Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

About the Ship's Name

History

Homeports of USS Michael Monsoor

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001)

USS MICHAEL MONSOOR is the second of three guided missile destroyers newly developed for the US Navy. These ships are multi-mission ships with the focus on land attack. Their unique design aims on a low radar profile. The MICHAEL MONSOOR is the frist ship in the Navy to bear the name. At a cost of more than $4 billion per unit, these ships were designed around their two Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) using Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) ammunition. The problem: the AGS can only fire LRLAP ammunition and after the Navy's decision to build only three ZUMWALT-class ships, the cost for a single round of the new LRLAP went up to $800,000 to $1 million. As a consequence, the Navy halted its procurement of the LRLAP in November 2016, leaving the AGS unusable due to the lack of ammunition.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS MICHAEL MONSOOR memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Namesake:

Petty Officer Second Class Michael Anthony Monsoor was born April 5, 1981 in Long Beach, Calif. Michael grew up in Garden Grove, Calif., as the third of four children of George and Sally Monsoor. He has an older brother James and older sister Sara, and a younger brother Joseph.

Michael attended Dr. Walter C. Ralston Intermediate School and Garden Grove High School where he played tight end on the Argonaut football team and graduated in 1999. An incredible athlete, Mike enjoyed snowboarding, body boarding, spear fishing, motorcycle riding, and driving his Corvette. His quiet demeanor and dedication to his friends matched the “Silent Warrior” SEAL mentality that was to become his calling in life.

Michael enlisted in the U.S. Navy on March 21, 2001, and attended Basic Training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill. Upon graduation from basic training, he attended Quartermaster “A” School, and then transferred to Naval Air Station, Sigonella, Italy for a short period of time.

Petty Officer Monsoor entered Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training in Coronado, Calif., and subsequently graduated with Class 250 on Sept. 2, 2004 as one of the top performers in his class. After BUD/S, he completed advanced SEAL training courses including parachute training at Basic Airborne School, Fort Benning, Ga., cold weather combat training in Kodiak, Alaska, and six months of SEAL Qualification Training in Coronado, graduating in March 2005. The following month, his rating changed from Quartermaster to Master-at-Arms, and he was assigned to SEAL Team 3 Delta Platoon. He deployed with his platoon to Iraq in April 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and was assigned to Task Unit Bravo in Ar Ramadi.

From April to Sept. 29, 2006, Mike served as a heavy weapons machine gunner in Delta Platoon, SEAL Team 3. During combat patrols he walked behind the platoon point man with his Mk 48 machinegun so that he could protect his platoon from a frontal enemy attack. Mike was also a SEAL communicator. On 15 operations, he carried a rucksack full of communications equipment in addition to his machinegun and full ammunition load-out. Collectively it weighed more than 100 pounds. He bore the weight without a single complaint, even in the midst of the 130 degree Western Iraqi summer.

Mike and his platoon operated in a highly contested part of Ramadi city called the Ma’laab district. During their deployment, Mike and his fellow SEALS came under enemy attack on 75 percent of their missions. On May 9, 2006, Mike rescued a SEAL who was shot in the leg. He ran out into the street with another SEAL, shot cover fire and dragged his comrade to safety while enemy bullets kicked up the concrete at their feet. For this brave action, he earned a Silver Star.

The enemy could not deter Michael and his SEAL platoon. They fought in 35 heated firefights; during these incidents Mike shot tens of thousands of 7.62 millimeter rounds to cover Delta Platoon’s movement through streets that seemed to be paved with fire. In the Ma’laab district, Michael perfected his skills as an urban machine gunner. Once he and his men established a sniper overwatch position, he deftly transitioned to his role as a SEAL communicator calling in tank support and transmitting enemy situation reports to the 1-506 PIR Commander.

Delta Platoon executed a broad spectrum of combat operations in and around Ramadi. They patrolled bravely through the city streets engaging in firefights while on other occasions, they ambushed insurgent mortar teams near the banks of the Euphrates River. Mike and his fellow SEALs accounted for 84 enemy fighters killed in action and the detainment of numerous insurgents. Most notably, the Army Infantry, Navy SEAL and Iraqi Army combined force helped to pacify the most violent city in Al Anbar province setting conditions for the Sunni Awakening.

