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About the Ship's Coat of Arms

Accidents aboard USS Kauffman

About the Name "Kauffman"

History

Homeports of USS Kauffman

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USS Kauffman (FFG 59)

USS KAUFFMAN was the 28^th "long hull" - version in the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY class and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name. Decommissioned on September 18, 2015, the KAUFFMAN is presently laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Penn. She was last homeported in Norfolk, Va.

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Crew List:

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

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USS KAUFFMAN Cruise Books:

• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1989
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1995
• Mediterranean and Arabian Sea Cruise Book 2002-03
• Partnership of the Americas Cruise Book 2008

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

The Shield:

The coat of arms honors the aggregate naval service of Vice Admiral James L Kauffman and his son, Rear Admiral Draper L Kauffman. Both father and son were awarded the Navy Cross, symbolised by the two crosses on the white and blue portions of the shield. Dark blue and gold are the colors traditionally associated with the Navy and denote the sea and excellence. The heraldic dolphin, resting below a wavy line, is symbolic of vigilance and maritime power, and also alludes to affiliation of both men with sub-surface naval missions, such as the elder Kauffman's formulation of World War II anti-submarine strategies and his son's establishment of the Navy's first Underwater Demolition Team.

The Crest:

The trident, symbolic of sea power, alludes to Vice Admiral Kauffman's World War I career when he spent more time in command, and more time at sea, than any other officer of his time, and for which he received a second Legion of Merit. The bomb represents the achievements of Rear Admiral Kauffman as a bomb disposal expert and organizer of World War II Bomb Disposal School for both the Navy and the Army. The lightning bolts reflect the insignia worn by naval personnel in their professional ordinance specialties associated with the areas Rear Admiral Kauffman was instrumental in establishing. The blue stars on the laurel wreath refer to each man's rank, three stars for Vice Admiral Kauffman and two stars for Rear Admiral Kauffman. The scroll holds the French for "Always in the Lead."

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Accidents aboard USS KAUFFMAN:

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About the Ship's Namesakes, about...

Born in Ohio on 18 April 1887, James Laurence Kauffman attended Pennsylvania Military College, the Army and Navy Preparatory School, and graduated in 1908 from the U.S. Naval Academy.

He held a variety of wide-ranging command billets, ashore and afloat, during World War I. Serving in command of the gunboat RANIER, as an Executive Officer of the destroyer CALDWELL, he became Lieutenant Commander on 1 January 1918. He transferred from the CALDWELL to command the Bath-built USS JENKINS (DD 42). Admiral Kauffman, during his career, spent more time in command, and more time at sea, than any other officer of his time.

At the end of the war, Kauffman returned to the U.S. to commission and command a new ship, the USS BARNEY (DD 149). In November of 1920, he became the Executive Officer of the new Radio Division of the Bureau of Engineering. In May of 1923, he was appointed Naval Aide and Flag Secretary to Admiral S. S. Robinson, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet.

In June of 1925, Kauffman was selected to the rank of Commander. His next tour of duty was as a member of the U.S. Naval Mission to Brazil. Appointed Captain in 1936, Kauffman served as Commanding Officer of the USS MEMPHIS, and later at the shipyard at Mare Island.

In 1941, Rear Admiral Kauffman was sent by President Roosevelt to establish and command a Naval Operating Base in Iceland. In 1942, as the principal Navy anti-submarine expert, he commanded the Gulf Sea Frontier, which included the Gulf of Mexico north to the shore of the Carolinas. Under his dynamic leadership, the U-boat menace in that area was checked. Kauffman later became the senior member of the Allied Anti-Submarine Survey Board, evaluating ASW techniques for Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill. Moving on to the Pacific in 1943, he assumed command of all the Pacific Fleet's cruisers, destroyers and frigates, 401 ships with 150,000 men.

In October 1944, he reported to General Douglas McArthur as Commander Philippine Sea Frontier. In May of 1946, Vice Admiral Kauffman returned home and was assigned to duty as the Commandant of the Fourth Naval District, where he remained until he retired in 1949.

His second career began the day after termination of his first. As the first President of Jefferson Medical College and Jefferson Medical Center, a position he retained for 10 years, he presided over the greatest period of growth in Jefferson's history.

