USS Reuben James (FFG 57)

- decommissioned -
- sunk as a target -

USS REUBEN JAMES was one of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY - class guided missile frigates and the third ship in the Navy to bear the name. The ship was last homeported at Pearl Harbor, Hi. Both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list, the REUBEN JAMES was sunk as a target off Kauai, Hi., on January 19, 2016. The sinking was a test of the Navy’s new anti-surface warfare (ASuW) variant of the Raytheon Standard Missile 6 (SM-6). The missile was fired from USS JOHN PAUL JONES (DDG 53).

General Characteristics:	Keel Laid: November 19, 1983
	Launched: February 8, 1985
	Commissioned: March 22, 1986
	Decommissioned: August 1, 2013
	Builder: Todd Pacific Shipyards Co., Los Angeles Division, San Pedro, Ca.
	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: 453 feet (135.9 meters)
	Beam: 45 feet (13.5 meters)
	Draft: 24,6 feet (7.5 meters)
	Displacement: 4,100 tons
	Speed: 28+ knots
	Aircraft: two SH-60 Sea Hawk (LAMPS 3)
	Armament: one Mk 75 76mm/62 caliber rapid firing gun, MK 32 ASW torpedo tubes (two triple mounts), one Phalanx CIWS
	Crew: 17 Officers and 198 Enlisted

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS REUBEN JAMES. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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USS REUBEN JAMES Cruise Books:

WestPac Cruise Book 2012-13

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About the Ship's Name:

Reuben James was born in Delaware, Ohio about 1776. He joined the U.S. Navy and served on various ships, including the frigate USS CONSTELLATION. It was during the infamous Barbary Wars that the American frigate PHILADELPHIA was captured by the Barbary pirates. Having run aground in the pirate capital of Tripoli on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the crew had to abandon ship and formulate a plan of attack. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, along with a group of volunteers which included Boatswain's Mate Reuben James, entered Tripoli harbor under the cover of darkness in an attempt to set the PHILADELPHIA to the torch so that the pirates could not make use of her.

The American volunteers boarded the PHILADELPHIA on 16 February 1804 and were met by a group of the savage Barbary pirates who were guarding their prize. A furious battle ensued, and during the bloody chaos of hand-to-hand combat, a villanous pirate made ready to end the life of Lieutenant Decatur. Reuben James, with both of his hands already wounded, in an act of selfless dedication and courage did throw his hand before the pirate's cleaving blade! Willing to give his life in defense of his captain, Reuben James took the blow from the sword!

Having proved to the world over the courage and dedication of United States Sailors, Reuben James also hammered home the fact that US Sailors are undefeatable by not only surviving, but recovering from his wounds and continuing his career in the U.S. Navy! After spending many more years with Decatur, James was forced to retire in January 1836 because of declining health brought on because of past wounds. He died on 3 December 1838 at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C.

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Accidents aboard USS REUBEN JAMES:

Date	Where	Events
May 4, 1994	Persian Gulf	While conducting an UNREP evolution in the Persian Gulf, USNS PECOS (T-AO 197) collides with the REUBEN JAMES. Press and later official summaries reported fires and damage, but no casualties. Both ships continued their missions after damage control.
February 21, 1996	Indian Ocean / Gulf of Oman	While operating in the Indian Ocean or Gulf of Oman region on February 21, 1996, REUBEN JAMES lost her rudder at sea. The crew used the ship's auxiliary propulsion units to maintain some degree of control until the fleet tug USNS CATAWBA (T-ATF 168) rendezvoused on February 23 and took the frigate in tow. CATAWBA towed REUBEN JAMES to Mina Salman, Bahrain, where no dry dock was available. Instead, divers and shipyard personnel installed a new rudder alongside the pier.
December 6, 1997		While operating in heavy seas, the REUBEN JAMES is recovering a helicopter. When the helicopter touched down, the ship takes a 20-degree roll causing the helicopter to tip over and striking the flight deck. Nobody is injured.

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USS REUBEN JAMES History:

USS REUBEN JAMES was an OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class guided-missile frigate built for multi-mission escort duties during the last decade of the Cold War and then adapted to post-Cold-War presence, sanctions-enforcement, counter-drug and counter-terrorism roles across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Over nearly three decades in service she operated primarily with the U.S. Pacific Fleet, based first in California and later in Hawaii, and concluded her career as a test target for a new generation of anti-ship weapons.

