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USS Doyle (FFG 39)

USS DOYLE was the 30^th guided missile frigate in the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY - class and the first ship in the Navy named after Admiral James Henry Doyle. USS DOYLE was last homeported in Mayport, Fla. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on July 29, 2011, the DOYLE spent the following years laid up at Philadelphia, Penn. On December 15, 2014, the ship was sold for scrapping to ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Tx.

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Crew List:

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

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USS DOYLE Cruise Books:

• Counter Drug Operations Cruise Book 2005

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History of USS DOYLE:

USS DOYLE was built by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. Her keel was laid on October 23, 1981, she was launched on May 22, 1982, and she was commissioned on May 21, 1983. After fitting out and early trials, she moved into her shakedown period in Caribbean waters. During that first autumn in service she visited St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands from November 4 to November 7, 1983, put into Guantanamo Bay on November 13, 1983, carried out a weapons systems accuracy test off Port Everglades, and on December 13, 1983 conducted torpedo test work on the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center range near Andros Island before returning to Charleston on December 16, 1983.

By the second half of the 1980s, USS DOYLE had moved into the high-tempo Cold War deployment cycle that would define much of her early career. One of the clearest markers is her 1986-1987 Mediterranean cruise with the USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) battle group, during which she deployed from December 30, 1986, to June 30, 1987. During that deployment, she and a guided missile cruiser transited the Turkish Straits from February 24 to March 3, 1987 and operated in the Black Sea in a freedom-of-navigation context at a time when U.S.-Soviet naval signaling in confined waters remained politically sensitive.

By early 1989 she was completing another Middle East Force/Persian Gulf tour. DOYLE was underway in the northern Persian Gulf at the start of the year, rendezvousing with USS MARS (AFS 1), transiting the Strait of Hormuz, suffering an engineering casualty that forced a return to Mina Sulman for a gas-turbine engine changeout, then resuming the westbound voyage through the Gulf of Oman, stopping briefly for fuel at Raysut, passing through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, and making a port visit to Jeddah before transiting northbound through the Suez Canal. She then crossed the Mediterranean with replenishment support from USS KALAMAZOO (AOR 6), anchored at Naples in company with USS AUBREY FITCH (FFG 34), continued west with support from USS NITRO (AE 23), crossed out through Gibraltar, paused at Ponta Delgada in the Azores, and returned to Mayport in March. That same spring she entered Jacksonville Shipyard for a drydocking selected restricted availability after a collision with the tug HELEN D. COPPEDGE during shipyard movements.

Command reports for 1990 shows a ship with unusually high operating tempo even without one single dominant combat deployment: DOYLE's 1990 command history states that she had the highest operational tempo in the Atlantic Fleet that year, and one of the best-documented episodes was her association with the aircraft carrier USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72) during the carrier's round-the-horn transit and South American activities. Reporting tied USS DOYLE to ABRAHAM LINCOLN during the autumn 1990 South American cruise, and naval aviation reporting specifically identified USS DOYLE as an escort during that round-the-horn movement. During the circumnavigation, DOYLE set a new speed record for the class by traveling over 16,000 miles in just 1000 hours underway.

In 1991, she shifted to NATO-focused operations. Her command history records her as underway with Standing Naval Force Atlantic, and later summaries note that during the fall of that year she deployed with elements of STANAVFORLANT while also embarking a CL-227 Maritime Aerial VTOL Unmanned System for operational testing, an unusual point in the evolution of shipboard unmanned systems. USS DOYLE began 1992 back in Mayport in leave and upkeep after returning from a six-month STANAVFORLANT deployment, and in 1993 she moved into northern European operations. Her 1993 command history notes that June was spent visiting several ports in the Baltic Sea, while photo and exercise traces place her in BALTOPS '93, refueling from the German replenishment oiler FGS RHÖN and operating alongside USS DEYO (DD 989) as part of the multinational Baltic exercise series that followed the end of the Cold War and the rapid opening of NATO naval engagement with newly accessible regional partners.

USS DOYLE began 1994 with an executive officer change and a successful aviation certification, then deployed to the Puerto Rico operating area for COMPTUEX with the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) battle group. During that workup she conducted anti-submarine exercises against USS NEWPORT NEWS (SSN 750), fired exercise torpedoes from both ship and helicopter, and eventually completed a successful live SM-1 firing after earlier launcher casualties. February and March were spent in Mayport in an intermediate maintenance availability, followed in April by FLEETEX in the Cherry Point operating area, where the GEORGE WASHINGTON battle group worked with a Marine amphibious readiness group in a simulated landing scenario and USS DOYLE acted in close support, including the engagement of two simulated Boghammer patrol craft.

