which provided humanitarian relief and security for the Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq. In the summer of 1992, Yorktown participated in BALTOPS '92. During this cruise, Yorktown made a highly acclaimed port visit to Severomorsk, Russia, becoming the first U.S. ship to visit that port since the end of World War II.

In 1993, Yorktown was awarded the Commander, Naval Surface Forces, Atlantic Ship Safety Award for a superior safety record. Yorktown has also been awarded two Navy Unit Commendations and a Meritorious Unit Commendation, and is a four-time winner of the coveted Battle Efficiency "E".

Yorktown served as Flagship for Commander, Task Group 4.1, during counter-drug operations in the Caribbean in May - July 1993. In August 1993, Yorktown participated in the joint military exercise Solid Stance in the North Atlantic. Yorktown's operations through the end of 1993 included an October - November excursion to the Caribbean to support the United Nations embargo of Haiti. In April - May 1994, Yorktown returned to the Caribbean as Force Air Warfare Commander during joint Exercise Agile Provider. While in the Caribbean, Yorktown served as flagship for Commander, Destroyer Squadron Six, coordinating a six-ship, twenty-six missile exercise. In the summer of 1994, Yorktown achieved a resounding score of 101 during naval gunfire support qualification.

In August 1994 Yorktown set sail for the Adriatic Sea as flagship for Commander, Standing Naval Forces Atlantic in support of the United Nations embargo of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. During this six-month deployment, Yorktown served as the Air Warfare Commander for the Adriatic Sea, participating in a joint task force of ships from the United States and eight European nations. In May - June 1995, Yorktown proceeded south to serve as Air Warfare Commander for the Caribbean Sea in support of counter-narcotics operations.

In September 1996, Yorktown changed home ports from Norfolk, Virginia, to Pascagoula, Mississippi, after being tasked primarily with supporting operations in the Caribbean and South America.

In May 1997 Yorktown (with a reduced crew aboard) completed a five-month counter-narcotic deployment in the Caribbean followed by test operations with George Washington and her carrier battle group. During these periods Navy Manpower and Analysis Center (NAVMAC) conducted a detailed review of manpower requirements, and Operational Test and Evaluation Force (OPTEVFOR) verified the ship's ability to meet all required operational capabilities in the projected operating environment doctrine for Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

On 25 September 1999 Yorktown departed Pascagoula for a four-month counter-narcotic deployment in the Caribbean. Before beginning patrolling efforts, Yorktown embarked staff members from COMSECONDFLT. Supported by the helicopter detachment, the Second Fleet staff surveyed and photographed another island slated as a potential replacement for training exercises if the Navy was unable to continue at Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. The ship made port calls in Jamaica, Aruba, Cartagena, Rodman, Manta and Cozumel.

In 2000, the ship underwent a dry dock maintenance overhaul in Mobile, Alabama.

As of late 2001, and since commissioning, Yorktown had completed five Mediterranean deployments. The cruiser was last homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Her last deployment (Feb 2004-Aug 2004) was as part of the WASP ESG-2 (Expeditionary Strike Group 2) to the 5th Fleet AOR. She patrolled the Persian Gulf providing security for the Iraqi oil terminals and conducting maritime security operations. Yorktown was decommissioned on 3 December 2004. As of 2008, Yorktown was scheduled to be dismantled in the next five years along with her sisterships Vincennes and Thomas S. Gates. Since her decommissioning, Yorktown has been berthed at the Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is now in drydock at the facility being dismantled (as of August 2012).