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USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114)

USS RALPH JOHNSON is one of the ARLEIGH BURKE Flight IIA guided missile destroyers and the first ship in the Navy named after Marine Corps Private First Class Ralph Johnson.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS RALPH JOHNSON. 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 RALPH JOHNSON memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The light blue represents the Medal of Honor, the dark blue represents the ocean, and the five stars are in the formation of the constellation "Southern Cross" which comes from the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion crest, signifying PFC Johnson's service in the United States Marine Corps. The trident is a traditional naval symbol and the flame emission symbolizes the Integrated Air and Missile Defense system aboard the ship.

The Vietnamese dragon is associated with water and is considered to have authority over life and death. Dragons are responsible for rain, without which life could not continue. The single star above the dragon signifies the life Ralph Johnson saved that earned him the Medal of Honor.

Representing both officer and enlisted, on left side of the crest is the USN Officer's sword and a USN CPO cutlass; on the right side a USMC Officer's Mameluke and a USMC NCO sword.

The ship’s motto stays true to the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion warrior mentality, "CELER SILENS MORTALIS" ("Swift Silent Deadly").

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About the Ship's Namesake:

USS RALPH JOHNSON is the first warship named for Medal of Honor recipient Marine Pfc. Ralph Henry Johnson. Johnson, a native of Charleston, SC., posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Vietnam War. Johnson used his body to shield two fellow Marines from a grenade, absorbing the blast and dying instantly in March 1968. He sacrificed his life to save a fellow Marine and prevented the enemy from penetrating his patrol perimeter.

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USS RALPH JOHNSON History:

USS RALPH JOHNSON was built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where her keel was authenticated on September 23, 2014, her hull launched on December 12, 2015, and her christening held on April 2, 2016. After builder's and acceptance trials, the Navy confirmed she would be commissioned in Charleston, South Carolina, where the ship formally entered service on March 24, 2018, at the Columbus Street Pier. Within weeks she transited to the Pacific via the Panama Canal and moored at her initial homeport, Naval Station Everett, Washington, on April 27, 2018, to begin basic phase training and certification with Destroyer Squadron 9.

Following workups through 2019, RALPH JOHNSON departed the Pacific Northwest on April 15, 2020, for her maiden deployment as part of the NIMITZ (CVN 68) Carrier Strike Group. After Composite Training Unit Exercise in May, she joined the strike group out of San Diego on June 8 and steamed west to Guam, where the ships conducted a "safe-haven liberty" port period under COVID-19 mitigations on June 24. The strike group entered the U.S. 5th Fleet on July 24 and, during the same period, RALPH JOHNSON twice transited the Strait of Hormuz (July 30-31). In the fall, she supported the British-led International Maritime Security Construct as a Coalition Task Force Sentinel escort in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. On December 4, 2020, while operating under Combined Maritime Forces tasking, she interdicted a stateless dhow and seized more than 2,000 pounds of narcotics destined for regional markets - one of several interdictions by coalition units intended to disrupt illicit funding streams. The destroyer completed the long deployment on January 14, 2021, returning to Everett.

On June 18, 2021, the ship held a change of command at Everett as she prepared to forward-deploy: that summer she departed the Pacific Northwest and arrived in Japan on October 4, 2021, to join Commander, Task Force 71/Destroyer Squadron 15 at Yokosuka. As part of Seventh Fleet operations, RALPH JOHNSON conducted presence patrols and theater security cooperation in the Philippine Sea and East China Sea. On February 26, 2022 (local), she executed her first publicly announced Taiwan Strait transit, a routine passage conducted in accordance with international law that underscored high-seas freedoms during a period of elevated cross-strait tensions.

The ship's 2023 operating pattern reflected the forward-deployed rhythm: she called at Sasebo, Japan, on July 22 and again at month's end for logistics, and made a scheduled port visit to Singapore on August 4. On September 4 she conducted a bilateral sail in the South China Sea with BRP JOSE RIZAL (FF 150), a visible manifestation of deepening U.S.-Philippine naval coordination in waters Manila considers within its exclusive economic zone. Five days later, on September 9 (local), RALPH JOHNSON and Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS OTTAWA (FFH 341) completed a north-south Taiwan Strait transit, a combined operation that paralleled expanding U.S.-Canada coordination in freedom of navigation and overflight corridors.

In 2024, she continued high-tempo operations with Seventh Fleet. During March she executed Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training in the Philippine Sea - torpedo onloads and small-boat evolutions highlighted the pre-deployment events - and in early April Japanese defense officials noted U.S.-Japan surface force integration that included RALPH JOHNSON during advanced training with USS AMERICA (LHA 6) and allied units. The destroyer departed Sasebo on July 29 after a logistics stop, visited Busan, Republic of Korea, on August 19 amid stepped-up trilateral security cooperation among the United States, Japan, and South Korea, and conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on August 22. In the autumn she called at Guam during October port periods and returned to Yokosuka on November 8, closing a months-long patrol.

The ship opened 2025 with sustained presence in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. From February 10-12 (local), RALPH JOHNSON transited the Taiwan Strait north-to-south in company with USNS BOWDITCH (T-AGS 62), the first U.S. transit of the waterway publicly confirmed that year. Regional militaries monitored the passage closely as cross-strait signaling intensified. In April, she shifted to the Bay of Bengal to participate in Exercise Tiger TRIUMPH 2025, a U.S.-India joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief - focused amphibious exercise staged from Visakhapatnam and the Kakinada area and led afloat by CTF-70; U.S. Navy participants included USS COMSTOCK (LSD 45) alongside RALPH JOHNSON. The destroyer hosted Indian media during the harbor phase and took part in at-sea serials and an amphibious landing HADR vignette. On May 7 she conducted a logistics visit to Diego Garcia while operating in the Indian Ocean before resuming Seventh Fleet tasking.

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Homeports of USS RALPH JOHNSON:

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USS RALPH JOHNSON Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RALPH JOHNSON during a visit to Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on September 28, 2018.

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