On May 20, 1994, DOYLE departed Mayport on Mediterranean Deployment 2-94 with the GEORGE WASHINGTON battle group, reached Portsmouth on June 2, and then took part in the fiftieth-anniversary Normandy commemorations, including the pass-in-review and reenactment events linked to D-Day remembrance. After shifting through Rota and changing operational control on June 9, she entered the Mediterranean and began Operation Sharp Guard, the NATO and Western European Union maritime embargo operation tied to the conflicts that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. The year's command chronology places her subsequently at Brindisi, Civitavecchia, and Corfu, after which she assumed duties as flagship for COMSTANAVFORMED. The second half of the deployment included Haifa from August 19 to August 23, Kos from August 25 to August 29, a MISSILEX on September 1, Menton from September 8 to September 12, a PASSEX with the Romanian destroyer MARASESTI on September 13, an IMAV with USS PUGET SOUND (AD 38) at Augusta Bay from September 14 to September 20, Antalya from September 23 to September 27, Operation Dynamic Guard from September 27 to October 12, Istanbul from October 14 to October 17, Varna from October 18 to October 23, Operation Maritime Partner from October 23 to October 25, Constanta from October 25 to October 27, another Augusta Bay stop on October 30 and October 31, a transatlantic departure on November 3, and a Bermuda anchorage on November 14 before her return to Mayport on November 17, 1994.

In 1995, USS DOYLE entered a maintenance and redeployment cycle. She offloaded ammunition at Charleston on January 12-14, supported Space Shuttle operations in the Jacksonville operating area from January 30 to February 3, and arrived at Detyens Shipyard in Charleston on February 15, 1995, to begin a four-month docking selected restricted availability. She completed a successful light-off assessment on June 6, carried out post-availability sea trials, reloaded weapons in Charleston, and returned to Mayport on June 23. On July 7, Cmdr. Leendert R. Hering relieved Cmdr. R. Cameron Ingram as commanding officer. Preparations for a counter-drug cruise were briefly interrupted when the ship sortied to avoid Hurricane Erin, but on August 4, 1995, she departed for Caribbean counter-drug operations with HSL-44 Detachment 9 and a Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment embarked. During that cruise she crossed the equator in early September, conducted nearly twenty boardings, transited north again through the Panama Canal, refueled at Guantanamo Bay, and returned to Mayport on September 18, 1995. The remainder of the year was dominated by engineering and combat-systems readiness: a mock OPPE on September 27-28, the formal OPPE beginning October 11, CART II and TSTA work, and a MISSILEX on November 11 in which USS DOYLE fired four surface-to-air missiles and also served as the test platform for the "CANDO" Mark 92 software upgrade intended to improve FFG 7-class performance against high-speed, low-flying targets. An INSURV in mid-December closed out the year with favorable remarks on her material condition.

DOYLE returned from the Persian Gulf late in 1996. During the deployment, DOYLE conducted an unprecedented 72 queries and 39 boardings in support of the UN embargo against Iraq. The efforts resulted in the confiscation of more than $3 million of contraband. Additionally, DOYLE participated in Operation Desert Strike, the only Mayport unit to be involved.

USS DOYLE continued as an active COMWESTHEMGRU frigate. Her 1997 command history describes the year as another banner year for a ship coming off a 1996 Battle "E"; her 1998 history places her in both counter-drug operations and UNITAS 39-98. UNITAS 39-98 was conducted with nine South American Navies over a four-month period. The U.S. Task force 138 made up of USS DOYLE, USS MOOSBRUGGER (DD 980), USS LA MOURE COUNTY (LST 1194), USS BOSTON (SSN 703), and USCGC MOHAWK, circumnavigated South America in a clockwise direction.

On January 19, 2000, USS DOYLE and embarked HSL-47 Det. 6 departed Mayport en route to a multi-purpose deployment in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean. During this deployment the frigate intercepted a vessel named REBELDE off the coast of Ecuador while conducting routine counter drug operations. After detaining and searching the suspicious vessel, DOYLE's embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) discovered six tons of cocaine. REBELDE was taken under tow and delivered to St. Petersburg, Fla.

USS DOYLE operated in the Caribbean during UNITAS 43-02 in early 2002, and postal-history and archival sources note that she was assigned to the Naval Reserve Force on October 1, 2002. By late 2003, she was again in the Mediterranean theater. Photo documentation places her arriving at Souda Bay, Crete, on December 16, 2003, and support records show USS EMORY S. LAND (AS 39) providing technical assistance to USS DOYLE at Portsmouth, England, during that broader period. In 2004, she undertook one of the more distinctive deployments of her later service. A Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Atlantic summary records an embarked detachment serving aboard USS DOYLE as the only American warship in Standing Naval Force Atlantic, with the frigate making six transits of the Strait of Gibraltar, supporting numerous exercises with Standing NATO Maritime Group One, and taking part in Second World War commemorations in both France and Russia.