The contract to build USS REUBEN JAMES was awarded on March 22, 1982, to Todd Pacific Shipyards, Los Angeles Division, at San Pedro, California. Her keel was laid on November 19, 1983, and the hull slid down the ways on February 8, 1985, sponsored by Lois Haight Herrington, the wife of Assistant Secretary of the Navy John S. Herrington. The Navy accepted the ship on March 3, 1986, and she was commissioned at Long Beach, California, on March 22, 1986, under the command of Commander John J. Kieley.

REUBEN JAMES was initially assigned to Surface Squadron One for post-delivery trials and then, in June 1987, joined Destroyer Squadron 31 ("Red Stallions") while homeported at Long Beach. After completing shakedown and work-ups, REUBEN JAMES deployed on her maiden overseas cruise with the U.S. Mideast Force during the late phase of the Iran-Iraq War. As part of Operation Earnest Will, the U.S. effort to protect reflagged Kuwaiti tankers transiting the Persian Gulf, she took part in twenty-two convoy missions during 1987-1988 and served as the convoy commander's flagship on ten of those movements. At times, she operated in company with other escorts such as the destroyer USS CHANDLER (DDG 996) while accompanying tankers like OCEAN CITY and SURF CITY. On February 13, 1988, an Iraqi aircraft launched a missile near CHANDLER during one of these convoys, highlighting the risk of misidentification and attack in the constrained waters of the northern Gulf.

During the same deployment, she operated in the northern Gulf in the wider context of U.S. retaliatory actions against Iranian forces, replenishing at sea from the oiler KANSAS CITY (AOR 3) along with destroyers CUSHING (DD 985) and FLETCHER (DD 992) after the Operation Nimble Archer surface action group shelled Iranian facilities in October 1987. By the time she returned to the United States, REUBEN JAMES had established herself as a regular member of the Mideast Force rotation for convoy escort and maritime interception duties.

In the immediate post-Earnest Will period, REUBEN JAMES resumed operations with the Pacific Fleet, continuing to use Long Beach as a base for exercises and local deployments. Publicly available sources do not provide a deployment-by-deployment account for every month of 1989, but they do show that the ship remained active in Pacific and Indian Ocean operations as the Cold War wound down. Her role shifted from direct participation in Gulf convoy operations to broader presence missions and exercises as U.S.-Soviet relations improved and the Iran-Iraq War concluded in 1988.

A particularly visible symbol of these changed relations came in 1990. On September 10, 1990, REUBEN JAMES entered Vladivostok in the Soviet Far East together with the cruiser USS PRINCETON (CG 59) for a four-day goodwill visit, the first such call by U.S. warships to the Soviet Pacific Fleet's main base in decades.

Photographs and contemporary reporting show U.S. and Soviet sailors visiting one another's ships and observing demonstrations by Soviet naval infantry, with REUBEN JAMES moored under the observation of local residents in a city that had previously been closed to foreign visitors. The visit took place as the Soviet Union was in the final year of its existence and as the U.S. Navy adjusted from a Cold War confrontation posture toward naval diplomacy and port visits emphasizing transparency and cooperation.

In August 1991, REUBEN JAMES changed homeport from Long Beach to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, becoming part of the permanent surface combatant presence in the Central Pacific. From that point until her decommissioning, Pearl Harbor remained her base of operations. Throughout the early 1990s, she conducted Western Pacific and Indian Ocean deployments and local training, but the open record highlights a few specific events rather than a continuous deployment log.

One of the most significant incidents in her middle years occurred during another Persian Gulf deployment in 1994. That year, REUBEN JAMES was engaged in underway replenishment with the fleet oiler USNS PECOS (T-AO 197) when the two ships collided during the evolution in the Gulf. The impact damaged REUBEN JAMES' flight deck and caused fires in and around the hangar structure, though there were no reported casualties on either ship. Helicopter detachment HSL-37 was embarked at the time, and after the collision both units extinguished fires and restored systems. Subsequent accounts from official summaries and veterans' statements agree that the damage, while serious, was contained and that both ships were able to continue their missions after repairs.

