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About the Ship's Coat of Arms

About the Name "Clark"

History

Homeports of USS Clark

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USS Clark (FFG 11)

USS CLARK was the fifth ship in the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class and the third PERRY class guided missile frigate built by Bath Iron Works. In the mid-1990th, USS CLARK became part of the Naval Reserve Force and was finally decommissioned on March 15, 2000. The same day, USS CLARK was transferred to the Polish navy where she became the second-largest ship in the fleet. She was recommissioned as ORP GENERAL K. PULASKI. USS CLARK was homeported in Norfolk, Va.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS CLARK. 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 navy blue and gold on the shield of the coat of arms are the traditional colors of the U.S. Navy and the Academy of which Admiral Clark was a graduate. The pheons (arrowheads) represent the three wars in which he served. The upper pheon and wings allude to the ship's airborne weapons systems as well as to the Admiral's career-long interest in naval aviation and his skill as a navigator and battle tactician. The pheons further are symbolic of the weapons system of CLARK, and the ability to strike the enemy from great distances.

The winged sea horse on the crest is a symbol of Admiral Clark's career, relating to his close and long association with the air arm of the U.S. Navy and to his foresight and mastery of the combat tactics of air weapons systems. The thirteen stars denote his World War II campaign participation, the collar bearing the cross represents his highest award, the Navy Cross. The arrowhead refers to his home state of Oklahoma and to his Cherokee Indian heritage; the decresent simulates the initial letter of his last name.

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About the Ship's Name, about Admiral Joseph J. "Jocko" Clark:

"Part Cherokee, part Southern Methodist, but all fighter," Admiral Joseph James (Jocko) Clark, bold aircraft carrier commander and World War II hero, was thus described by the Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison.

The legendary admiral forged a distinguished reputation as a fearless, aggressive leader and brilliant tactician during a 40 year career from service as Deck Officer, to pilot, to Fleet Commander.

Admiral Clark served as Executive Officer of the USS YORKTOWN; then he was designated the first Commanding Officer of two new carriers: USS SUWANEE and the new USS YORKTOWN. Later during World War II, he commanded a carrier task group. During the Korean War he commanded TASK FORCE 77, and was eventually assigned as Commander of the Seventh Fleet.

During World War I, Admiral Clark served on board the cruiser USS NORTH CAROLINA on Atlantic convoy duty. Subsequently, he served on board the USS AARON WARD, which was built at the Bath Iron Works, as was the ship that bears his name. Admiral Clark assumed command of the destroyer USS BROOKS in 1921. In 1925 he was designated a Naval Aviator, and thus commenced the chapter of his career in which he helped to pioneer developments in aviation tactics and doctrine that eventually proved successful in World War II. He was advanced to the rank of Admiral on the basis of the many citations he received in combat during World War II.

Admiral Clark retired from active duty on 1 December 1953. He died 13 July 1971 in St. Albans, New York.

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USS CLARK History:

USS CLARK took shape at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, after the contract award on February 27, 1976; her keel was laid on July 17, 1978, and she entered the Kennebec River on launch day, March 24, 1979. She ran builder's and Navy trials off Maine - including a documented sea-trials period on February 19, 1980 - and commissioned on May 9, 1980, with the short-hull OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class configuration, a single-shaft gas-turbine plant, and a LAMPS I helicopter detachment to give the new frigate the long reach expected for Cold War convoy escort and antisubmarine work.

In her early service the ship quickly moved from post-delivery trials into fleet integration and Atlantic training evolutions centered on anti-submarine warfare, then settled into an East Coast rhythm from her Atlantic Fleet homeport at Mayport, Florida. A dated photographic record shows CLARK returning to Mayport on October 1, 1981, after three weeks of Caribbean training, a typical work-up pattern for PERRY-class frigates preparing for Sixth Fleet duties.

The frigate's first Mediterranean deployment followed in 1982 amid the tense backdrop of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and wider Sixth Fleet contingency operations. During that cruise, CLARK's crew earned the Humanitarian Service Medal for supporting the emergency evacuation of civilians from Lebanon between June 23, 1982 and June 25, 1982. Weeks later, in July 1982 off Spain, the ship conducted a high-stakes rescue at sea, recovering three sailors who had been washed overboard from the aircraft carrier JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67); a fourth was not found. The deployment underscored the PERRY-class's utility as a fast, maneuverable escort that could pivot from presence operations to immediate search-and-rescue under Sixth Fleet tasking.