By the spring and summer of 2005, USS DOYLE was again heavily engaged in Southern Command counter-narcotics work with HSL-46 Detachment 3 embarked. During that deployment, on May 3, 2005, she pursued the suspected smuggling vessel DOS CONTINENTES north of the Panama-Colombia coast. The smugglers set the fishing vessel on fire and abandoned ship. USS DOYLE launched her helicopter and rigid-hull inflatable boat, rescued four smugglers from the water, fought the fire, and later recovered cocaine from the burned hulk with the help of Coast Guard law-enforcement personnel. Contemporary Navy reporting later summarized the cruise as a successful multi-month SOUTHCOM deployment from which the ship returned in September 2005, while the embarked helicopter detachment later described it as a four-and-a-half-month counter-drug cruise through the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific that produced more than fifteen boardings and at least one major seizure.

The late 2000s were dominated by a third major Southern Command phase. By November 2008, USS DOYLE was in Portsmouth, England, during a North Atlantic deployment pattern that overlapped with other Atlantic Fleet frigate activity. In 2009, she became one of the frigates assigned to Southern Seas 2009, a U.S. 4th Fleet and U.S. Southern Command theater-security-cooperation deployment that also included USS KAUFFMAN (FFG 59) and USS FORD (FFG 54) under DESRON 40. The workup was already visible at Mayport on April 22, 2009, when her VBSS team demonstrated U.S. Navy procedures to partner-nation navies during UNITAS Gold training. She visited La Ceiba, Honduras, beginning May 21, 2009, and departed on May 26 after a five-day call during which her sailors conducted subject-matter-expert exchanges and community activity with Honduran forces. On June 17, 2009, she led U.S. and Peruvian ships during a group sail off Peru as part of Southern Seas and the broader Partnership of the Americas framework. Searchable Navy and partner reporting also places her in the Chilean-hosted Teamwork South 2009 sequence, with the task group arriving at Mejillones in June. Later in the deployment she reached Santa Marta, Colombia, on August 23, 2009, for a port visit that lasted through August 26 and included Project Handclasp deliveries and community-relations events. The emphasis of the cruise was not only interdiction, but also maritime partnership-building, training exchanges, and the routine low-level presence work that characterized 4th Fleet operations in the period.

The final operational chapter of USS DOYLE came with her last Southern Command deployment. Navy reporting states that she returned to Mayport on April 5, 2011, after a six-month deployment to the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in support of Counter Illicit Trafficking operations in the U.S. Southern Command area, which places her departure in the autumn of 2010. One of the best documented events of that final cruise occurred on December 5-6, 2010, when USS DOYLE, with an embarked SH-60B Seahawk from HSL-42 Detachment 3 and an embarked Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment, intercepted the fishing vessel RIO TUIRA in the eastern Pacific about 180 miles off Panama. Boarding teams recovered 22 bales of cocaine, weighing about 1,100 pounds, and took five suspected smugglers into custody. The interdiction was part of the same sustained eastern Pacific campaign that marked her final months in commission. After returning to Mayport for the last time in April, USS DOYLE was decommissioned at Naval Station Mayport on July 29, 2011.

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About the Ship's Name:

USS DOYLE's namesake is most known for his impressive contributions during the Korean War. As Commander Amphibious Group One during the Korean War, Admiral Doyle was personally responsible for the flawless execution of the amphibious phase of the invasion of Inchon in 1950.

Admiral Doyle’s naval attack force put 13,000 Marines ashore on a forbidding coastline, together with all their weapons and equipment. Rarely had so small a force entered so large a land mass under such difficult conditions. Later, when the Chinese entered North Korea from across the Yalu River and entrapped U.S. ground forces, Admiral Doyle commanded the Hungnam withdrawal, an operation characterized by ingenuity and superb naval gunfire support.

The 1st Marine Division, 3rd and 7th Infantry Divisions, and 100,000 civilians were evacuated under the sweep of heavy enemy gunfire without a single casualty. For these masterful exploits, Admiral Doyle was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the Army’s Silver Star.

Admiral James Henry Doyle retired from the Navy in 1953 and passed away in 1982.

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USS DOYLE Patch Gallery:

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USS DOYLE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the DOYLE at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on July 31, 2000.

The photos below were taken by me and show the DOYLE laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on May 4, 2012.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the DOYLE laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 3, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the DOYLE laid up alongside her sistership HAWES (FFG 53) at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 21, 2014. DOYLE is the ship moored outboard.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the DOYLE laid up alongside her sistership HAWES (FFG 53) at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 16, 2015. DOYLE is the ship moored outboard.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the DOYLE laid up alongside her sistership HAWES (FFG 53) at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 17, 2016. DOYLE is the ship moored outboard.

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