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USS Porter (DDG 78)

USS PORTER is the 28th ARLEIGH BURKE class guided missile destroyer and the fifth United States Navy ship to named in honor of Commodore David Porter and Vice Admiral Davis Dixon Porter.

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Crew List:

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

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USS PORTER Cruise Books:

• Mediterranean and Arabian Sea Cruise Book 2007-08
• Mediterranean and Arabian Sea Cruise Book 2009-10

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USS PORTER History:

USS PORTER was laid down at Ingalls in Pascagoula on December 2, 1996, launched on November 12, 1997, and commissioned at Port Canaveral on March 20, 1999. After trials and shakedown, she entered her post-shakedown availability at Ingalls from August 20 to November 12, 1999, before resuming workups on the U.S. East Coast. In November 2000, she departed Norfolk on her maiden deployment with the USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) battle group, transiting the Suez Canal on December 26, 2000, to the U.S. Fifth Fleet for Operation Southern Watch. Through early 2001, she screened the carrier and conducted maritime security and air-defense duties in the Red Sea and northern Arabian Sea. The carrier group's schedule included Mediterranean stops such as Marmaris and anchorage off Rhodes in May. PORTER returned to Norfolk on May 23, 2001, and spent the remainder of the year in post-deployment maintenance and training.

In 2002, PORTER joined the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) strike group workups and entered COMPTUEX in January 2003, deploying on February 4, 2003, to the Mediterranean as tensions over Iraq escalated. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, beginning March 19, 2003, she launched Tomahawk land-attack missiles in the opening phase of the war while operating with the ROOSEVELT group in the Eastern Mediterranean. Through March-April she alternated strike support with air-defense and maritime security tasking and completed port calls that spring including Souda Bay (March 4), Koper (April 19-24), and Cartagena (May 15), before returning stateside at the end of May. In 2004, she remained active with U.S. Sixth Fleet, including a late-year visit to Cartagena, Spain, during allied engagements, and in 2005, balanced training with high-visibility public outreach at Fleet Week New York around May 25. The following summer she headed for the North Atlantic to take part in Exercise Neptune Warrior off Scotland in June 2006, honing multi-ship anti-air, anti-surface, and maritime-interdiction skills with allied navies.

Deploying to Fifth Fleet with the KEARSARGE (LHD 3) Expeditionary Strike Group in 2007, PORTER combined maritime security operations with regional port visits, including a notable stop at Mombasa, Kenya, on October 23. Five days later, on October 28, she responded to the hijack of the chemical tanker GOLDEN NORI in the Gulf of Aden, sinking two pirate skiffs with 25-mm fire and then helping to shadow and contain the situation alongside other coalition units until the ship's release in December - an early, visible U.S. Navy action in the modern counter-piracy campaign. Through early 2008, she continued presence operations in the region and later that year earned the CNO Afloat Safety Award (Atlantic Fleet), reflecting a strong safety culture amid sustained tempo. In mid-2009, PORTER deployed again for counter-piracy and maritime security, visiting Bodrum, Turkey, on August 28 during the transit, and returned to Norfolk on March 1, 2010, after seven months at sea. That cruise also showcased the growing use of embarked unmanned systems: her ScanEagle detachment flew more than a hundred sorties for wide-area piracy surveillance off the Horn of Africa.

Later in 2010, PORTER turned north for high-latitude operations, heading above the Arctic Circle to Baffin Bay and the Davis Strait for Canada's Operation NANOOK in August, working alongside USCGC ALDER and Canadian and Danish vessels on Arctic security and emergency-response scenarios. In 2011, she focused on stateside maintenance and basic-to-integrated training ahead of her next deployment. In 2012, she joined Carrier Strike Group 12 for Fifth Fleet operations but collided with the Japanese-owned tanker OTOWASAN near the Strait of Hormuz on August 12. After temporary repairs in Jebel Ali, she rejoined the strike group on October 12 for the return through the Suez Canal. A larger repair package followed in 2013 to complete structural and systems restoration and return the ship to full readiness in the Atlantic Fleet.