He was married to the former Elizabeth Kelsey Draper for nearly 54 years. Their daughter, Elizabeth Louise, married Prescott S. Bush, Jr. Their son, Rear Admiral Draper Laurence Kauffman, married the former Margaret C. Tuckerman.

Born on 4 August 1911, Draper Laurence Kauffman graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1933. Poor eyesight denied him a commission in the regular Navy. Employed by the United States Line Steamship Company, his travels in Europe alerted him to the danger of Nazi Germany. In February 1940, he joined the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps in France. On 16 June, he was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for two months. Released in August, he made his way to England and was commissioned a sub-Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, later rising to Lieutenant. At the height of the Blitz on London (1940 - 41), he served as a bomb and mine disposal officer, and achieved a high degree of proficiency in bomb disposal techniques.

Securing a U.S. Naval Reserve commission a month before Pearl Harbor, Kauffman was rushed to Hawaii after the Japanese attack, and there disarmed an enemy bomb, the first to be recovered intact for study.

After establishing bomb disposal schools for the Navy and the Army. LT. Commander Kauffman in 1943 organized the Navy's first demolition units - later to be known as Underwater Demolition Teams. After commanding all UDTs in the invasion of Saipan, Tinian and Guam, Commander Kauffman planned and directed UDTs operations at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

His first postwar assignment came in February 1946 when he was assigned to Joint Task Force One, the organization which conducted Operation CROSSROADS, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. Later under the CNO, as head of the Defense and Protection Section, he established the U.S. Navy Radiological Safety School, and aided in setting-up a comparable school for the Army.

In 1954, Captain Kauffman served in the Strategic Plans Division under the CNO, and in 1955 was appointed Aide to Secretary of the Navy, Thomas S. Gates, Jr.

In July of 1960, Kauffman was selected as Rear Admiral. In 1962, he became Chief of the Strategic Plans and Policy Division. In 1965, he became the 44th Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served for three years. His next assignment was as the Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in the Philippines, and Representative of the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, a billet once filled 25 years earlier by his father.

On 1 June 1973, Admiral Kauffman retired from the Navy.

Rear Admiral Kauffman married the former Margaret Cary Tuckerman on 1 May 1943. They had three children: Margaret Cary, Draper Laurence, Jr., and Edith Kelsey.

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USS KAUFFMAN History:

USS KAUFFMAN was an OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class "long-hull" guided-missile frigate built at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The Navy awarded the construction contract on October 28, 1982, as part of the final group of PERRY-class ships intended to provide affordable, multi-mission escorts for convoy, carrier and amphibious task groups late in the Cold War. She was named to honor two officers closely associated with anti-submarine warfare and explosive ordnance work, Vice Admiral James L. Kauffman and his son Rear Admiral Draper L. Kauffman.

KAUFFMAN's keel was laid at Bath Iron Works on April 8, 1985, and she entered the water on March 29, 1986, sponsored by Elizabeth Kauffman Bush, daughter of James L. Kauffman and sister of Draper L. Kauffman. After fitting-out and trials, she was commissioned at Bath on February 28, 1987, joining the U.S. Atlantic Fleet as a 453-foot, 4,100-ton frigate capable of operating two SH-60 LAMPS III helicopters, with a primary focus on anti-submarine warfare but also equipped for anti-air and surface engagements. Her initial home port in this period was Newport, Rhode Island, where she fell under the Atlantic Fleet frigate force supporting NATO and U.S. operations in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean.

Soon after entering service, KAUFFMAN went back to her builder for post-shakedown work. From January 6 to May 28, 1988, Bath Iron Works carried out what command histories refer to as "4,100-ton modifications", the standard completion and upgrade package for the long-hull PERRY frigates. The work refined combat systems, habitability and machinery, bringing her to the class's full operational standard. The year also brought a serious accident: on August 12, 1988, a slewing arm davit used to handle small boats broke from its mount and fell, killing a sailor instantly. The incident underlined the risks of deck equipment operations even in peacetime and led to inspection and corrective work on similar fittings.

