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USS Kidd (DDG 993)

USS KIDD was the lead ship of the KIDD - class of guided missile destroyers. These ships were a modified version of the SPRUANCE - class destroyers. Originally built for Iran, the ship was first named KOUROUSH, but after the destroyer's takeover by the U.S. Navy the ship was renamed KIDD, becoming the second ship in the Navy named after Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd.

Decommissioned on March 12, 1998, the KIDD spend the following years berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Philadelphia, PA., until transfered to Taiwan in 2005. There, the KIDD was recommissioned as KEELUNG in December 2005.

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Crew List:

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

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USS KIDD Cruise Books:

• EastPac Cruise Book 1996

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• Click here to read more about the Ship's Namesake - Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd

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USS KIDD History:

USS KIDD originated as an export design for Iran but entered U.S. Navy service after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Keel laying at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, followed on June 26, 1978; launch came on August 11, 1979, and the ship commissioned at Pascagoula on June 27, 1981. She was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet with Norfolk, Virginia, as homeport. After outfitting and trials, KIDD began shakedown on June 29, 1981, routing from Pascagoula toward Norfolk for training and certifications typical of a first-of-class destroyer fitted with twin Mk 26 missile launchers, SM-2 area air defense, Harpoon, and robust NBC and climate-control systems inherited from her hot-weather design origins.

Through 1982, KIDD completed post-shakedown fixes and workups from the Virginia Capes ranges. On December 8, 1982, she deployed for the first time to the Mediterranean and onward to the Indian Ocean under Commander William J. Flanagan Jr. Port visits punctuated the deployment and also signposted the geopolitical currents of the early 1980s Levant and Indian Ocean: Palma de Mallorca; Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War; Catania; then Trincomalee and Mombasa while on Indian Ocean station. She returned via the Med, calling at Benidorm, and moored again in Norfolk on June 2, 1983; that September she received a Battle "E", reflecting readiness across warfare areas.

In early 1984, KIDD sailed again from Norfolk on February 16 to participate in Operation United Effort - battle-readiness maneuvers with Atlantic Fleet and NATO focus - and returned on April 29. The following year began with READEX 1-85 on March 12, followed by Caribbean evolutions from March 28 to April 6 and a pause at Roosevelt Roads. She cleared Gibraltar on April 17 and operated with the Sixth Fleet, visiting Taormina, Gaeta, and Naples. From May 30 to June 3, she joined Sixth Fleet operations in the Black Sea - part of a calibrated Cold War presence - then cut short a port call at Haifa on June 16 as the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 unfolded. After returning to Haifa on July 15, she visited Alexandria and Constanta, re-entered the Black Sea in August, called at Istanbul and Naples, worked the Western Med alongside USS NIMITZ (CVN 68), stopped at Benidorm and Rota, and ended the deployment in Norfolk on October 2, 1985.

During 1986, KIDD's schedule centered on readiness: she got underway January 21 and spent about seven months in anti-air, anti-surface, and anti-submarine exercises, including intensive LAMPS helicopter integration - a natural emphasis for a ship with two-helo capacity and a long-range air-defense role. The Atlantic theater's backdrop included rising U.S.-Libya tensions in the spring. While KIDD's 1986 activities remained training-focused, the fleet's emphasis on strike group defense and interoperability underscored why a KIDD-class flagship destroyer mattered in carrier screens.

By January 1987, KIDD was back at sea for short evolutions - among them an anti-submarine exercise with the Norfolk-based guided-missile destroyer CLAUDE V. RICKETTS (DDG 5) - before shifting to deployment preparations. She departed Norfolk on June 6 for the Middle East Force 3-87 rotation and, after chopping into the Gulf on July 4, assumed a prominent role in Operation Earnest Will, leading the first ten U.S.-escorted convoys of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran-Iraq War's "Tanker War" phase. In October she took part in Operation Nimble Archer, the U.S. response to an Iranian missile strike on the tanker SEA ISLE CITY, as U.S. surface action groups struck Iranian oil platforms used for military purposes. KIDD returned to Norfolk on December 4 and, still in 1987, was awarded another Battle "E".

