USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119)

Huntington Ingalls Industries Photo by Lance Davis.

USS DELBERT D. BLACK is one of the ARLEIGH BURKE Flight IIA guided missile destroyers and the first ship in the Navy named after Master Chief Petty Officer Delbert Black, the first Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON).

General Characteristics:	Awarded: June 3, 2013
	Keel laid: June 1, 2016
	Launched: September 8, 2017
	Commissioned: September 26, 2020
	Builder: Northrop Grumman Ship Systems' Ingalls Operations, Pascagoula, Miss.
	Propulsion system: four General Electric LM 2500 gas turbine engines
	Propellers: two
	Length: 508,5 feet (155 meters)
	Beam: 67 feet (20.4 meters)
	Draft: 30.5 feet (9.3 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 9,200 tons full load
	Speed: 32 knots
	Aircraft: two SH-60 (LAMPS 3) helicopters
	Armament: one Mk-45 5"/62 caliber lightweight gun, two Mk-41 VLS for Standard missiles and Tomahawk ASM/LAM, one 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two Mk-32 triple torpedo tubes for Mk-50 and Mk-46 torpedoes, two Mk 38 Mod 2 25mm machine gun systems
	Homeport: Mayport, Fla.
	Crew: approx. 320

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The Shield:

The colors dark blue and gold are the traditional colors associated with the United States Navy. Crossed cannons were the initial rating insignia of Delbert D. Black and, also, symbolize his promotion to Master Chief Gunner's Mate. This position would evolve into Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON), represented by the anchor and stars of the MCPON badge. Three white wavy bars denote the functions of his position: to counsel the highest ranks of the Navy on issues associated with enlisted guidance, leadership and policy.

The Crest:

The eagle is displayed as seen on the obverse of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and bears on its chest the suspension of the medal, honoring Master Chief Black for his dedication, outstanding performance and contributions to the US Navy.

Supporters:

The crossed Navy enlisted cutlasses symbolize MCPON Black's career and his position as the highest rated enlisted man in the Navy.

The Motto:

The hull numbers "BB-37" (USS OKLAHOMA) and "BB-46" (USS MARYLAND), represent Delbert Black's home state and the ship he served on during the attack on Pearl Harbor, respectively. "ANCHORED IN ARMS" inscribed in part on the Headstone of Delbert D. Black. "ANCHORED IN THE ARMS OF GOD" is inscribed on the headstone in full.

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Accidents aboard USS DELBERT D. BLACK:

Date	Where	Events
March 29, 2019	Pascagoula, Miss.	While under construction, DELBERT D. BLACK suffers significant damage when a heavy-lift ship collides with a barge moored alongside the DELBERT D. BLACK. The new destroyer suffers damage to its hull and superstructure including internal flooding. Damages were estimated to be around $10-15 million USD.

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About the Ship's Name:

USS DELBERT D. BLACK is named for the first Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Delbert D. Black. MCPON Black enlisted in the US Navy on March 14, 1941, and was assigned to the USS MARYLAND (BB 46), based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was present when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and assisted in the defense of the fleet and subsequent recovery of those vessels deemed too damaged or unable to support.

Following his tour on MARYLAND, he served on 8 additional ships, for a total of 21 years spent at sea. In 1967, he established the position of Senior Enlisted Advisor of the Navy, which was changed to Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy three months later. While MCPON, he oversaw the establishment of the Senior Enlisted Advisor position, which eventually became known as the Command Master Chief.

The creation of programs during his tenure, to include full time billets for Career Counselors, expansion of uniform wear guidance, sea-pay increases and civilian clothing being allowed on ships, helped boost the retention and career advancement in a time the Navy was losing manpower.

MCPON Black passed away on March 5, 2000. He is survived by his wife, Ima, their son Donny, and two grandsons.