From 2014 into early 2015, PORTER prepared for forward deployment to Europe, arriving at Naval Station Rota, Spain, on April 30, 2015, as one of four destroyers assigned permanent ballistic-missile defense and theater-security roles for U.S. Sixth Fleet. In Rota she executed frequent patrols from the Mediterranean to the Black and Baltic Seas, integrating with NATO air and maritime forces and supporting standing maritime groups. In 2016, she received the first-of-class installation of the Mk-15 SeaRAM launcher aft and successfully completed the Navy's initial live firing from a destroyer in March - an urgent-need self-defense upgrade for ships operating near advanced cruise-missile threats - while continuing a high-tempo FDNF-E schedule that year. The ship's performance across anti-submarine, air-defense, and overall readiness earned her the 2016 DESRON 60 Battle "E" and the Atlantic Fleet ASW "Bloodhound" Award.

On April 7, 2017, PORTER and USS ROSS (DDG 71) executed the U.S. strike on Syria's SHAYRAT Air Base from the Eastern Mediterranean with Tomahawks, a limited, time-boxed response to the chemical attack at Khan Shaykhun on April 4. Afterwards, PORTER resumed routine patrols and training, including a port visit to Souda Bay on October 17. In 2018, she continued a steady drumbeat of Sixth Fleet operations, including participation in Exercise Sea Breeze in the northwestern Black Sea alongside Ukrainian and allied units, and routine patrols that emphasized freedom of navigation and interoperability with Black Sea navies. In 2019, she completed training at the UK's Flag Officer Sea Training and took part in Joint Warrior 19-1 before returning to Rota in April. Later that summer, on August 8, she entered the Black Sea again, maintaining consistent U.S. presence during a period of heightened NATO-Russia friction.

Through 2020, PORTER sustained one of the fleet's busiest operational tempos despite COVID-19 constraints, entering the Black Sea in April for maritime security operations, conducting a multinational photo exercise on April 23 in the central Mediterranean with ITS FEDERICO MARTINENGO and U.S. assets, and performing an April 28 replenishment at sea in company with USS DONALD COOK (DDG 75) and USNS SUPPLY (T-AOE 6). She reentered the Black Sea on June 19 to take part in Sea Breeze 2020 - her third Black Sea foray that year - and in late June executed a NATO maneuvering and air-defense series with Romanian frigate REGINA MARIA before a late-June PASSEX with the Tunisian Navy in the central Mediterranean. In 2021, she kept up the same cadence: in February she ran a "war-at-sea" exercise with the Hellenic Navy south of Crete; in October she joined Italy's Mare Aperto serials in the Tyrrhenian Sea and then operated with USS MOUNT WHITNEY (LCC 20) during a port call in Batumi, Georgia, on November 8. On December 17 she reentered the Black Sea to close out her 10th FDNF-E patrol. Across these late-FDNF years PORTER routinely mixed air-defense, anti-submarine, and maritime-security tasking, integrating U.S. P-8A patrol aircraft and working side-by-side with allied frigates and destroyers.

In 2022, she joined the large BALTOPS series in the Baltic before completing her final Rota patrol that summer. She departed Rota on September 28 and arrived in Norfolk on October 9, concluding seven years and eleven Sixth Fleet patrols as a forward-deployed destroyer. Back under SURFLANT, PORTER quickly resumed Atlantic operations: in February-March 2023, she made port visits at Funchal, Rostock, and Tallinn while working with northern-European partners, and later in the spring participated in NATO's Formidable Shield event around the Hebrides range to sharpen integrated air and missile defense and live-fire proficiency. She returned to Norfolk from a four-month Sixth Fleet deployment on June 16, 2023, after two intense months in the Baltic conducting passing exercises and combined operations with navies from Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Estonia.

