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USS Duncan (FFG 10)

USS DUNCAN was the fourth ship in the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class but also the first ship in her class to be decommissioned. The frigate’s homeport was Long Beach in California. Stricken from the Navy list on January 5, 1998, the DUNCAN was sold to Turkey on May 4, 1999, for cannibalization of spare parts. On October 4, 2017, the ex DUNCAN was finally sunk as a target in the Black Sea by a Mk-24 Mod. 2 torpedo fired from TCG SAKARYA.

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Crew List:

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

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USS DUNCAN Cruise Books:

• Cruise Book 1991

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Ship's History:

USS DUNCAN entered service at Seattle on 24 May 1980 after construction at Todd Pacific Shipyards and quickly shifted to a Southern California routine of trials, work-ups, and short underway periods out of Long Beach. Through 1980-1982 she completed the standard combat-systems calibrations for early OLIVER HAZARD PERRY - class ships: missile tracking with the MK-92 system, gun shoots, and helicopter deck landing qualifications with LAMPS I SH-2F detachments - interspersed with local port calls along the West Coast and periodic training in the Hawaii operating areas.

In December 1982 the ship encountered heavy weather that revealed a significant superstructure crack; early 1983 was therefore dominated by a repair and upkeep period, followed by refresher training to re-certify engineering, damage-control, and combat-systems teams. On 21 January 1984, DUNCAN transferred to the Naval Reserve Force at Long Beach. From that point through the early 1990s her schedule followed a predictable but busy pattern: Selected Reserve drill weekends, fleet exercises off Southern California, and periodic runs to Hawaii for integrated anti-submarine and air-defense events. Short Selected Restricted Availabilities kept hull, machinery, and combat systems aligned with class baselines, while the crew maintained proficiency across maritime interdiction, helicopter operations, and replenishment at sea.

A highlight of the mid-1980s was participation in the Rim of the Pacific series: during RIMPAC '88 DUNCAN operated from Pearl Harbor in June-July 1988 for the multi-national at-sea phases and spent time in port alongside other FFGs during the harbor period. Through the late 1980s she continued West Coast and Hawaiian evolutions, including multi-ship underway periods with oilers and amphibious ships that exercised coordinated replenishment, screen tactics, and acoustic search plans - typical for a short-hull PERRY that lacked towed-array sonar but trained extensively with embarked LAMPS dets and shipboard sonars.

In the early 1990s DUNCAN remained a Long Beach-based reserve frigate with frequent local underway periods and occasional community-relations port visits. She took part in Port of Hueneme Harbor Days in October 1992 and visited Sitka, Alaska, the same month for Alaska Day events, reflecting the ship's outreach role alongside routine readiness tasks. In February-July 1993 her operating area shifted south into the eastern Pacific drug-transit zones. During March 1993 the crew rendered assistance to four Ecuadorian fishermen and towed their disabled boat into Manta, Ecuador, while continuing maritime security patrols and law-enforcement support with embarked Coast Guard personnel. Equator crossings that spring and summer, marked by traditional ceremonies, highlighted the extent of her patrol box.

The frigate's final two active years were devoted to sustaining certifications, completing inspections, and preparing for inactivation as post–Cold War force levels declined. After an inactivation availability and turnover preparations in late 1994, USS DUNCAN decommissioned on 17 December 1994. She was later struck from the Naval Vessel Register and, in 1999, transferred to Turkey as a source of spare parts for that navy's PERRY-class force. In 2017, the ex-DUNCAN was used in a sinking exercise in the Black Sea, closing the record of a ship whose US service - while relatively brief - spanned early class shakedown, Reserve Force training on the West Coast, a major multi-national exercise in the central Pacific, public outreach port calls, and eastern-Pacific patrols with documented search-and-rescue and law-enforcement support.

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Homeports of USS DUNCAN:

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USS DUNCAN Image Gallery:

The photo below is an official US Navy photo taken on May 31, 1996. It shows the DUNCAN laid up at the Pearl Harbor Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility.

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