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USS DELBERT D. BLACK History:

The destroyer USS DELBERT D. BLACK entered U.S. Navy planning under the name announcement on March 13, 2015, honoring the Navy's first Master Chief Petty Officer, and moved quickly into construction at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Her keel was authenticated on June 1, 2016, by sponsor Ima Black, marking the formal start of assembly of the Flight IIA "technology insertion" hull. Hull and systems integration advanced through 2017. The ship was launched at Ingalls on September 8, 2017, and christened on November 4, 2017, in a ceremony led by Mrs. Black at Pascagoula. Those milestones positioned the new destroyer for the final phases of construction and test ahead of delivery.

A major setback occurred on March 29, 2019, when the heavy-lift ship HAWK collided with a test barge that was alongside the nearly complete destroyer, forcing the barge into DELBERT D. BLACK and causing significant damage to her superstructure and hull. An NTSB brief later described the event and estimated overall damages in the tens of millions of dollars. Ingalls and the Navy repaired the ship and resumed trials in early 2020. After builder's trials in February, the ship completed formal acceptance trials on March 12, 2020, and the Navy accepted delivery on April 24, 2020. Ingalls then executed the "sail-away" from Pascagoula in late summer.

Commissioning took place at Port Canaveral, Florida, on September 26, 2020, after the destroyer departed the Gulf Coast and headed for her Atlantic Fleet homeport at Naval Station Mayport. With commissioning complete, the crew shifted to post-delivery workups and the scheduled post-shakedown availability which was contracted to BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair and planned to conclude by July 2021, focusing on correcting trial-card deficiencies and integrating approved engineering changes. On completion, the ship returned to the fleet training cycle to prepare for first deployment.

In spring 2022, the destroyer appeared in Fleet Week Port Everglades, a public-outreach stop that came near the end of her basic and integrated training phases. On August 2, 2022, DELBERT D. BLACK got underway from Mayport for her maiden cruise with Destroyer Squadron 26 and CARRIER STRIKE GROUP TEN centered on USS GEORGE H. W. BUSH (CVN 77), heading for the European and Middle East theaters amid heightened NATO vigilance following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The transit into the U.S. Fifth Fleet was operational from the start. After working a tactical movement with the Egyptian Navy and transiting the Suez Canal, the destroyer joined USS NITZE (DDG 94) to recover two U.S. Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vehicles that an Iranian vessel had attempted to divert in the Red Sea - an early illustration of routine U.S. supervision of unmanned systems in contested waters. During "Operation Unified Takedown" (August-October 2022), the ship conducted multiple VBSS evolutions for maritime security and interdiction. On September 28, 2022, she seized 7,200 kilograms of hashish from a fishing vessel in international waters of the Gulf of Oman, part of the Combined Maritime Forces' counter-narcotics effort that targets illicit funding streams for violent non-state actors. Command of the ship passed from Cmdr. Mark Gallagher to Cmdr. Adam Stein in Qatar on October 5, 2022.

Through November 2022, the crew earned the right to fly the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist pennant, then took up a prolonged security station off Doha for FIFA World Cup 2022, a regional defense mission coordinated with partners to deter threats to a global event hosted in the Gulf. In parallel, the destroyer served as Fifth Fleet Ballistic Missile Defense Commander and successfully detected and tracked multiple ballistic-missile launches, while also participating in a series of unmanned-systems trials (Phantom Scope, Digital Horizon, Phantom Strike, and Sentinel Shield) integrating AI-enabled maritime monitoring - reflecting the theater's rapid experimentation with manned-unmanned teaming.

Rotational patterns shifted in early 2023 as the ship rejoined the GEORGE H. W. BUSH strike group in the Mediterranean. DELBERT D. BLACK participated in NATO's vigilance activity NEPTUNE STRIKE 23.1 and the anti-submarine exercise DYNAMIC MANTA 23 off Italy and Sicily - large allied events designed to practice coordinated carrier and ASW operations while Russian naval movements through the theater remained elevated. Port calls during the cruise included Rota, Doha, Manama, Dubai, and Civitavecchia, reflecting the ship's split employment between Sixth and Fifth Fleets. DELBERT D. BLACK returned to Mayport on April 23, 2023, concluding roughly eight months deployed across the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Middle East.

