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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia About the Ship's Coat of Arms About the Ship's Name Patch Gallery History Image Gallery to end of page |  |
USS GALLERY was the 18th ship in the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class of guided missile frigates. The ship was homeported in Mayport, FL. After being decommissioned the frigate was sold to the Egyptian Navy on September 25, 1996, and was recommissioned as TABA.
| General Characteristics: | Awarded: February 28, 1977 |
| Keel laid: March 17, 1980 | |
| Launched: December 20, 1980 | |
| Commissioned: December 5, 1981 | |
| Decommissioned: June 14, 1996 | |
| Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine | |
| Propulsion system: two General Electric LM 2500 gas turbines, two 350 Horsepower Electric Drive Auxiliary Propulsion Units | |
| Propellers: one | |
| Blades on each Propeller: five | |
| Length: 445 feet (133.5 meters) | |
| Beam: 45 feet (13.5 meters) | |
| Draft: 24,6 feet (7.5 meters) | |
| Displacement: 4,100 tons | |
| Speed: 28+ knots | |
| Aircraft: one | |
| Armament: one Mk 13 guided missile launcher (36 Standard (MR) and 4 | |
| Crew: 17 Officers and 198 Enlisted |
back to top go to the end of the pageback to top go to the end of the pageCrew List:
This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS GALLERY. 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 Shield:
The colors, green and gold, and the rampant lions have been adapted from a personal device of the Gallery family. The lions, symbolic of courage and strength, face in different directions, indicating that the brothers, for whom this ship is named, RADM Daniel V. Gallery, RADM Philip D. Gallery, and RADM William O. Gallery, served in both theatres of operation during World War II. The stars allude to their many awards, and denote excellence and achievement. The crossed swords, adapted from the Officer and Enlisted badges, allude to Naval Combat Operations.
The Crest:
Blue and gold are the colors traditionally associated with the Navy. The upraised arm in green and gold is an adaptation from the Gallery family device. The collared and chained sea- wolf symbolizes the only capture of a U-boat from the German "wolf packs" during World War II. The crest also symbolizes the curbing and destruction of enemy sub activities in the Pacific Theatre. MOTTO: MANU FORTI "With a Strong Hand".
back to top go to the end of the pageAbout the Ship's Name:
The USS GALLERY was named after three brothers, Daniel, Philip and William Gallery, all of whom served in World War II, and subsequently obtained the rank of Rear Admiral.
Rear Admiral Daniel Vincent Gallery (1901-1977):
Rear Admiral Daniel Vincent Gallery earned for himself a special niche in Navy history on 4 June 1944, when a task force he was leading captured the German submarine, U-505, off the West Coast of Africa. It was the only German submarine ever boarded and captured by U.S. Forces, and the first foreign man-o-war captured by the U.S. Navy since 1815.
Because of the havoc the dreaded U-boats had created for Allied Forces during World War II, the capture was hailed as a major coup for the Navy and American Intelligence.
Admiral Gallery was a former Assistant Chief of Naval Operations and former Commander of the Hunter-Killer Force, Atlantic. During World War II, he earned the Bronze Star Medal for combat achievements as Commanding Officer, Fleet Air Base Iceland, and the Distinguished Service Medal for daring and skillful command of an anti-submarine task group built around his escort aircraft carrier USS GUADALCANAL, which sank three enemy submarines in the Atlantic before capturing the German submarine, U-505. Task Group 22.3 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in recognition of this remarkable achievement.
The German submarine is now a major exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL.
Admiral Gallery served on the staff of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations from September 1944 until June 1945. He subsequently commanded the aircraft carrier USS HANCOCK, and then served as Assistant Vice Chief of Naval Operations. He held several other key commands before retiring in 1960.
Admiral Gallery was also a writer, and during his lifetime wrote eight books and numerous articles, that combined his insight as a seasoned Navy veteran with humor. Not only did he write funny tales of the sea, but also penned serious essays and commentaries on the need for a strong Navy.
Famed American novelist Herman Wouk once said, "Daniel V. Gallery is a writer of humor and adventure, who somehow got diverted into becoming an admiral of the line in the United States Navy."
Admiral Gallery's "diversion" earned him the admiration and respect of his countrymen, and a permanent spot in history.