By 1989, with her post-shakedown period complete, KAUFFMAN was ready for her first major overseas cruise. On May 31, 1989, she departed for Med 3-89, her maiden deployment with the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, returning on November 10. During this cruise, she operated with other U.S. and NATO units in Cold War-era exercises and presence missions. One of the most notable events came between August 4 and August 7, when KAUFFMAN, in company with the cruiser USS THOMAS S. GATES (CG 51), visited Sevastopol in Soviet Ukraine. Port calls by U.S. warships in Soviet ports were still rare in the late 1980s, and this visit formed part of the cautiously improving U.S.-Soviet naval relationship in the final years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Later in the same deployment, KAUFFMAN joined NATO exercise Display Determination-89, held from September 13 to October 3 and focused on carrier operations, anti-submarine warfare and coordinated air-maritime operations in the eastern Mediterranean. Her anti-submarine performance in the 6th Fleet operating area earned her that year's "Hook 'em" award as the best ASW platform in the theater, reflecting the importance NATO still attached to tracking Soviet submarines in the Mediterranean at the end of the Cold War.

Back in the Atlantic, KAUFFMAN continued fleet training and maintenance through the turn of the decade. On January 9, 1990, she received the Battle Efficiency "E" award, recognizing overall readiness and performance in competition with other ships of her type. From January 15 to March 15, 1990, she underwent a ship's restricted availability in which the #1A gas-turbine main engine and her OTO Melara 76 mm gun mount were both replaced, a substantial mid-life machinery and weapons overhaul only three years after commissioning. In June 1990, she joined BALTOPS-90, the annual Baltic Operations exercise in the Baltic Sea, running from June 8 to June 15. Two weeks later, from June 27 to June 30, she made a port call in Gdynia, Poland. The visit came as Poland was consolidating its post-communist government and re-orienting toward Western institutions. U.S. warships' presence in Polish ports was politically symbolic as well as a routine liberty and public-relations visit.

In 1991, KAUFFMAN deployed to the Middle East in the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm. From April 26 to October 26, 1991 she was assigned to deployment MEF 2-91, a Middle East Force rotation. Within that deployment, from June 4 to September 16 she conducted Middle East Force operations in the Persian Gulf, supporting post-war maritime security and sanctions enforcement against Iraq.

The focus shifted to counter-narcotics and then back to overhaul in 1992. From January 6 to February 21, 1992 KAUFFMAN operated in the Caribbean on counter-drug missions. During this period, she towed a disabled vessel into Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and rescued the crew of the freighter RAMSLI before that ship sank, events recorded in the ship's official command history. After returning to the U.S., she began a major shipyard period at Bath Iron Works: from August 2 to October 23, 1992, she underwent a ships restricted availability in drydock that modernized her combat systems and corrected material issues from years of hard service. On September 15, 1992, she once again earned the Battle "E" for overall excellence, reflecting the ship's consistently strong performance.

In 1993, KAUFFMAN returned to forward operations. From March 11 to September 8, 1993 she deployed on Med 2-93, at a time when the breakup of Yugoslavia was drawing NATO into sustained operations in the Adriatic. Between April 29 and June 18, she supported Operation Deny Flight and the related maritime embargo operation Maritime Guard, enforcing United Nations resolutions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. After this Adriatic phase, from June 22 to August 17, she shifted to maritime interception operations in the northern Red Sea, helping enforce sanctions on Iraq that remained in place following the 1991 Gulf War.

Later that year, on November 7, 1993, while at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, KAUFFMAN assisted the Argentine frigate ARA GRANVILLE, which had suffered engineering problems and required support. The event is recorded in her command history as a notable example of cooperation with a partner navy. From November 9 to December 6, 1993 she again operated in the Caribbean on counter-drug duties, reflecting the dual focus of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet on both European crisis response and Western Hemisphere interdiction missions.

KAUFFMAN's activities in 1994 were dominated by operations related to Haiti and a significant change of homeport. Between May 13 and June 3, 1994 she conducted maritime interception operations enforcing sanctions against Haiti, patrolling to prevent the flow of fuel and other restricted cargo to the military regime in Port-au-Prince.

