USS Bainbridge (CGN 25)

- formerly DLGN 25 -
- decommissioned -

USS BAINBRIDGE, the world's first nuclear frigate and the fourth ship in the Navy to bear the name, was powered by two pressurized water reactors, and carried two twin Terrier missile launchers, two twin 3" .50 caliber radar controlled gun mounts, two torpedo mounts, an ASROC launcher, and was equipped with state of the art electronics and communications suites. In April 1964, during her second Mediterranean deployment, she joined USS LONG BEACH (CGN 9) for the first time and later in May, along with USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65), formed the world's first nuclear powered task group, Task Group 60.1. She entered dry dock at Mare Island Shipyard in August 1967 for her first refueling. In 1974 she began a 27 month shipyard modernization and overhaul in Bremerton, Wash. While in the shipyard, her 3" .50 caliber guns were removed and replaced with 20mm cannons, she received the AN/SPS-48 radar, and the Naval Tactical Data System was installed. Additionally, the aft superstructure was constructed and an additional level was added on the forward superstructure to support the SLQ-32. On June 30, 1975, BAINBRIDGE was redesignated a cruiser during the Navy's reorganization of ship designations; DLGN 25 became CGN 25. After deactivation, BAINBRIDGE was towed to Norfolk Naval Shipyard for defueling and preparation for the final movement of the hull to Bremerton, Washington.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: September 1, 1958
	Keel laid: May 15, 1959
	Launched: April 15, 1961
	Commissioned: October 6, 1962
	Decommissioned: September 13, 1996
	Builder: Bethlehem Steel, Quincy, Mass.
	Propulsion system: two D2G General Electric nuclear reactors
	Length: 565 feet (172.2 meters)
	Beam: 58 feet (17.7 meters)
	Draft: 26 feet (7.9 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 9,250 tons full load
	Speed: 30+ knots
	Aircraft: none, only VERTREP capable
	Armament: two Mk-10 missile launchers for Standard missiles (MR), two Mk-141 Harpoon missile launchers, two armored box launchers for Tomahawk ASM/LAM, Mk-46 torpedoes from two triple mounts, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, one Mk-16 ASROC missile launcher
	Crew: 42 Officers, 516 Enlisted

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Crew List:

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

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

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USS BAINBRIDGE Cruise Books:

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Accidents aboard USS BAINBRIDGE:

Date	Where	Events
June 28, 1989	off Den Helder, Netherlands	USS BAINBRIDGE runs aground off the Dutch coast after calling at the port of Den Helder.

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Click here to read more about the Ship's Namesake - Commodore William Bainbridge

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USS BAINBRIDGE History:

USS BAINBRIDGE entered service at the height of the Cold War as the world's first nuclear-powered "frigate" (designation DLGN), commissioned on October 6, 1962, after construction at Bethlehem Steel's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Following trials and shakedown in the western Atlantic and Caribbean through early 1963, she began her first Mediterranean deployment on February 5, 1963, with the U.S. Sixth Fleet. There she demonstrated sustained high-speed capability and operated alongside the nuclear carrier ENTERPRISE (CVN 65), including a "high-speed dash" proof-of-concept that prefigured an all-nuclear task group. She also took part in the Sixth Fleet exercise "Fair Game" that year.

Her second Mediterranean tour in spring 1964 set the stage for the first all-nuclear surface task group. After forming up with ENTERPRISE and LONG BEACH (CGN 9), BAINBRIDGE departed the Med on July 31, 1964, to begin Operation Sea Orbit, a 65-day, unrefueled circumnavigation. The itinerary combined port visits and "fly-in" dignitary calls: among the calls were Rabat, Dakar, Freetown, Monrovia, Abidjan, Mombasa, Karachi, Fremantle (where BAINBRIDGE moored on August 31 for a two-day visit), Wellington, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rio de Janeiro. Detached on September 30, BAINBRIDGE returned to Charleston on October 3, 1964, having demonstrated that a nuclear task force could relocate globally without logistics stops.

With the Vietnam War escalating, BAINBRIDGE sailed from Charleston on October 25, 1965, for her first Western Pacific combat deployment. She arrived off Vietnam on November 26, 1965, and immediately took up carrier-screening, radar picket, plane-guard, and search-and-rescue duties for Task Force 77. During one notable segment she patrolled in the Gulf of Tonkin from March 20 to April 1, 1966, and executed rapid repositioning runs that underlined the value of nuclear endurance and speed. On June 21, 1966, she shifted homeport to Long Beach, California, to support continued Seventh Fleet operations.