In 1983, CLARK sharpened her edge in fleet exercises before deploying again. She took part in ReadEx 2-83 from August 15, 1983 to September 15, 1983, with a documented port period at St. Thomas from August 21 to August 25, 1983 - a brief breather before heading back across the Atlantic. She sailed on a combined Mediterranean-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf cruise spanning October 20, 1983 to May 6, 1984, a tour that placed her under Sixth Fleet and Middle East Force control during the apex of the Multinational Force in Lebanon crisis and the final months of the Iran-Iraq War's "Tanker War" at sea. During the Lebanon phase - December 11, 1983 to January 21, 1984 - the frigate received credit toward the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, reflecting contingency patrols and escort duty that kept U.S. and allied shipping moving as shore violence ebbed and flowed.

Stateside in the later 1980s, CLARK continued the mix of training, exercises, and public-facing port calls that characterized Atlantic Fleet operations at the Cold War's end. A dated photo places her in New York for Fleet Week on May 4, 1989, moored at the Manhattan Passenger Terminal alongside the guided-missile destroyer MacDONOUGH (DDG 39), a showcase of surface-force capability at a moment when superpower confrontation was giving way to regional security demands. Around the same period she supported joint Coast Guard-Navy migrant-interdiction tasking in the Caribbean, an emerging mission set that foreshadowed the larger maritime operations off Haiti and in the Straits of Florida in the early 1990s.

The ship's local operating grounds in the early 1990s were the U.S. East Coast and Western Atlantic. On December 16, 1992, during training off Virginia, an F-14 crew was forced to eject. CLARK's embarked helicopter recovered the radar intercept officer while a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter recovered the pilot, an episode that again highlighted the value of a frigate's organic aviation detachment during fast-moving mishaps at sea.

By the spring of 1993, CLARK is documented in her Mayport routine - photographs show her being assisted by the large harbor tug SHABONEE (YTB 833) on April 1, 1993 - before the ship was pulled into the high-tempo operations sparked by the Haitian crisis. In 1994, after the 1991 coup had driven Haiti into deepening instability and triggered mass maritime migration, CLARK operated under U.S. Atlantic Command tasking for Operations Support Democracy and Able Manner from June 24, 1994 to July 18, 1994, contributing to the maritime cordon and interdiction/screening effort off Hispaniola. Those missions formed the immediate prelude to the U.S.-led intervention authorized by U.N. Security Council Resolution 940 and executed as Operation Uphold Democracy beginning September 19, 1994. The frigate's public record also shows a port call at Port Everglades, Florida, on October 22, 1994.

As the PERRY-class aged and the post-Cold War fleet reshaped, CLARK shifted toward reduced-crewing and reserve integration typical of the Naval Reserve Force in the mid-1990s while continuing to meet Atlantic Fleet tasking from the U.S. East Coast. Photographic evidence and public summaries confirm she remained an East Coast unit through the end of the decade. On March 15, 2000, at Naval Base Norfolk, Virginia, USS CLARK was decommissioned and struck. On the same day, she transferred to Poland under the Security Assistance Program and, after Polish work-ups, re-entered service on June 25, 2000 as ORP GENERAL K. PULASKI, extending the hull's seagoing life in NATO service.

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Homeports of USS CLARK:

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USS CLARK Image Gallery:

On March 15, 2000, USS CLARK was decommissioned and transferred to the Polish Navy. On June 25, 2000 - the Polish Navy Day - CLARK was officially renamed ORP GENERAL K. PULASKI. In June 2002, ORP PULASKI participated in BALTOPS 2002. The photos below were taken by me and show the PULASKI at Naval Base Kiel, Germany. The port visit marked the end of the exercise and was conducted from June 21-24, 2002.

The photos below were taken by Rob van Kan and show the USS SIMPSON (FFG 56) and the USS CLARK as ORP PULASKI at Antwerp, Belgium, on April 15, 2006. At that time, both ships operated as part of NATO's SNFL. The photo on the left nicely shows the differences between the PERRY long- and short-hull versions.

The photos below were taken by Michael Doehring and show the ORP GENERAL K. PULASKI at Warnemuende, Germany, on March 1, 2019, while assigned to SNMG1.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ORP GENERAL K. PULASKI departing Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on June 9, 2019, to participate in exercise BALTOPS 2019.

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