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USS Hawes (FFG 53)

Photo by Carl Groll; FFG 53 entering the port of Kiel, Germany, in February 2002. Click to enlarge.

USS HAWES was the 47^th frigate in the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY - class and the first ship in the Navy named after Rear Admiral Richard E. Hawes. Last homeported in Norfolk, Va., the HAWES was decommissioned on December 10, 2010, and was subsequently towed to Philadelphia where she was used as a logistic support asset for the remaining ships of her class. On October 19, 2020, HAWES arrived under tow at International Shipbreaking at Brownsville, Tx., for scrapping.

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Crew List:

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

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USS HAWES Cruise Books:

• Commissioning Cruise Book 1985-86
• Mediterranean and Black Sea Cruise Book 1996-97
• Mediterranean and Arabian Sea Cruise Book 2007

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About the Ship's Name, about Rear Admiral Richard E. Hawes:

Richard Ellington Hawes was born in Thomson Georgia, on February 12, 1894. He attended the University of Georgia on a baseball scholarship before transferring to Mercer University. There he won recognition in both baseball and football. He earned a law degree along the way, but passed up the bar exam to coach and play professional baseball.

When America entered World War I in 1917, Hawes enlisted in the Navy as a Fireman Second Class. Fifteen months later he accepted a temporary appointment as an Ensign, but reverted to Boatswain (Warrant Officer) in 1920.

In March 1926 Hawes joined USS FALCON (ARS 2) as Executive Officer. While aboard FALCON he played a key role in the salvage of USS S-51 off Block Island, RI in September 1925. For his part in that difficult and dangerous operation Boatswain Hawes received his first Navy Cross. He also assisted in the salvaging of USS S-4, which sank off Provincetown, MA in December 1927.

On February 18, 1929, Hawes was commissioned an Ensign by a special act of Congress in recognition of his services in salvaging the S-51 and S-4.

In January 1940 Lieutenant Hawes assumed command of USS PIGEON (ARS 6) and was serving in that role when the United States entered World War II.

On December 10, 1941 the PIGEON was docked at the Cavite Navy Yard on Manila Bay for repairs to her steering gear when Japanese warplanes attacked. Since Pearl Harbor three days before, Hawes had main steam pressure up and the full crew aboard, ready to get underway at an instant. Lashed to the minesweeper QUAIL (AM 15), which provided steering for both, PIGEON cleared the docks and headed for the relative safety of the bay to dodge the enemy bombs. By this time Cavite had become a hellish inferno. After separating from QUAIL Hawes could see that the submarine SEADRAGON (SS 194) was about to be engulfed by bombs and fire in her berth. Through heavy bombing and strafing, Lieutenant Hawes maneuvered the 187 foot PIGEON back to the flaming dock to haul the helpless submarine stern first from her berth. Another submarine and a minesweeper had just been sunk there by direct hits. The heat and flames were so intense that they blistered the ship's paint, singed off body hair, and melted the brim of Hawes' cap. But PIGEON's crew managed to rig a line on the SEADRAGON and tow her to safety. For this heroic action, Hawes received his second Navy Cross and PIGEON was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the first warship to receive the award in World War II. SEADRAGON went on to distinguished service, earning eleven battle stars before the war ended.

Immediately after the attack Hawes found and mounted on his ship two 3 inch guns and twelve .50 caliber machine guns from the wrecked Navy Yard. By the end of December the new "gunboat" had received her second Presidential Unit Citation for shooting down several enemy planes and bombarding enemy troops. She was the only surface warship to win two Presidential Unit Citations in World War II.

Except for the brief periods when he was in transit or putting USS CHANTICLEER (ARS 1) and USS ANTHEDON (AS 24) into commission, Hawes spent virtually all of World War II at sea in the Pacific in command of his three ships. Like Hawes himself, his ships always had a reputation for efficiency and readiness. When he put CHANTICLEER into commission, he had depth charge racks installed so he could prosecute Japanese submarines. When he put ANTHEDON into commission, 92% of his crew were inductees and had never been to sea, but he sailed directly from commissioning to the Pacific war and within two hours of his arrival was servicing submarines. He received the Bronze Star for "undaunted courage and professional skill" for his command of that ship. As he left the Western Pacific theater in January 1945, the Commander, Submarines, Philippine Sea Frontier sent ANTHEDON a message of thanks and good wishes, describing Commander Hawes and his men as "ever ready, ever fearless."

Hawes was promoted to Captain on March 25, 1945. On December 1, 1952 he was transferred to the retired list and promoted to Rear Admiral.

Rear Admiral Hawes died at his home in Thomson, Georgia, on December 30, 1968.

