USS Taylor (FFG 50)

USS TAYLOR is one of the many OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class frigates. She is the first ship named in honor to the late Commander Jesse Junior Taylor.

General Characteristics:	Keel Laid: May 5, 1983
	Launched: November 5, 1983
	Commissioned: December 1, 1984
	Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
	Propulsion system: two General Electric LM 2500 gas turbines, two 350 Horsepower Electric Drive Auxiliary Propulsion Units
	Propellers: one
	Blades on each Propeller: five
	Length: 453 feet (138 meters)
	Beam: 47 feet (14.32 meters)
	Draft: 24,6 feet (7.5 meters)
	Displacement: 4,100 tons
	Speed: 28+ knots
	Aircraft: two SH-60 Sea Hawk (LAMPS 3)
	Armament: one Mk 75 76mm/62 caliber rapid firing gun, MK 32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts), one Phalanx CIWS
	Homeport: Mayport, Fla.
	Crew: 17 Officers and 198 Enlisted

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS TAYLOR. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

Click here to view the list.

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Click here to see which USS TAYLOR memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS TAYLOR Cruise Books:

1990 Desert Shield Cruise Book

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Short History of USS TAYLOR:

USS TAYLOR has operated extensively in the Western Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and Southwest Asia Ocean areas. Taylor has made six extended deployments: with NATO's standing Naval Force Atlantic in 1987, to the Arabian Gulf in 1988, in 1990 as part of Operations Desert Shield, in 1992 as part of Operation Southern Watch, in 1994 to the Mediterranean and Red Seas and in 1997 and 2002 with NATO's Standing Naval Force Mediterranean.

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Accidents aboard USS TAYLOR:

Date	Where	Events
September 13, 2007	5 miles off Mayport, Fla.	USS TAYLOR suffers an engineering casualty in auxiliary machinery room 2 resulting in a fire that injures two sailors. At the time of the accident the TAYLOR was conducting combat systems and ship survivability certification tests and had to be towed back to Mayport as a result of the accident.

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USS TAYLOR Patch Gallery:

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About the Frigate’s Name, about Commander Jesse Junior Taylor, U.S. Navy:

Commander Taylor was born in Wichita, Kansas on 16 January 1925. He enlisted in the Navy in October 1942, and served as an Aviation Radioman until the end of World War II with Bombing Squadron VB-II aboard the carrier USS HORNET in the South Pacific.

During the Korean conflict, he returned to the Navy for training as a Naval Aviator and, in May 1952, received his commission as an Ensign. After a tour with Composite Squadron Four, he served as NROTC Instructor at the University of California at Los Angeles. Further flight training and a tour with the Staff of Chief, Naval Air Training followed at NAS Pensacola, Florida. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander while serving with VF-174. He attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and directed the Flight Division of the Bureau of Naval Weapons at St. Louis, Missouri for two years.

In July 1965, LCDR Taylor was assigned to Air Wing 16 aboard the attack carrier USS ORISKANY, and sailed to the Western Pacific. He flew 16 missions between September and November, earning an Air Medal and a Gold Star in lieu of a second award. Advanced to the rank of Commander on 1 September 1965 he had not been officially given the rank at the time of his death.

On 17 November 1965, Commander Taylor was flying his A-1 Skyraider during attacks on a key bridge near the North Vietnamese Port of Haiphong. Ground fire had downed one of the other Navy aircraft, and its pilot had ejected in a heavily defended area. Commander Taylor heard the radio transmission describing the pilot's plight. Realizing that time was of the essence in any attempt to rescue the downed pilot, Commander Taylor made a courageous decision. Although it was not his assigned mission, and having discovered that other rescue aircraft were occupied elsewhere, he took command of the rescue effort.

Commander Taylor proceeded to the scene and found the pilot still in his parachute harness in shallow water. To cover the approach of the rescue helicopter, Commander Taylor attacked the anti-aircraft gun sites despite intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire and the fact that his own plane had sustained damage. The storm of enemy fire made it impossible for the helicopter to rescue the man on the ground. Meanwhile, because of fire in his own aircraft, Commander Taylor was forced to break off his own persistent attacks. Rather than abandon his plane in enemy territory, he elected to try to ditch in the Gulf of Tonkin. However, the fire burned through the wing of his plane, and it crashed before he had time to leave it.

For his heroic determination to save a fellow pilot, even at great risk to his own life, Commander Taylor was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

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USS TAYLOR Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by me. It was taken in Mayport on July 31, 2000.

The photos below were taken by Stefan Karpinski during a port visit of USS TAYLOR to Wilhelmshaven, Germany.

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