Petty Officer Monsoor was subsequently awarded the Bronze Star as the Task Unit Ramadi, Iraq Combat Advisor from April to September 2006. His leadership, guidance and decisive actions during 11 different combat operations saved the lives of his teammates, other Coalition Forces and Iraqi Army soldiers.

Petty Officer Second Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor received the Medal of Honor posthumously in a ceremony at the White House April 8, 2008. He received the award for his actions in Ar Ramadi, Iraq on Sept. 29, 2006. On that day, Monsoor was part of a sniper overwatch security position with three other SEALs and eight Iraqi Army (IA) soldiers. An insurgent closed in and threw a fragmentation grenade into the overwatch position. The grenade hit Monsoor in the chest before falling to the ground. Positioned next to the single exit, Monsoor was the only one who could have escaped harm. Instead, he dropped onto the grenade to shield the others from the blast. Monsoor died approximately 30 minutes later from wounds sustained from the blast. Because of Petty Officer Monsoor’s actions, he saved the lives of his 3 teammates and the IA soldiers.

He is survived by his mother Sally, his father George, his sister Sara, and his two brothers James and Joseph.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS MICHAEL MONSOOR History:

USS MICHAEL MONSOOR entered the record in the late-2000s, when the Navy announced in October 2008 that the second ZUMWALT-class destroyer would bear the name of Master-at-Arms Second Class Michael A. Monsoor. The designation tied the ship to the shift in U.S. maritime strategy toward great-power competition after the post-9/11 era, and to a class conceived to push power generation, sensors and survivability beyond the ARLEIGH BURKE baseline.

Industrial work began with module fabrication in Maine in March 2010, using Bath Iron Works' block construction approach. A major external module - the composite deckhouse fabricated by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Gulfport, Mississippi - was delivered by barge the following years and mated to the hull at Bath on November 14, 2014, an integration milestone that concentrated the ship's bridge, radars and exhausts into a low-observable superstructure.

Keel authentication took place at Bath on May 23, 2013, with the namesake's parents, Sally and George Monsoor, serving as keel authenticators. This formalized the ship's identity on the building ways as outfitting and systems installation accelerated through 2013-2014.

By mid-2016, the hull and deckhouse were far enough along to enter the water and proceed toward trials. The ship was christened at Bath on June 18, 2016, with Sally Monsoor as sponsor. The float-off occurred in the same period, moving DDG 1001 into the Kennebec River to begin the final phases of yard work.

Sea-going workups began off the New England coast in late 2017. Builder's trials commenced in December. The ship briefly returned to Bath to correct an electrical/harmonic-filter issue and then resumed trials. Acceptance trials with the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey followed and were completed on February 1, 2018. The Navy took "hull, mechanical and electrical" (HM&E) delivery on April 24, 2018, keeping the plan to sail the ship to California for combat-systems activation.

Post-trial inspection revealed damage to turbine blades in one of the ship's MT30 main turbine generators, prompting an engine replacement alongside at Bath in the summer of 2018. The casualty did not change the West Coast activation plan. After refit, MICHAEL MONSOOR sailed from Maine on November 9, 2018, shaping a track down the East Coast. The ship transited the Panama Canal on November 28, 2018, making port calls at Mayport, Florida; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Cartagena, Colombia; and Panama City, Panama, before reaching San Diego on December 7, 2018. The transit reflected routine geography of a U.S. East-to-West Coast homeport change and offered early checks of the Integrated Power System at sea.

On January 26, 2019, USS MICHAEL MONSOOR was commissioned at Naval Air Station North Island, Coronado, California, with Naval Base San Diego as homeport. Through the year, she entered her Combat System Availability (CSA), the extended post-delivery period in which sensors, weapons, communications suites and the Total Ship Computing Environment are installed, integrated and certified. The creation that spring of Surface Development Squadron One in San Diego provided a local operational framework for the three-ship ZUMWALT class.