Another major engineering casualty occurred during a WestPac deployment in early 1996. While operating in the Indian Ocean or Gulf of Oman region on February 21, 1996, REUBEN JAMES lost her rudder at sea. The crew used the ship's auxiliary propulsion units to maintain some degree of control until the fleet tug USNS CATAWBA (T-ATF 168) rendezvoused on February 23 and took the frigate in tow. CATAWBA towed REUBEN JAMES to Mina Salman, Bahrain, where no dry dock was available. Instead, divers and shipyard personnel installed a new rudder alongside the pier. A photograph dated March 8, 1996, shows the replacement rudder on a flatbed trailer at Mina Salman awaiting installation, illustrating the improvised but effective repair solution. After the work was completed, REUBEN JAMES returned to operational status and resumed her role in theater.

The following year brought an unusual aviation mishap. En route to another Western Pacific deployment in 1997, REUBEN JAMES was conducting deck-landing practice with her embarked SH-60B Seahawk. The helicopter had landed on the flight deck but had not yet been secured because another takeoff was planned. In heavy seas, the ship took a significant roll when struck by a rogue wave. The resulting motion caused the rotor blades to strike the deck and the aircraft to roll onto its port side, rotating roughly 90 degrees so that its tail extended over the port edge of the flight deck. The crew responded by securing the damaged aircraft and the ship proceeded to Guam, where the Seahawk was lifted off for repair. Investigators later concluded there was no negligence by either the aircrew or the ship's personnel. The event was attributed to sea conditions encountered during required training.

On October 1, 1998, REUBEN JAMES formally joined the "Ke Koa O Ke Kai" ("Warriors of the Sea") surface group of Destroyer Squadron 31, reflecting her stable integration into the Pearl Harbor-based frigate force. Around this time, she also took part in exercises such as Teamwork South '99 off Chile, where imagery shows her operating close aboard the Chilean frigate CONDELL during the multinational anti-submarine and surface warfare exercise. Together with routine local operations around Hawaii and deployments to the Western Pacific, these activities rounded out the ship's late-1990s service as regional crises shifted from the Persian Gulf to broader maritime security concerns.

In 2000, REUBEN JAMES became heavily involved in the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) series, a set of bilateral exercises with Southeast Asian partners. During CARAT 2000, she operated with forces from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. The first phase began in the Philippines on June 14, 2000, and the final phase concluded in Singapore on September 22, 2000. In Malaysian waters, the ship participated in complex scenarios in and near the Strait of Malacca, including anti-submarine warfare, anti-air warfare and live-fire gunnery drills. One "battle problem" involved a prolonged night encounter in which task groups built around REUBEN JAMES and amphibious ships such as GERMANTOWN (LSD 42) and MOUNT VERNON (LSD 39) were split into opposing forces alongside Malaysian vessels, with U.S. P-3C Orion aircraft and carrier-based helicopters providing maritime patrol and targeting support. These evolutions reflected U.S. efforts to build interoperability with regional navies and to demonstrate support for Southeast Asian maritime security at the turn of the century.

Two years later, the ship returned to the Persian Gulf in support of the early post-9/11 campaigns. From August 2, 2002, to April 27, 2003, REUBEN JAMES deployed with the ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN 72) Battle Group to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. During this extended nine-month cruise, she conducted maritime interception operations, screened high-value units and provided presence in support of both Operation Enduring Freedom and, from March 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom. After roughly six months in theater, the battle group had begun its return transit when events in Iraq escalated. On January 1, 2003, while REUBEN JAMES was in port at Brisbane, Australia, the ship received orders to reverse course and return to the Gulf with ABRAHAM LINCOLN and associated escorts.

The deployment thus stretched to almost nine months, paralleling the record-setting length of ABRAHAM LINCOLN's cruise. When the group finally returned to Pearl Harbor in spring 2003, REUBEN JAMES resumed local operations and briefly hosted a Japanese HATAKAZE-class destroyer for exercises in July, before her crew dressed ship and manned the rails on October 23, 2003, to render honors as President George W. Bush transited Pearl Harbor and visited the USS ARIZONA Memorial.

On February 12, 2004, REUBEN JAMES departed Pearl Harbor for the eastern Pacific with an embarked U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment to conduct counter-narcotics operations in the approaches to Central and South America under the direction of Joint Interagency Task Force West. During this deployment, the ship carried out surveillance and boarding operations aimed at interdicting drug-smuggling vessels and shared information with U.S. and partner-nation agencies. She returned to Pearl Harbor on May 3, 2004, completing a deployment that illustrated the increasing use of surface combatants in law-enforcement support roles.