Rear Admiral William Onahan Gallery:
Rear Admiral William O. Gallery was born in Chicago 22 June 1904, and attended school there until he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in 1921. He was commissioned an Ensign in 1925, and assigned to duty in the battleship USS NEW MEXICO until 1927. He was then assigned to duty on the USS FARRAGUT, being detached in 1930 with orders for flight training at Pensacola, Florida.
RADM Gallery completed his training and won his wings in nine months. He was then attached to Patrol Squadron 6. In 1933, he was transferred to the cruiser USS OMAHA as Naval Aviator, serving in that capacity until 1935. from 1935 to 1937 he was assigned to duty in the Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory in Washington, D.C. In 1937 he was assigned as a fighter pilot with Fighter Squadron 6 aboard the USS ENTERPRISE, and from 1939 to 1941 was stationed at the Naval Air Station, Alameda.
At the start of World War II, he was ordered to the Staff of Admiral Kincaid, and, with the staff, he participated in the Battle of Santa Cruz, and was later based ashore at Guadalcanal. On Guadalcanal, he saw action with the First Escort Carrier Task Group. He later joined the famous Black Cats (PBY night raiders) based on the USS HALF MOON (AVP 26). He devised a method of "knocking-off" Japanese night raiders, for which action he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Returning to the United States, he was assigned to the USS CHICAGO as Commanding Officer. He was promoted to the rank of Captain immediately prior to taking command of the CHICAGO. After his tour of duty on the CHICAGO, RADM Gallery was attached to NATTS at Eglin AFB, in the All-Weather Flying Hangar. His next duties in succession were as Commanding Officer of the USS SIBONEY, Commanding Officer, Naval Air Station, Guantanamo, Cuba, and as Deputy Chief of Naval Operation (Air).
From the Bureau he took command of the USS PRINCETON (recommissioned) on 28 August 1950 at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, and retired in June of 1955.
Rear Admiral Philip D. Gallery (1907-1973):
Rear Admiral Philip Daly Gallery was one of the heroic destroyer men of World War II.
Like his brother, Rear Admiral Daniel Gallery, he was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. Prior to service in the Pacific during World War II, he earned the Legion of Merit for his foresight and leadership in the organization and administration of the Anti-Aircraft Training Test Center at Dam Neck, VA.
On 29 December 1943, he took command of the destroyer USS JENKINS, earning a second award of the Legion of Merit and two Bronze Stars for distinguished service and combat achievements during the Marshalls, New Guinea, Philippine, and Borneo Campaigns.
After World War II, he commanded Destroyer Division 72; was Executive Officer of the Naval Powder Factory; and commanded the Fleet oiler USS PASSUMPIC. In 1950, he became Officer in Charge of the Gunfire Support School, then commanded the cruiser USS PITTSBURGH from June of 1953 until December of 1954. He later served as commander of the Surface Anti-Submarine Detachment, and served on the staff of the Commander of Operational Development Force of the Atlantic Fleet until his retirement in 1958.
At the time of his death in 1973, he was associated with the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS GALLERY Patch Gallery:
 |  |  |  contributed by Anthony Schneider |
back to top go to the end of the pageUSS GALLERY History:
USS GALLERY was ordered from Bath Iron Works on February 28, 1977, laid down at Bath, Maine, on May 17, 1980, launched on December 20, 1980, and completed sea trials off the Maine coast on October 29, 1981, before commissioning on December 5, 1981. In her earliest service she entered the Atlantic Fleet frigate force from Mayport and spent the opening years of the 1980s in the normal progression of post-commissioning workups, training, and fleet integration that characterized newly delivered OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class ships. By March 1983 she was already performing the sort of surveillance and shadowing missions common in the late Cold War, with surviving imagery placing her near a Soviet KRESTA II-class cruiser and an accompanying Soviet auxiliary.
