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USS Ramage (DDG 61)

USS RAMAGE is equipped to operate in a high-density, multi-threat environment as an integral member of a carrier battle group or surface action group. In addition to her own self-defense capabilities in air warfare (AW), undersea warfare (USW), and surface warfare (SUW), RAMAGE can effectively provide local area protection to the battle group, surface action group, and other ships.

Following the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC., on September 11, 2001, the commanding officer and the crew of USS RAMAGE requested the flag of the NYPD to be flown as battle ensign on their ship to commemorate the heroic work of the policemen in New York City.

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Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

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

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USS RAMAGE Cruise Books:

• Mediterranean and Arabian Sea Cruise Book 2015-16

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USS RAMAGE History:

USS RAMAGE was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on January 4, 1993, launched on February 11, 1994, christened by Barbara Ramage on April 23, 1994, and commissioned in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 22, 1995. After post-shakedown work and training out of Norfolk, the destroyer commenced her first overseas deployment on November 25, 1996, a Mediterranean cruise marked by theater engagement port calls and routine Sixth Fleet operations that earned unit awards for the period. In March 1997, RAMAGE shifted to crisis support as unrest in Albania escalated into a non-combatant evacuation operation. Embarked U.S. Marines of the 26th MEU conducted "Operation Silver Wake" from amphibious ships while RAMAGE provided offshore logistics and communications support to the force moving evacuees through Tirana, with the destroyer coordinating closely with the amphibious ship USS NASHVILLE (LPD 13). On July 21, 1997, she took a ceremonial role off Massachusetts Bay, serving as an escort when the museum ship USS CONSTITUTION conducted a rare turn-around sail under her own power.

The ship's second extended cruise began on May 24, 1999, when RAMAGE deployed with the THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) battle group for "MED/MEF 2-99", covering the Mediterranean and Arabian Sea during the closing phase and immediate aftermath of NATO's air campaign over the former Yugoslavia. Operating off Montenegro, she supported allied maritime operations linked to the endgame of Operation ALLIED FORCE and subsequent stabilization tasks as NATO enforced new arrangements under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.

After the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, RAMAGE sortied to the U.S. East Coast operating areas and provided extended Aegis radar coverage over New York City and adjacent air corridors under Operation Noble Eagle while civil aviation was tightly controlled and air defense vigilance surged. She subsequently returned to forward operations with the GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) Surface Strike Group, deploying to the Arabian Sea during 2004 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. That surge year saw RAMAGE integrate into the multi-carrier "Summer Pulse 2004" construct and take part in the Spanish-hosted NATO exercise NEO TAPON '04 in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, before moving into the CENTCOM theater for Gulf security evolutions that included the maritime exercise IRON SIREN '04, working alongside U.S., NATO, and regional partner units.

By 2006-2007 RAMAGE was again in Fifth Fleet waters for sustained Gulf security patrols amid Iraq-war-era maritime interdiction and coastal defense missions. She then joined the IWO JIMA (LHD 7) Expeditionary Strike Group for a Persian Gulf deployment in August 2008, participating in the large Saudi-led amphibious/defense exercise RED REEF and in focused maritime security operations under the banner of TRIDENT KNIGHT, while conducting port visits across the region before returning to Norfolk in April 2009. In the autumn immediately following, the destroyer operated in northern European waters during the multinational exercise JOINT WARRIOR off Scotland. Later, while pierside at Gdynia, Poland, on October 28, 2009, a maintenance mishap led to an accidental three-round burst from an M240 machine gun that struck a warehouse with no injuries reported - after cooperating with local authorities, RAMAGE departed on her originally scheduled timeline.

Deploying again on January 5, 2010, RAMAGE moved rapidly to the Eastern Mediterranean after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashed into the sea off Beirut on January 25, 2010. She assisted the multinational search-and-rescue and then remained on station as a ballistic-missile-defense (BMD) asset, combining theater security cooperation with port calls at Naples, Haifa, Turkish ports including Kusadasi, Bodrum, and Aksaz, and visits to Limassol, Rhodes, Augusta Bay, and Ponta Delgada before returning home on August 6, 2010.

In early 2011, RAMAGE worked up on the U.S. East Coast and on January 22, 2011, participated in Atlantic Trident 2011 off Virginia with USS MONTEREY (CG 61) and USS GONZALEZ (DDG 66), executing an Aegis tracking event that prefaced the year's ballistic-missile-defense (BMD) tasking. On May 20, 2011, RAMAGE departed Naval Station Norfolk for a scheduled BMD deployment to the U.S. Sixth Fleet area. The deployment centered on Eastern Mediterranean BMD stationing and routine Sixth Fleet maritime security. While deployed, the ship conducted a change of command in Rhodes, Greece, on August 12, 2011, reflecting the ship's sustained presence in the Central/Eastern Med during that rotation. After roughly eight months abroad, RAMAGE returned to Norfolk on January 27, 2012, and subsequently underwent a seven-month Extended Drydocking Selected Restricted Availability (E-DSRA) at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair.

As the Syrian civil war intensified and the Ghouta chemical-weapons attack on August 21, 2013, raised the prospect of U.S. punitive strikes, RAMAGE sailed from Norfolk on August 7, 2013, and arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean on August 23. She joined a rotation of BURKE-class destroyers - BARRY (DDG 52), MAHAN (DDG 72), and GRAVELY (DDG 107) - to maintain a Tomahawk-armed presence while Washington weighed options. Within days STOUT (DDG 55) surged to the area as a fifth destroyer and the group remained poised as part of broader allied signaling. On October 28, 2013, RAMAGE and GRAVELY responded to a distress call from a migrant vessel approximately 160 nautical miles off Kalamata, Greece, coordinating with Greek authorities in a humanitarian task emblematic of the wider migration crisis.

