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USS Mississippi (CGN 40)

USS MISSISSIPPI was the third ship in the VIRGINIA - class of nuclear powered guided missile cruisers and the fourth ship in the Navy to bear the name. After decommissioning, the MISSISSIPPI was laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Bremerton, WA., until she was disposed of by recycling. USS MISSISSIPPI was homeported in Norfolk, VA.

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Crew List:

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

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USS MISSISSIPPI Cruise Books:

• Commissioning Cruise Book 1979
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1982-83
• Mediterranean and Northern Atlantic Cruise Book 1984-85

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History of USS MISSISSIPPI:

USS MISSISSIPPI, third ship of the four ship VIRGINIA Class nuclear-powered, guided missile cruisers, was commissioned on 5 August 1978 at Norfolk Naval Base, Norfolk, Virginia. Former President Jimmy Carter presided over the ceremonies.

Over the next three years, MISSISSIPPI performed tests and trials, which every new ship goes through. During this time, the ship also went through its first extended training period at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In August of 1981, MISSISSIPPI made her first deployment. MISSISSIPPI was escorting USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) when F-14 fighters from that carrier shot down two Libyan fighter jets. MISSISSIPPI was also called upon during that deployment to patrol off the shore of Egypt after President Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

In 1982, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, awarded MISSISSIPPI the prestigious Battenberg Cup Award for being the best all-round ship in the Atlantic Fleet. The same year, MISSISSIPPI earned the "Battle Efficiency" Award.

In November 1982, the USS MISSISSIPPI departed Norfolk for her second Med Cruise. Thanksgiving that year was celebrated while underway to the Med. Once on station, the ship supported Libyan Freedom of Navigation operations several times, spent Christmas of 1982 on patrol off Beirut in support of the USMC element deployed to the Beirut Airport. The MISSISSIPPI was on the Gun Line off Beirut when the US Embassy to Lebanon was attacked with a terrorist's car bomb on April 18, 1983. The cruiser subsequently provided NGFS target identification and location support to the Marines stationed at the Beirut Airport, and became the only CGN ever to win the "Hook-Em" award for ASW excellence for tracking a JULIETTE Class soviet Submarine literally halfway across the Med. The crew of MISSISSIPPI maintained contact on the submarine for over 48 hours straight. The cruiser returned to Norfolk in late May of 1983.

Also in 1983, MISSISSIPPI received COMSIXTHFLT Battle Force "Top Hand" Award, a Meritorious Unit Commendation, her fourth consecutive excellent in the annual Operation Reactors Safeguards Examination, the Top Hammer Award for top performance in Atlantic Fleet exercise operations, the Old Crow Award for excellence and contributions in electronic warfare, and her second consecutive "Battle Efficiency" Award.
In 1985, MISSISSIPPI earned her third consecutive "Battle Efficiency" Award. This same year, she also received a second Meritorious Unit Commendation for Operation SNAP LOCK.

In 1986, MISSISSIPPI was awarded the Golden Anchor Award for Navy Personnel Retention.

In 1987, MISSISSIPPI received the Silver Star as the runner-up for the Golden Anchor Award.

In September 1987, MISSISSIPPI completed her first overhaul, which included the latest improvements in her Combat Systems Suite, which greatly improved the ship's ability to fight and win "war-at-sea."

Following exercises in the Caribbean in 1988, MISSISSIPPI deployed to the Mediterranean from May to November 1989. During the deployment, MISSISSIPPI provided support to Battle Force Sixth Fleet off the Coast of Lebanon in response to the killing of Marine Corps Colonel Higgins by terrorists. In December, MISSISSIPPI received her fourth "Battle Efficiency" Award.

During 1990, MISSISSIPPI completed three law enforcement operations in the Caribbean, and in August of 1990, deployed as flagship for Commander, Multi-National Maritime Interception Force (MIF) during Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. She completed the seven- month deployment on 31 March 1991, thus setting the record for the ship with the longest operating tempo in any given period. MISSISSIPPI provided Anti-Air Warfare (AAW) escort services for USS NITRO (AE 25) through the Straits of Bab-El-Mandeb to the Gulf of Aden. Upon completing her escort duties, MISSISSIPPI returned to the Red Sea to launch Tomahawk Cruise Missiles at designated strategic and military targets deep inside the country of Iraq.

From May 1991 until August 1992, MISSISSIPPI underwent a comprehensive extended availability at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. During this period, MISSISSIPPI received state-of-the-art New Threat Upgrade Combat Systems Suite, which tremendously enhances MISSISSIPPI's ability to perform a myriad of Anti-Air Warfare functions. MISSISSIPPI also received Tomahawk and Harpoon system improvements, which increased her strike and Anti-Surface Warfare capability.

From September 1992 into 1993, MISSISSIPPI executed three counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean theater, a mission set that reflected the Navy's early-1990s shift toward interdiction and hemispheric security tasks in the Western Atlantic. During this period she also earned a fifth Battle Efficiency ("Battle E") award, and in January 1994 received a second Golden Anchor award for personnel retention.

The Haitian crisis then drew her south. As part of the U.S. response to the 1991 overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, MISSISSIPPI enforced United Nations-mandated embargo measures under Operation Support Democracy, operating off Port-au-Prince. On 23 December 1993 she is documented conducting helicopter operations with Joint Task Group 120.1 while supporting the embargo. She subsequently participated in a focused embargo-enforcement period from 14 July 1994 to 3 August 1994, ahead of the multinational intervention that began on 12 September 1994 and culminated in the peaceful restoration of democratic governance and the handover to international peacekeeping on 31 March 1995.

Beginning in November 1994, MISSISSIPPI entered an intensive work-up for a Mediterranean deployment timed to the accelerating conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. Sailing in early 1995 with a U.S. battle group that included the carrier DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) and the cruiser NORMANDY (CG 60), she took repeated turns as "Red Crown" - the air coordination and control ship - over the Adriatic's Maverick Operating Area during NATO and UN operations Provide Promise, Deny Flight, and Sharp Guard. Her Red Crown periods were precisely dated: 02-18 April 1995, 14-21 May 1995, 11-21 June 1995, 30 June-9 July 1995, 22-27 July 1995, and 22 August-06 September 1995. On 7 April 1995 she intercepted the merchant DAJTI and put aboard a boarding team to inspect the ship for sanction-violating cargo under the Sharp Guard embargo regime. These duties placed MISSISSIPPI at the operational nexus of humanitarian airlift protection, no-fly enforcement, and maritime sanctions during the Bosnian War.

A year later, events in the Florida Straits again brought her to the forefront. After the Cuban Air Force shot down two "Brothers to the Rescue" civilian Cessna 337 aircraft on 24 Februar 1996, the Navy established short-notice maritime security operations. From 25-28 February 1996 and 1-7 March 1996, MISSISSIPPI led a surface action group with TICONDEROGA (CG 47) and JOHN L. HALL (FFG 32) for Operations Sentinel Lifeguard, Standoff IV, and Escort 1-96, monitoring the approaches and escorting a civilian flotilla that laid a wreath at the site of the shootdown. The task underscored post-Cold War crisis response in contested air-sea spaces close to U.S. shores.

With defense budgets curtailing expensive mid-life refuelings for nuclear-powered surface combatants, MISSISSIPPI began her inactivation sequence the following year. She was formally deactivated at Norfolk on 6 September 1996 and decommissioned there on 28 July 1997. Post-service logistics moved the hull to Puget Sound via the Panama Canal in March-May 1998 for placement in the Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program, which concluded on 30 November 2007. A postscript to her service came on 5 May 2003, when her main mast was set at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

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