In 1988, KIDD's year was dominated by post-Gulf Warfighting upkeep, inspections, and Atlantic workups following Earnest Will, as the convoy operation wound down in September. She remained focused on air-defense commander duties within carrier and surface action groups, reflecting the class's role as high-end AAW ships with powerful sensors and twin-arm launchers - capabilities that had proven directly relevant in the constrained and missile-threatened waters of the Gulf.

In 1989, KIDD was again active off the East Coast and preparing for Mediterranean tasking. A Defense Imagery series shows her underway off the Virginia Capes on November 1, 1989, an image snapshot of a ship completing pre-deployment evolutions as the Cold War's European front was about to transform. She continued routine operations into 1990 as the fleet adjusted to the shifting strategic picture.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, quickly reshaped KIDD's trajectory. On August 14, she sortied from Hampton Roads bound for the Persian Gulf as part of the Desert Shield naval buildup that secured sea lines and covered the mass movement of coalition forces. Through the fall she operated with maritime interception forces and mine-threat countermeasures screens that were essential precursors to the air war. With the transition to combat on January 17, 1991, KIDD shifted to Desert Storm tasks - maritime interdiction, mine threat surveillance and avoidance, and air-defense coverage - embarking detachment aircraft to extend her surface search and identification bubble. By the war's end on February 28, she had completed a demanding cycle of Gulf operations in confined waters crowded with coalition combatants and merchant shipping.

Through 1992, KIDD returned to Atlantic duties. In October she deployed for counter-narcotics operations off South America, transited the Panama Canal on November 8, and patrolled Latin American waters with an embarked HSL-34 detachment - illustrative of the post-Gulf War diversification of missions across the surface force. That December, she earned yet another Battle "E", presented at a pierside ceremony by Admiral Isaac C. Kidd Jr.

KIDD's 1993 calendar reflected the fleet's pivot toward the Balkans and evolving joint operations. She conducted Atlantic workups and periods of maintenance while Sixth Fleet and NATO began continuous air and maritime enforcement around the former Yugoslavia. Those preparations flowed directly into KIDD's 1994 deployment: in October she joined Carrier Task Force 60 centered on USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) in the Adriatic. There she contributed to the maritime embargo (Operation Sharp Guard), no-fly enforcement (Operation Deny Flight), and humanitarian air-drop support (Operation Provide Promise) as NATO operations over Bosnia intensified. Her air-defense and command-and-control suite was integral to the layered enforcement posture then in use off the Dalmatian coast.

In 1995, she continued Med and Adriatic tasking as international enforcement matured and NATO refined combined air-maritime procedures. U.S. Navy operational reporting from that period records integrated tracking events using then-new combat systems against ballistic-missile targets - an indicator of the surface force's rapid shift toward theater air defense and joint sensor networks, exercises in which KIDD participated alongside cruisers and amphibious units. The Adriatic missions wound down by mid-1995 as the Bosnia air campaign evolved. KIDD returned to the western Atlantic for maintenance, inspections, and training later that year.

From May 28 to October 10, 1996, KIDD deployed to the Eastern Pacific after transiting the canal once more. The cruise book title captures it plainly - Counter-Narcotics Deployment, Eastern Pacific - signaling coordinated operations with U.S. Coast Guard and partner nations against maritime trafficking routes, a mission that leaned on her helicopters, radar picture, and long endurance. Between interdiction periods she conducted standard composite training and readiness inspections before returning to the Atlantic side for upkeep.

KIDD began 1997 with a public outreach note: she visited Boston from April 16-19 to coincide with the 100th Boston Marathon, then proceeded to Port-au-Prince for a community-relations project ahead of renewed Caribbean counter-narcotics duty. She transited the Panama Canal to the Eastern Pacific on April 30, later reversed course for a brief stop in Charleston, and completed her final deployment when she moored again at Norfolk on June 1, 1997. In her closing year of U.S. service, 1998, she decommissioned at Norfolk on March 12 and was stricken the same day. KIDD's retirement paved the way for eventual transfer: she would later join Taiwan's navy (as KEELUNG) after refit, but her U.S. career - 1981 to 1998 - had already spanned Cold War presence in the Med and Black Sea, convoy leadership through the Tanker War, combat operations during Desert Storm, and evolving enforcement and interdiction missions of the mid-1990s.

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Homeports of USS KIDD:

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USS KIDD Patch Gallery:

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USS KIDD Image Gallery:

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