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The Shield:

The chevron extending into chief represents the process of submarine rescue, the transition from sea to air further suggested by the chevron wavy below and straight above. The shield, divided vertically, alludes to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans Rear Admiral Hawes distinguished himself, and is colored gold and blue in the Navy tradition. At the top, two awards of the Navy Cross, received for distinguished service in submarine salvage operations, are denoted by the silhouetted crosses. The five-pointed star at the center signifies an award of the Bronze Star Medal to Admiral Hawes when, as commander of the submarine tender ANTHEDON (AS 24), he organized the refitting of thirty-four submarines.

The Crest:

The trident suggests retrieval from the sea and the special equipment and vessels used in submarine rescue. The seahorse is a traditional symbol of the Navy diving service. The color scarlet is symbolic of courage in the face of danger and gold signifies excellence and achievement. The complete coat of arms as emblazoned upon a white oval background enclosed by a dark blue border edged with gold rope and inscribed "USS HAWES" at top and "FFG 53" in base all in gold.

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USS HAWES History:

USS HAWES was built by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. Her keel was laid on August 26, 1983, she was launched on February 18, 1984, and she was commissioned on February 9, 1985. The first months of her service were dominated by the demanding transition from new construction to fleet readiness. Her engineering light-off examination was completed on March 15, 1985. Three days later, on March 18, she sailed from Bath and at once began testing her aviation interface by establishing digital data link contact with an SH-60B Seahawk from the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River and conducting repeated deck landings with the new RAST system. On March 19 she called at Newport, Rhode Island, to embark students from the Surface Warfare Officers School Department Head Course, then proceeded south with additional stops at Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Weapons Station Yorktown for weapons onload.

On March 25, while steaming beyond the Virginia Capes, she received the first landing of a LAMPS I SH-2 Seasprite on her flight deck, and on March 29, 1985, she arrived at her new homeport of Charleston, South Carolina. From April 29 to June 3, 1985, she completed shakedown training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During that period she carried out a medical evacuation from a Spanish Navy training bark and made a liberty call at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, from May 25 to May 27. Through June, July, and August she conducted Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trials and Weapon System Accuracy Trials, operating repeatedly in the Charleston fleet operating areas. She sailed for Port Everglades on July 15, 1985, with liberty in Fort Lauderdale from July 17 to July 21, continued to waters near the Bahamas on July 22 and July 23, moored in Nassau on July 24 for a four-day visit, and then proceeded to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, where she successfully fired two SM-1 missiles on August 1. Final contract trials in August and September revealed serious alignment problems in the Mark 92 fire-control system, and a successful combat-system alignment was not achieved until December 1985. During most of November 1985, HAWES took part in Operation Hat Trick II, an interagency and international drug-interdiction effort aimed at narcotics traffic moving north from South America. For that mission she embarked a Coast Guard law-enforcement detachment from UTE and, before returning to Charleston, visited Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands from November 22 to November 25.

The late 1980s show HAWES established in front-line Atlantic Fleet service from Charleston and still tied to that homeport into the early 1990s. By the opening of 1991 she was already in transit for the Persian Gulf as a member of the THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) Battle Group during the final phase of the Desert Shield build-up and the ensuing Gulf War period. In 1992, she completed a long Selected Restricted Availability and then entered a work-up phase to prepare for renewed deployment, indicating a year shaped first by maintenance and then by operational regeneration. In 1993, the ship began the year in holiday stand-down, entered a maintenance period for final repairs, and in March departed Charleston, South Carolina, for the Adriatic Sea as part of the THEODORE ROOSEVELT Battle Group. Carrier-group deployment records place that cruise between March 11 and September 8, 1993, in the Mediterranean, Adriatic Sea, and Red Sea. Those waters were strategically important at the time because the United States and its allies were simultaneously enforcing post-Gulf War security measures in the broader Middle East and supporting maritime and air-control operations linked to the wars of Yugoslav succession.

HAWES remained active in the Mediterranean-centered deployment cycle in the middle 1990s. Official material for calendar year 1996 states that she had operated independently for the majority of her Mediterranean deployment from March 22 through September 19, 1995. Official records further show that on November 25, 1996, HAWES departed for another Mediterranean deployment, designated 97-1, and returned on May 23, 1997. By the end of the decade, she was again in the work-up cycle, and her 1999 command-history summary notes preparations for a June 2000 deployment with the GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) Battle Group and records that on August 12 and August 13, 1999, she completed cruise-missile tactical qualification successfully.