Her second WestPac began in December 1966. She then entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard for her first refueling and overhaul from October 2, 1967, to May 10, 1968. Returning to combat, BAINBRIDGE deployed again from January 6 to July 2, 1969, screening KITTY HAWK (CVA 63), BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA 31), and TICONDEROGA (CVA 14) during sustained strike operations. The fourth WestPac followed April 8 to November 10, 1970, marking the start of regular Indian Ocean presence tasks as U.S. forces probed beyond Southeast Asia. A fifth cruise, May 26 to November 23, 1971, again centered on Tonkin Gulf carrier support - this time including ORISKANY (CVA 34), MIDWAY (CVA 41), and ENTERPRISE - before a sixth cruise from September 12, 1972, to April 4, 1973, carried her through the period of the January 1973 Paris Peace Accords and the drawdown of combat at sea. A seventh WestPac, November 18, 1973, to March 31, 1974, extended into the Arabian Sea, reflecting growing U.S. interest in the Indian Ocean following the 1973 Middle East crisis.

From June 30, 1974, to September 24, 1976, BAINBRIDGE underwent a $103-million complex overhaul and refueling at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. During this modernization she received major combat-system upgrades - including NTDS, new radars and electronic warfare suites, and structural changes to the superstructure - and on June 30, 1975, as part of the Navy-wide reclassification, she was redesignated a guided-missile cruiser, CGN 25. Post-overhaul trials concluded in April 1977, and on April 14, 1977, she arrived at her new homeport of San Diego.

BAINBRIDGE resumed Seventh Fleet service with an eighth WestPac from January 10 to August 9, 1978, followed by a brief yard period and a ninth WestPac from August 8, 1979, to March 7, 1980. Her tenth WestPac, February 27 to September 21, 1981, included humanitarian work in the South China Sea, where she rescued more than 50 Vietnamese "boat people". An eleventh WestPac, September 1, 1982, to April 29, 1983, saw her integrated with the ENTERPRISE battle group in the Indian Ocean/Arabian Sea. Besides another rescue of 51 refugees, she assisted in the rescue of 318 workers from a capsized oil platform off India - an episode that highlighted the versatility of a high-end air-defense cruiser in maritime safety tasks.

A final Pacific refueling and modernization followed from October 23, 1983, to April 1985 at Puget Sound. She received SPS-49 long-range radar, two Phalanx CIWS, SLQ-32 electronic warfare suites, and TACAN URN-25. With the refueling complete, BAINBRIDGE shifted to the Atlantic Fleet in mid-1985, transited the Panama Canal, and soon afterward began Caribbean counter-narcotics patrols, northern-European exercises, and Mediterranean deployments. In 1986-1987, she served with Sixth Fleet formations during a period that included operations in and around the Gulf of Sidra and the April 1986 strikes on Libya. U.S. Naval Institute reporting at the time noted BAINBRIDGE among Atlantic Fleet units newly in theater during the Eldorado Canyon period.

Mediterranean and northern-European duties continued through 1988-1989. During a visit to the Netherlands she grounded off the Dutch coast after departing Den Helder on June 28, 1989, an incident from which she recovered to continue operations.

In 1990, BAINBRIDGE was tasked to an unusual but strategically sensitive escort mission: Operation Steel Box, the joint U.S.-West German effort to remove more than 100,000 U.S. chemical munitions from Germany to Johnston Atoll for destruction. After the cargoes were loaded at Nordenham and the two Military Sealift Command auxiliary crane ships - GOPHER STATE (T-ACS 4) and FLICKERTAIL STATE (T-ACS 5) - sailed on September 22, 1990, BAINBRIDGE rendezvoused to serve as ocean escort for the non-stop, refueled-at-sea voyage around Cape Horn to the Pacific, a routing chosen for security reasons. Her presence underscored the Navy's role in arms-control implementation at the end of the Cold War.

The cruiser's 1991-1992 deployment began with Sixth Fleet duties and a south-to-north transit of the Suez Canal on February 27, 1992, as she moved with the DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) battle group between the Red Sea/Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean in the post-Desert Storm security environment. Soon afterward, she joined the large NATO exercise "Teamwork '92" in the Norwegian and Barents approaches (February-March 1992), crossing the Arctic Circle and working in a multi-national setting that emphasized integration of air-defense command-and-control at sea.

By 1994, BAINBRIDGE was operating as a flagship within Standing Naval Force Atlantic during the Adriatic sanctions and no-fly-zone era over the former Yugoslavia. As part of Operation Sharp Guard she conducted and supervised more than 100 compliant maritime interdiction boardings to enforce U.N. sanctions, and in Operation Deny Flight she served as "RED CROWN", coordinating the air-warfare picture over Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Adriatic-roles aligned with her long-range air-surveillance and SM-2 engagement capabilities.

After a final European deployment in early 1995, including port calls such as Bremerhaven noted in contemporaneous accounts, BAINBRIDGE offloaded her missiles at Yorktown in April 1995 and was inactivated in October. She was decommissioned on September 13, 1996, then towed to Bremerton. Defueled and prepared, she entered the Navy's Ship-Submarine Recycling Program on October 1, 1997, with dismantlement completed on October 30, 1999.

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Homeports of USS BAINBRIDGE:

Period	Homeport
commissioned at Quincy, Mass.
1962 - 1966	Charleston, SC.
1966 - 1977	Long Beach, CA.
1977 - 1985	San Diego, CA.
1985 - 1996	Norfolk, VA.

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USS BAINBRIDGE Image Gallery:

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