Between July and December 2004, REUBEN JAMES underwent a major maintenance and modernization period in Pearl Harbor that included system upgrades in preparation for continued service. In parallel with these preparations, she participated in at-sea evolutions such as a passing exercise (PASSEX) in October 2004 with partner-nation ships, refining communications and maneuvering procedures for future deployments.

In May 2005, the ship underwent an inspection by the Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), the Navy's rigorous material-readiness assessment. A Navy Newsstand report later that month described REUBEN JAMES completing the inspection with positive results, underscoring that her combat systems and engineering plant remained in satisfactory condition despite years of heavy operational use. This set the stage for another deployment to the Middle East.

On February 15, 2006, REUBEN JAMES departed as part of Expeditionary Strike Group 3 (ESG 3) on a Western Pacific and Persian Gulf deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. ESG 3 was built around the amphibious assault ship PELELIU (LHA 5) and included several cruisers, destroyers and amphibious ships, together with embarked Marines and aviation units. En route to the Gulf, REUBEN JAMES made a port visit to New Caledonia in March 2006, conducting engagement activities with French forces and local authorities.

Once on station in the Arabian Sea and adjacent waters, she took up maritime security operations, including visit-, board-, search- and seizure missions and presence patrols in busy shipping lanes. During this deployment, her embarked helicopter detachment provided medical assistance to Sri Lankan fishermen and later helped rescue Kenyan sailors from a distressed vessel, as documented in contemporary Navy reports.

Expeditionary Strike Group 3 was relieved on station on July 9, 2006, and REUBEN JAMES returned to Pearl Harbor in August after roughly six months deployed.

In the later 2000s, the frigate continued to make routine Western Pacific deployments and to participate in multinational exercises. Imagery from August 2007 shows REUBEN JAMES departing Pearl Harbor for another WestPac cruise, and photographs from 1999 and 2000 depict her working alongside regional navies in exercises such as Teamwork South and CARAT. These activities reflected an operational pattern in which the ship alternated between major deployments and local readiness training, while gradually shifting away from Gulf combat operations toward broader maritime security tasks in the Pacific.

On January 15, 2010, more than 250 sailors embarked as REUBEN JAMES left Pearl Harbor for another deployment to the Western Pacific under Commander, Destroyer Squadron 31. During this cruise, the frigate conducted joint fisheries patrols with the U.S. Coast Guard and Pacific island nations, humanitarian and goodwill projects, and participation in multinational exercises aimed at regional stability. Later that year, she also supported humanitarian assistance to the Philippines and, in June 2010, took part in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise off Hawaii, integrating with a large international task force for anti-submarine, anti-surface and amphibious scenarios.

From February 1 to February 14, 2011, REUBEN JAMES conducted another fisheries enforcement patrol in the exclusive economic zones of several Pacific island states while transiting from Hawaii into the western Pacific. Working with an embarked Coast Guard liaison and District 14 headquarters in Honolulu, the ship and its embarked HSL-37 helicopter detachment monitored for illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, expanding surveillance coverage across a wide stretch of ocean.

After this patrol, REUBEN JAMES continued westward, integrating with coalition partners in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility. She returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on June 20, 2011, after more than four months deployed. During the deployment, she carried out combined patrols with Micronesian patrol boats, made port visits to Japan, Indonesia and Brunei, and participated in CARAT phases with Indonesia and Thailand. She also played a supporting role in Operation Tomodachi, escorting the carrier USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

REUBEN JAMES undertook her final Western Pacific deployment in 2012-2013. During this cruise, she again supported theater security cooperation and regional exercises, including engagements linked to CARAT 2012 and fisheries enforcement patrols in the exclusive economic zones of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Nauru, for which she and her crew later received the U.S. Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Citation. The deployment included port visits to Japan, Brunei and the Philippines, combining training with community outreach projects in each country. On May 3, 2013, the ship returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, with the Navy noting that this was likely her last deployment prior to decommissioning.

After nearly twenty-seven years in commission, USS REUBEN JAMES was decommissioned at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on July 18, 2013. The ceremony, attended by former crew members and families including several original plank-owners, featured remarks by her final commanding officer, Commander Dan Valascho, and formally ended her service as the last guided-missile frigate homeported in Pearl Harbor.

Following decommissioning, she was placed in inactive status and later selected for use as a target ship. In January 2016, the former REUBEN JAMES was sunk at the Pacific Missile Range Facility off Hawaii during a test of the anti-surface warfare variant of the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), fired from the destroyer USS JOHN PAUL JONES (DDG 53).