On June 6, 1994, her homeport officially shifted from Newport, Rhode Island, to Norfolk, Virginia, as part of a broader consolidation of Atlantic Fleet surface forces. Later that summer, she took part in Operation Support Democracy off Haiti, from July 1 to August 1, 1994. During this period, KAUFFMAN embarked three U.S. Army OH-58 Kiowa helicopters for surveillance and support tasks. She rescued 787 Haitian migrants at sea on July 5-6, transporting them to Guantanamo Bay, and on July 20-21 she towed the motor vessel VALERIE I from the Haitian coast to Guantanamo after that vessel experienced propulsion problems. These operations were part of the international effort that eventually led to the restoration of Haiti's elected government in the autumn of 1994.

The mid-1990s saw a combination of overhaul and counter-drug work. According to the command-history summary, an extended ships restricted availability began in September 1995 and continued until April 24, 1996, when the work was formally completed. As part of this overhaul, KAUFFMAN received the Mod 6 upgrade to her Mk 92 guided-missile fire control system, improving her ability to control Standard and Sea Sparrow missiles and main-gun engagements. Once back in service, she again turned to counter-drug operations, conducting missions in the Caribbean from July 8 to August 24, 1996. Toward the end of the year, between December 10 and 31, she took part in Operation Carib Shield, another Caribbean counter-narcotics deployment.

In early 1997, the ship continued this pattern. From January 1 to 17, 1997, she again supported Operation Carib Shield in the Caribbean. Immediately afterward, she entered another ship's restricted availability: from March 4 to June 24, 1997, she was in drydock at Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, a period used for routine maintenance and improvements to hull, machinery, and weapons systems.

KAUFFMAN returned to extended forward presence in 1998. From March 13 to September 11, 1998, she deployed to the Mediterranean. The command-history summary notes that this deployment was initially planned as a Middle East Force assignment but remained focused on the Mediterranean, reflecting the shifting priorities of U.S. naval forces as sanctions and containment in the Gulf continued alongside Balkans-related missions. After returning from this cruise, KAUFFMAN underwent a planned restricted availability from October 12 to December 11, 1998 to reset the ship after deployment. In 1999, while based at Norfolk, she sortied to sea from September 15 to 18 to evade Hurricane Dennis, conducting storm-avoidance operations typical for Atlantic Fleet ships during hurricane season.

The public summaries of KAUFFMAN's command histories are sparse for the early 2000s, but additional information comes from her embarked helicopter squadron and official imagery. In July 2002, Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 48 (HSL-48) Detachment Seven deployed aboard KAUFFMAN for a four-and-a-half-month cruise that began as a Mediterranean deployment escorting cargo ships and ensuring open shipping lanes, then proceeded into the Persian Gulf in support of the War on Terrorism. On August 26, 2002, a U.S. Navy photograph recorded KAUFFMAN arriving for a brief port visit at Souda Bay, Crete, during this deployment. The caption notes that she was then operating on a six-month deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. According to the HSL-48 command history, on the return leg of this cruise, KAUFFMAN became the first U.S. ship to sail into Haifa, Israel, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and participated in a three-nation search-and-rescue exercise off the Israeli coast. These activities placed the frigate at the intersection of post-9/11 coalition operations and regional security cooperation.

In 2004, KAUFFMAN again underwent a significant yard period. From July 15 to September 22, 2004, she was in a ships restricted availability during which the Mk 53 Nulka decoy launching system was installed. Nulka provided an active off-board decoy against anti-ship missiles, enhancing the frigate's defensive capabilities in line with evolving missile threats. Open sources used here do not provide a detailed public narrative of all of KAUFFMAN's operations in the mid-2000s, but it is clear that she continued to conduct Atlantic and Caribbean deployments, including counter-drug missions. By 2007, KAUFFMAN was participating in operations along the West African coast. Contemporary reports and deployment summaries indicate that in early 2007, she took part in a West Africa deployment that included a four-day port visit to Port Gentil, Gabon, departing on February 14, and an arrival at Luanda, Angola, on February 20, 2007. These activities were part of an evolving U.S. Navy focus on maritime security cooperation in the Gulf of Guinea, working with regional navies to improve capacity against piracy, smuggling, and illegal fishing.

A 2008 cruise book and associated references indicate a 2008 deployment to Central America and the Caribbean in support of U.S. Southern Command's maritime security and counter-narcotics efforts, but the command histories themselves are not openly summarized in detail.