In early 2014, Sixth Fleet positioned U.S. ships to backstop security around the Sochi Winter Olympics, while RAMAGE continued Mediterranean tasking and, later that year, underwent testing and evaluation at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. In November 2015, she deployed for an extended tour that combined BMD duty with escort and sea control in support of the HARRY S. TRUMAN Carrier Strike Group as it launched sustained air operations against ISIS from the Eastern Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf. RAMAGE completed numerous transits of the Strait of Hormuz during this period and returned to Norfolk on July 25, 2016.

Immediately afterward, the destroyer entered an "out-of-homeport" Extended Selected Restricted Availability at her builder's yard in Pascagoula under a NAVSEA contract awarded September 12, 2016, a yard period focused on maintenance, repair, and modernization that wrapped up on schedule by August 2017. The Navy later described the Pascagoula availability as part of a wider effort to better balance private-yard capacity on the East Coast.

Following workups, RAMAGE answered short-notice presidential tasking in the autumn of 2018 to provide offshore security presence and radar surveillance during the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, operating in the approaches to the Rio de la Plata around November 29-December 1, 2018, as Argentina and regional partners secured air and sea space for the event.

On August 20, 2019, the ship departed Norfolk as an independent deployer, tasked principally with maritime security and ballistic-missile defense for Sixth and Fifth Fleet commanders. In September she made a brief, symbolically significant visit to Beirut - widely noted as the first U.S. destroyer port call to Lebanon in decades - before resuming operations that carried her through the Mediterranean and into the Middle East during a tense period marked by Iranian proxy activity and regional missile threats. RAMAGE returned to Norfolk on March 26, 2020, concluding a deployment that touched the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Fleet areas and foregrounded BMD stationing, escort duties, and theater cooperation.

The destroyer spent much of 2020-2022 in maintenance and training cycles around Norfolk, including a July 16, 2021, change-of-command, as Atlantic Fleet surface forces rotated units forward to Rota, Spain, and as the Navy refined readiness for a resurgent Atlantic-Mediterranean security environment. In 2023, RAMAGE joined the GERALD R. FORD (CVN 78) Carrier Strike Group for an extended Sixth Fleet deployment. She sailed in May, and over 214 days at sea the ship executed 40 replenishments at sea, logged more than 400 helicopter landings, and steamed in excess of 50,000 nautical miles. Port visits included Trieste, Italy, and Limassol, Cyprus, and the destroyer took part in allied air-defense and surface exercises with Italian units, including operations in company with the Italian carrier ITS CAVOUR. Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, the GERALD R. FORD strike group redeployed quickly to the Eastern Mediterranean for deterrence and crisis response, with RAMAGE maintaining air-defense and sea-control duties within that posture until the group returned to Norfolk in early December.

In 2024, the Navy moved to place RAMAGE into a Docking Selected Restricted Availability, part of the continuing sustainment cycle that will keep early-flight ARLEIGH BURKEs relevant through new radar, combat system, and hull-mechanical-electrical upgrades. In parallel, Navy leadership announced plans to extend the service life of select Flight I destroyers. For RAMAGE, that translates into at least a 2035 horizon for operations, ensuring continuity of BMD coverage, integrated air and missile defense, and escort capacity across the Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters as the security environment remains dynamic.

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Homeports of USS RAMAGE:

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About the Destroyer’s Name, about Vice Adm. Lawson P. Ramage:

USS RAMAGE honors naval war hero Vice Admiral Lawson P. Ramage who distinguished himself as a submarine commander in World War II. For his bold leadership of successful war patrols, he was awarded the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross (two awards).

His first command was the USS TROUT which engaged in successful war patrols in the area of Midway, Truk, the Solomons and the South China Sea. On August 28, 1942, Ramage intercepted a Japanese task group consisting of the light carrier TAIYO (OTAKA), plus cruisers and destroyers. Ramage closed TROUT to short range and fired five torpedoes at the carrier, scoring several hits, the first ever on a Japanese aircraft carrier.

He assumed command of the USS PARCHE (SS 384) in July 1943 and led her through four war patrols in the Southern Pacific theater. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during a pre-dawn attack by the PARCHE on a Japanese convoy on July 31, 1944.

During the remainder of his naval career, he served in numerous key Navy leadership positions including Commander First Fleet and Commander-in-Chief of the Military Sea Transportation Service. VADM Ramage retired from service in the Navy in 1970. He died on April 15, 1990 at his home in Bethesda, Maryland.

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USS RAMAGE Patch Gallery:

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USS RAMAGE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 29, 2010.

The photos below were taken by me and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 6, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 8, 2014, just four days after she returned from a 9-month deployment.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on April 29, 2015.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 6, 2015.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 12, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 4, 2017.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on September 21, 2018.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on December 26, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the RAMAGE at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on September 6, 2022. Note the incorrectly displayed red engineering "E" award on the ship's bridgewing. The "E" is shown with 5 service stripes, meaning that RAMAGE has won the award in six consecutive years. However, these awards are only displayed with four service stripes. Instead of a fifth stripe, all previous stripes are removed and a star of the same color (in this case red) is displayed above the "E".

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