Her first clearly documented major overseas deployment came during the escalating instability in the Middle East in the second half of the Iran-Iraq War. On October 7, 1985, she sailed with USS CONOLLY (DD 979), USS TATTNALL (DDG 19), and USS BOONE (FFG 28) for the Middle East, making brief stops at Bermuda, Rota, and Palma de Mallorca before transiting the Suez Canal in late October. On November 6 and 7, 1985, USS GALLERY relieved USS KLAKRING (FFG 42) in the Persian Gulf, after which she took up the recurring radar-picket and escort duties associated with the U.S. Middle East Force, a mission shaped by tanker security, regional deterrence, and the need for a visible but measured U.S. naval presence in waters where commercial traffic, Gulf monarchies, Iran, and Iraq were all entangled in a dangerous and highly internationalized conflict. Through early 1986 she remained part of that forward posture.
USS GALLERY returned to the region again in the late 1980s as Gulf operations intensified and the U.S. Navy's Middle East Force became more deeply involved in convoy protection, patrol, and deterrence. In February 1988, a contemporaneous command-history snippet from USS ELROD (FFG 55) places USS GALLERY in company with USS RICHMOND K. TURNER (CG 20) and USS CARR (FFG 52) during a Strait of Hormuz transit, showing that she was once again operating directly in one of the world's most strategically sensitive chokepoints. In 1989, another official command-history excerpt places her in Middle East Force Exercise 2-89 together with USS ELROD, USS CONNOLY, and USS UNDERWOOD (FFG 36), which fits the broader pattern of regular forward presence, allied reassurance, and maritime security missions in the uneasy period following the Iran-Iraq ceasefire, when the war itself had formally ended but the Gulf remained unstable and heavily militarized. These deployments are further reinforced by contemporary shipboard insignia and later award summaries that connect USS GALLERY to both Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal service and Gulf-related campaign recognition, indicating that her late-1980s and early-1990s employment was not episodic but part of a sustained forward-rotation cycle.
For 1991 and early 1992, the publicly accessible trail becomes thinner, but it still allows a defensible outline. A surviving image caption documents USS GALLERY entering or maneuvering in Genoa, Italy, on September 16, 1991, during a port visit, while another caption places her at Naval Station Mayport on January 4, 1992, moored beside USS JOHN L. HALL (FFG 32). Those two points strongly indicate that she completed a Mediterranean- and Middle East-associated deployment cycle during the year of Operation Desert Storm and its aftermath, then returned to the U.S. East Coast at the start of 1992.
Her next especially well-documented forward deployment unfolded in 1993. On July 1, 1993, USS DE WERT (FFG 45) anchored off Muscat, Oman, and conducted a turnover with USS GALLERY, demonstrating that GALLERY had already been on station in the Middle East Force area. On August 14, 1993, a helicopter from her embarked detachment made the last operational SH-2F Sea Sprite landing aboard USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72), a small but meaningful milestone in naval aviation history that linked the frigate to the closing phase of East Coast LAMPS SH-2 operations. When USS GALLERY returned to Norfolk on November 17, 1993, HSL-32's history identified that homecoming as the end of the last East Coast SH-2 LAMPS deployment, giving her final 1993 cruise an importance beyond her own ship's chronology: she had become part of the transition away from an older but long-serving helicopter system that had been closely associated with the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class frigates.
In the following year, USS GALLERY was tied into the broader Atlantic Fleet training and contingency cycle surrounding USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71). USS GALLERY was among the ships involved in comprehensive intermediate phase training with that battle group, indicating that she was still fully integrated into large-unit Atlantic warfighting preparation. Yet 1994 also brought a very different mission set. During Operation Sea Signal, the U.S. military was tasked with supporting the mass processing, housing, security, and movement of Cuban and Haitian migrants at Guantanamo Bay. Officially released imagery dated August 24, 1994, shows sailors aboard USS GALLERY standing guard over Cuban migrants on her deck, directly tying the frigate to migrant-support operations during Sea Signal V.
USS GALLERY remained active through 1995 under Commander Ralph M. Rikard until March 1995, before entering her final phase of service under Commander Bruce A. Rasmussen. By then, the Atlantic Fleet was already beginning to contract its frigate force and redistribute ships across bases that were themselves being reevaluated in the post-Cold War drawdown. USS GALLERY's own final months reflect that larger trend. She was decommissioned on June 14, 1996, after nearly fifteen years of commissioned U.S. Navy service, and was later transferred to Egypt on September 25, 1996, where she entered further service as TABA.
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