On December 1, 2023, the destroyer surged back to sea on short notice to reinforce the U.S. presence in the Mediterranean as conflict flared in the Levant following the October 7 Hamas attacks and subsequent regional tensions. During this EUCOM deployment, the ship made a logistics stop in Rota on December 13, 2023, and transited the Strait of Gibraltar the next day to continue tasking under U.S. Sixth Fleet. She exited the Mediterranean and reentered the Atlantic in late January 2024, and completed the surge with a return to Mayport on February 18, 2024.

Following the surge, the ship entered a maintenance and modernization rhythm typical of a post-deployment destroyer. On June 7, 2024, the Navy awarded BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair an "ISRA/SSP SERM-506-24" package for repairs, preservation, and incremental modernization at Mayport. In late July and early August 2024, DELBERT D. BLACK visited Rockland, Maine, serving as a public-tour ship during the Maine Lobster Festival before resuming local operations and maintenance in the Western Atlantic.

After returning to Mayport on September 2, she got underway again on September 16, off-loaded ammunition at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown from September 17 to September 20, and returned to Mayport on September 21. As Tropical Storm Helene approached Florida, she sortied from Mayport on September 24 for storm avoidance and returned on September 28. During October, she shifted piers within Naval Station Mayport and entered a Selected Restricted Availability that lasted about four months, marking a maintenance and regeneration period after her North Atlantic and Arctic activity.

On February 28, 2025, DELBERT D. BLACK departed Mayport for sea trials following that availability, returned briefly on March 2, and continued post-maintenance testing and local underways through March and April. She trained off the Virginia Capes in early May, loaded ammunition at Yorktown from May 6 to May 7, and returned to Mayport on May 9. On May 27, 2025, Cmdr. Ezra T. Hatch relieved Cmdr. Jeremiah M. Chase as commanding officer. That same day, the ship departed for Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training and Group Sail as part of the USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH carrier strike group workup cycle. During that period, she visited Norfolk from June 1 to June 6 and again from June 24 to June 25 before returning to Mayport on July 2. Further local operations followed in August and September, including another Norfolk visit from September 14 to September 19 before her return to Mayport on September 21.

In early October 2025, DELBERT D. BLACK took part in the Navy's "Titans of the Sea" Presidential Review in the Virginia Capes area with USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH and other surface combatants. After returning to Mayport on October 7, she got under way again on October 18, called at Norfolk on October 20, and entered Task Force Exercise 26-2 on October 23 in the Cherry Point and Jacksonville operating areas. During that exercise, she conducted flight operations with an MH-60R from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 46.1 on October 29 and replenished from USNS LEROY GRUMMAN (T-AO 195) on October 30. She returned to Mayport on November 14 and remained there through December preparing for deployment.

The deployment began on January 3, 2026, when DELBERT D. BLACK left Mayport. She loaded ammunition at Yorktown from January 5 to January 9, stopped at Norfolk from January 9 to January 10, visited Las Palmas from January 18 to January 19, transited the Strait of Gibraltar on January 21, and reached Souda Bay on January 24 for ammunition onload and refueling before departing on January 26. She transited the Suez Canal on January 28 and arrived at Eilat, Israel, on January 30 for a port visit lasting until February 1, during which she hosted U.S. embassy and Israeli Navy personnel and conducted engagements tied to the U.S.-Israeli maritime partnership. She then arrived at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on February 4 for Exercise Indigo Defender 2026, a bilateral exercise with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces West Fleet, and returned to Jeddah again from February 12 to February 15.

By late February 2026, DELBERT D. BLACK had entered combat operations. On February 28, she fired a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile during Operation Epic Fury against targets in Iran. A second Tomahawk strike followed just after midnight on March 2, and she replenished from USNS HENRY J. KAISER (T-AO 187) on March 3.

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Homeports of USS DELBERT D. BLACK:

Period	Homeport
commissioned at Port Canaveral, Fla.
2020 - present	Mayport, Fla.

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USS DELBERT D. BLACK Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the DELBERT D. BLACK under construction at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Ingalls Operations, Pascagoula, Miss., on October 17, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS DELBERT D. BLACK at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on October 12, 2023.

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