That preparation led into a major six-month cruise from June 21 to December 19, 2000, when HAWES deployed with the GEORGE WASHINGTON Battle Group in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. During that same deployment cycle, the attack on USS COLE (DDG 67) at Aden on October 12, 2000, triggered a regional support response, and HAWES is identified in Navy historical material as one of the ships that converged to provide assistance and stand by for further tasking. After the strategic rupture caused by the attacks of September 11, 2001, HAWES deployed again on December 5, 2002, this time from Norfolk with the HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) Carrier Battle Group in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. She returned on May 23, 2003, after nearly six months under way, with support to both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Mediterranean. On August 20, 2004, she departed Norfolk to take part in Smart Search '04, the Atlantic Fleet's theater anti-submarine warfare exercise off the U.S. East Coast.

On May 16, 2005, HAWES departed homeport for another scheduled deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Contemporary Navy imagery shows her sailing as part of a surface action group with MAHAN (DDG 72) and MITSCHER (DDG 57). By June 25 she was in the Persian Gulf participating in Exercise Inspired Siren, a bilateral U.S.-Pakistan exercise that included maritime security operations, air defense, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, mine countermeasures, replenishment at sea, and command-and-control training. She returned to Norfolk on November 15, 2005. While assigned to U.S. Fifth Fleet's Task Force 150 she worked independently, carrying out maritime interdiction operations off the Horn of Africa and in the Arabian Sea.

On October 27, 2006, she was recorded conducting COMPTUEX with the BATAAN (LHD 5) Expeditionary Strike Group, although she did not deploy with it. HAWES sailed again from Norfolk on January 27, 2007, for operations in the European and Central Command areas. During that deployment, she assisted a Yemeni-flagged merchant vessel in distress on February 19, provided medical assistance to the Liberian cargo vessel MV HARMONY in the southern Persian Gulf on March 30, and joined HIGGINS (DDG 76), GLADIATOR (MCM 11), and ARDENT (MCM 12) in exercise Nautical Union 2007 with Saudi Arabian forces, concluded on June 2 after eight days of training focused on regional cooperation and maritime stability. She returned home on August 18, 2007, after nearly seven months away, having also participated in Operation Sea Dragon IV and exercise AMAN 2007. Late that year, on December 1, she was reported in the Atlantic serving as simulated opposition forces during the NASSAU (LHA 4) Expeditionary Strike Group's COMPTUEX.

On September 19, 2008, she departed Norfolk with MITSCHER for a two-month underway period centered on Exercise Joint Warrior in the North Atlantic, a multinational exercise directed through the United Kingdom's Joint Tactical Exercise Planning Staff. Navy photographs place her conducting live-fire training on September 24, replenishing from USNS LEROY GRUMMAN (T-AO 195) on September 27, visiting Stockholm during October, and mooring outboard DOYLE (FFG 39) at HMNB Portsmouth on November 9 before returning home on November 22.

On April 3, 2009, under Commander Kristen E. Jacobsen, HAWES left Norfolk on a counter-narcotics deployment in support of Operation Carib Venture. She reached Willemstad, Curacao, on April 28 for a three-day port visit, later made a goodwill port call at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and was in Oranjestad, Aruba, from September 20 to September 24. She returned to Norfolk on October 7, 2009, after six months in the Caribbean and western Atlantic, having steamed more than 34,000 miles, visited six countries, and participated in multinational work with maritime forces from Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, France, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Colombia.

On June 30, 2010, she arrived at Charlestown Navy Yard for Boston Navy Week and Harborfest, remaining associated with commemorative events through the Independence Day period. On July 25, 2010, she came alongside GEORGE H.W. BUSH (CVN 77) in the Atlantic during the carrier's first refueling at sea. USS HAWES was decommissioned at Norfolk on December 10, 2010, after more than twenty-five years of service. She was subsequently towed to the Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia and initially retained as a logistic support asset. On October 19, 2020, ex-HAWES arrived under tow at International Shipbreaking at Brownsville, Tx., for scrapping.

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USS HAWES Patch Gallery:

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USS HAWES Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Karl-Heinz Ahles and shows the USS HAWES at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 11, 1999.

The photo below was taken by Carl Groll in February 2002 during exercise Strong Resolve in the Baltic Sea and shows the HAWES entering the port of Kiel, Germany.

The photos below were taken by me and show the HAWES at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., preparing for decommissioning. She is sitting high in the water as she has been striped of some of her equipment (e.g. liferafts and the Phalanx CIWS are missing) and her awards have already been removed as well. The photos were taken on October 29, 2010.

The photo below was taken by me and shows the HAWES laid up behind her sistership DOYLE (FFG 39) at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on May 4, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HAWES laid up alongside her sisterships at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 3, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HAWES laid up alongside her sistership DOYLE (FFG 39) 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 HAWES laid up alongside her sistership DOYLE (FFG 39) at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 16, 2015. HAWES is the ship moored at the pier.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HAWES laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 7, 2018.

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