In 2024, the destroyer shifted hemispheres with the GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) Carrier Strike Group for Southern Seas 2024 under U.S. Fourth Fleet, executing a circumnavigation of South America with multinational engagements. On June 5, 2024, PORTER transited the Strait of Magellan alongside USS GEORGE WASHINGTON and USNS JOHN LENTHALL (T-AO 189), then continued combined operations and port visits with regional partners in Brazil, Chile, Peru and others before the task group completed the mission on July 4.

Early in 2025, PORTER operated in the Western Atlantic with East Coast forces and, in April 2025, entered an extended dry-dock selected restricted availability at Norfolk under a General Dynamics NASSCO contract, a yard period scheduled to carry her modernization and deep maintenance into 2026 as she prepares for the next operational cycle.

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Homeports of USS PORTER:

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About the Ship's Name, about Commodore David Porter and Vice Admiral Davis Dixon Porter:

Commodore David Porter:

David Porter, born 1 February 1780 in Boston, Mass., served in the Quasi War with France first as midshipman on board Constellation, participating in the capture of L'lnsurgente 9 February 1799; secondly, as 1st lieutenant of Experiment and later in command of Amphitrite. During the Barbary Wars (1801-07) Porter was 1st lieutenant of Enterprise, New York and Philadelphia and was taken prisoner when Philadelphia ran aground in Tripoli harbor 31 October 1803. After his release 3 June 1805 he remained in the Mediterranean as acting captain of Constitution and later captain of Enterprise. He was in charge of the naval forces at New Orleans 1808-10. As commander of Essex in the War of 1812, Captain Porter achieved fame by capturing the first British warship of the conflict, Alert, 13 August 1812 as well as several merchantmen. In 1813 he sailed Essex around Cape Horn and cruised in the Pacific warring on British whalers. On 28 March 1814 Porter was forced to surrender off Valpariso after an unequal contest with the frigates HBMS Phoebe and Cherub and only when his ship was too disabled to offer any resistance. From 1815 to 1822 he was a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners but gave up this post to command the expedition for suppressing piracy in the West Indies 1823-25. Commodore Porter resigned his commission in 1826 and became the commander-in-chief of the Mexican Navy 1826-29. He died on 3 March 1843 while U.S. Minister of Turkey.

Vice Admiral Davis Dixon Porter:

He was born on June 8, 1814, and was a native of Pennsylvania. He was the youngest son of David Porter, who commanded the Essex in the war of 1812-14 with Great Britain. Young Porter entered the service as midshipman in February, 1829, and served in the Mediterranean until 1835, when he was employed for several years in coast survey and river explorations. At the close of 1845 he was placed on special duty at the Washington observatory, resigning in 1846 to take part in the Mexican war. At the outbreak of the late war he was promoted to the rank of commander, and in 1862 the mortar fleet for the bombardment of the forts below New Orleans was placed under his orders. Vice Admiral David Dixon Porter spent much of 1862-1863 along the Mississippi River and in smaller Mississippi Rivers, including the Yazoo, the Coldwater, the Tallahatchie, and the Yalobusha. He directed campaigns against a long list of Confederate positions in the Mississippi Delta, from he Grand Gulf batteries, to the Chickasaw Bluffs to Miliken's Bend and Port Hudson. After the capture of New Orleans he went up the river with his fleet, and was engaged in the unsuccessful seige of Vicksburg in July, 1862. During the second siege of that place, in the summer of 1863, he bombarded the works and materially assisted Gen. Grant, who commanded the besieging army. For this he made rear admiral. Porter did not leave Mississippi until his successful support of General Grant's siege of Vicksburg was completed with General Pemberton's surrender in July 1863. For his Civil War service, Porter received four letters of thanks from Congress, and was promoted to Vice Admiral in 1866.

He was also engaged in the two combined attacks on Forth Fisher, which commands the approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina. The first of these attempts, at the close of 1864, miscarried; the second, in January, 1865, was completely successful. In July, 1866, he was made vice-admiral, and after the death of Farragut, was promoted, October, 1870, to the rank of admiral, which carried with it the command of the entire navy of the United States, subject only to the order of the president. Admiral Porter urged the importance of protecting the coast approaches to all the large cities of the United States, with heavily armored minitors, carrying the heaviest guns.