In 2020, the ship completed her CSA in March and shifted into an activation/test rhythm - progressively bringing up combat system elements and rehearsing casualty control and recoverability procedures. Much of the activity ran locally in 3rd Fleet waters as the Navy adapted schedules to the global pandemic while maintaining test tempo.

The test pace broadened in 2021. In April, MICHAEL MONSOOR took part in U.S. Pacific Fleet's Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem (UxS IBP 21), an event that paired manned ships with unmanned surface and air systems to explore kill-chain concepts. Alongside the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vessels SEA HUNTER and SEA HAWK and other fleet units such as USS OAKLAND (LCS 24), the destroyer executed scenarios off Southern California. In August, the ship conducted the class's first Aviation Dynamic Interface tests to expand the flight-deck operating envelope. In October, MICHAEL MONSOOR undertook a 33-day underway period that included San Francisco Fleet Week (October 5-11) and torpedo-defense testing, a long at-sea stretch that stressed watchstanding and logistics.

The ship's public profile increased in 2022, as at-sea periods lengthened. In early June, she proceeded up the Columbia River for Portland Rose Festival Fleet Week, mooring downtown and opening for tours alongside USS CORONADO (LCS 4), with community-relations events ashore. From Portland the ship crossed to Hawaii, arriving at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on June 28 to participate in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022. During the harbor phase and the at-sea phase that followed (departing July 12), MICHAEL MONSOOR drilled in large-force training, conducted replenishment at sea with USNS HENRY J. KAISER (T-AO 187), and completed deck-landing qualifications while the broader exercise fielded multi-national anti-surface, anti-air and amphibious serials. Later in the year, the Navy recorded survivability and failure-and-recoverability test events in the ship's log. In September 2022, the Navy marked the ship's "final delivery", the contract milestone that follows activation and test, closing out the principal post-delivery phase.

With final delivery accomplished, 2023 saw continued West Coast employment and preparations for future modernization while the lead ship ZUMWALT (DDG 1000) began her own conversion period in Mississippi. Navy budget and program documents through 2023-2024 confirmed that MICHAEL MONSOOR would receive her Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic-weapon installation during a future availability, sequencing after ZUMWALT and LYNDON B. JOHNSON (DDG 1002).

At sea again in 2024, MICHAEL MONSOOR maintained 3rd Fleet proficiency operations. On February 10, she conducted a replenishment at sea with USNS PECOS (T-AO 197) in the Pacific, a routine but essential evolution for endurance and logistics training, and one that demonstrated the destroyer's ability to integrate with Military Sealift Command oilers.

In early 2025, the ship transitioned from local operations to a Western Pacific deployment. She departed San Diego on March 28, reached Pearl Harbor on April 3, and continued west under 3rd Fleet/INDOPACOM tasking. By July 7, 2025, MICHAEL MONSOOR arrived at Fleet Activities Yokosuka for a scheduled port visit while forward-deployed under Destroyer Squadron 15 in Seventh Fleet, placing a ZUMWALT-class hull once more in the Japan operating area that has seen increased U.S.-ally naval presence amid regional tension points in the East China Sea and Western Pacific. Subsequent Seventh Fleet updates and imagery showed the ship active across the theater through the summer, including port interactions around Okinawa, before returning to operations at sea.

back to top

go to the end of the page

Homeports of USS MICHAEL MONSOOR:

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS MICHAEL MONSOOR Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the MICHAEL MONSOOR under construction at Bath Iron Works in Maine on May 7, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the MICHAEL MONSOOR under construction at Bath Iron Works in Maine on May 4, 2015.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the MICHAEL MONSOOR at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on March 2, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the MICHAEL MONSOOR (right) and her sistership ZUMWALT (DDG 1000) at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on November 29, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the MICHAEL MONSOOR shortly after arriving at Portland, Or., for the Rose Festival on June 9, 2022.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning during an open ship event aboard USS MICHAEL MONSOOR during the Rose Festival at Portland, Or., on June 10, 2022.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows USS MICHAEL MONSOOR at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 10, 2022.

back to top

Back to Destroyers list.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.