David Dixon Porter was nearly forgotten because his career and accomplishments have often been misinterpreted, when, in fact, he was arguably the foremost naval hero of the Civil War. Though Porter rose faster through the ranks, commanded more men and ships, won more victories, and was awarded more Congressional votes of thanks than any other officer in the U.S. Navy, historians have been influenced by his own postwar accounts, which were flawed by an unquenchable ego, thin skin, and a burning desire to vindicate his equally controversial father. David Dixon Porter was a firebrand hero of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Fort Fisher. His unique tactics and techniques rank among the most imaginative and successful in naval history. The crew onboard Porter's flagship encountered daring, brilliant attacks against the punishing batteries at Vicksburg and Fisher and costly failures at Steele's Bayou and Red River. David Dixon Porter held critical strategy meetings with Sherman and Grant, and a thrilling chase up and down the coast of South America after Semmes on the CSS Sumter. David Dixon Porter was a talented fighter and colorful personality with a marvelous sense of humor, earning respect and friendship from the likes of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman, but drew the ire of political generals like Butler, Banks, and McClernand. He was a potent mix of energy, ambition, courage, and creativity with rash behavior, paranoia, and a taste for intrigue.

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Accidents aboard USS PORTER:

Date	Where	Events
August 12, 2012	Strait of Hormuz	USS PORTER collides with the Japanese-owned and Panamanian-flagged bulk oil tanker MV OTOWASAN at approx 1 a.m. local time. At the time of the collision, PORTER had just entered the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz while OTOWASAN was about the depart the Gulf for the Arabian Sea. PORTER suffers extensive damage to her forward starboard hull but no injuries are reported on either ship. Following the collision, PORTER pulled into Jebel Ali, U.A.E. for damage assessment. The photos below are official US Navy photos taken from the USS GUNSTON HALL (LSD 44) which was travelling with the PORTER.

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USS PORTER Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Brian Barton and shows USS PORTER at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on July 23, 2002.

The photo below was taken by me and shows the USS PORTER at Naval Base Norfolk on November 9, 2008.

The photos below were taken by me and show the PORTER during overhaul at Norfolk, Va., on October 27, 2010.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the PORTER at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 8, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the PORTER at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 23, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Philip Petersen and me and show the PORTER at Naval Base Faslane, UK, on April 11, 2015 (first photo), and departing Faslane the next day to join exercise Joint Warrior 151. The PORTER left Norfolk, Va., on March 27, 2015, to take part in Joint Warrior. After the exercise, PORTER will not return to Norfolk, but will shift her homeport to Rota, Spain, where she is scheduled to arrive in late April.

The photos below were taken by me and show the PORTER at Naval Base Clyde, Faslane, UK, on October 8, 2016, before joining exercise Joint Warrior 162. Note that the PORTER has recently received a number of updates: Her SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System has been upgraded with the Navy’s Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 (visible below the bridgewing). Also, her aft Phalanx CIWS has been replaced with a SeaRAM System making the PORTER the first ship in her class to carry the system. New as well are the two tubes amidships on the starboard side at the forward stack as well as the four tubes on the portside at the aft stack on partly newly installed platforms.

The photos below were taken by me and show the PORTER departing Naval Base Clyde, Faslane, UK, on October 9, 2016, to join exercise Joint Warrior 162. Note that the PORTER has recently received a number of updates: Her SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare System has been upgraded with the Navy’s Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 (visible below the bridgewing). Also, her aft Phalanx CIWS has been replaced with a SeaRAM System making the PORTER the first ship in her class to carry the system. New as well are the two tubes amidships on the starboard side at the forward stack as well as the four tubes on the portside at the aft stack on partly newly installed platforms. These tubes are part of PORTER's Surface Ship Torpedo Defence (SSTD) system.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS PORTER at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 4, 2024.

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