In the spring of 2010, KAUFFMAN took part in the large multinational exercise JOINT WARRIOR off Scotland. She is recorded arriving at the Clyde and transiting into the Gareloch for the exercise, operating alongside the cruiser USS VELLA GULF (CG 72), the destroyer USS LABOON (DDG 58), and other allied ships under the oversight of Destroyer Squadron 24. JOINT WARRIOR served as an independent deployment certification event for KAUFFMAN, proving her readiness for operations in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and beyond.

On May 3, 2010, KAUFFMAN arrived in Riga, Latvia, for a scheduled port call timed to honor the twentieth anniversary of Latvia's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. Photographs from May 10 show KAUFFMAN's participation in Victory in Europe Day commemorations in St. Petersburg, Russia, where a Russian honor guard and the minister of defense hosted U.S. 6th Fleet commander Vice Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr. and members of the ship's crew as part of ceremonies marking the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. These port visits highlighted a brief period of intensified NATO-Russia naval engagement before relations deteriorated again in the following decade. After her visit to St. Petersburg, KAUFFMAN returned to Norfolk.

On July 8, 2010, KAUFFMAN deployed from Norfolk for a scheduled deployment to the Middle East and into the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility, conducting counter-piracy operations in waters stretching from the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean, all while assigned to Standing NATO Maritime Group (SNMG) 1. On December 23, 2010, she returned to Naval Station Norfolk after a six-month deployment to the Fifth and Sixth Fleet areas, with official U.S. Navy imagery noting that she had deployed as part of SNMG-1 and carried out counter-piracy missions to increase maritime security and deter and disrupt piracy and related threats.

In late May 2011, the ship appeared very visibly on the public stage when she was selected for New York City's Fleet Week. On May 25, 2011, the guided-missile frigate transited the Hudson River during the Fleet Week 2011 parade of ships, passing Manhattan as part of the sea services' annual showcase. She was listed among the visiting ships for Fleet Week that year alongside amphibious assault ship USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7), amphibious transport dock USS NEW YORK (LPD 21), frigate USS JOHN L. HALL (FFG 32), frigate USS CARR (FFG 52) and Coast Guard cutters USCGC WILLOW, USCGC TAMPA and USCGC RELIANCE, underlining her continued role as a representative of the surface fleet to the public.

After returning from Fleet Week, KAUFFMAN resumed her normal pattern of operations from Norfolk, remaining available to the Atlantic Fleet while detailed accounts of day-to-day local training and short underway periods in 2011 are not published in open sources.

By 2012, USS KAUFFMAN was still assigned to the Atlantic surface force. Open sources that summarize that period emphasize her status and assignment rather than specific at-sea operations, and do not record any major independent deployment for the year. The ship therefore spent 2012 in the typical mix of upkeep, maintenance periods and Atlantic training operations that kept her and her crew at the required readiness level.

In 2013, broader budget pressures on the U.S. military had a direct impact on the frigate's schedule. As part of the measures associated with sequestration, the Navy canceled a planned KAUFFMAN deployment to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, alongside the deployment of hospital ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20) and a maritime civil affairs element. That planned cruise would have sent KAUFFMAN into the U.S. 4th Fleet area to support engagement and security cooperation missions in the Caribbean and Latin America, but its cancellation meant that the ship instead remained on the U.S. East Coast, continuing her training and readiness cycle from Norfolk while the surface force adjusted to the reduced operating budget.

In 2014, KAUFFMAN's flight-deck operations and aviation detachment became a focus of her activity as the Navy prepared both the ship and its embarked helicopters for one last deployment. Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light 60 (HSL-60) documented a detachment embarked in USS KAUFFMAN for a late-year evolution that combined an Independent Deployer Certification Exercise and Composite Training Unit Exercise (IDCERTEX/C2X) with participation in a JOINT WARRIOR iteration and associated Integrated Surface and Air Tactics Training (ISATT) in the Atlantic. In HSL-60's 2014 command history this detachment is listed specifically as "Detachment One / USS KAUFFMAN (FFG 59)" with operations described as FIRE SCOUT, IDCERTEX/C2X, JOINT WARRIOR and ISATT/C2X, conducted in the Atlantic Ocean between October 6 and October 28.

During this period, the ship's aviation team worked with SH-60B Seahawk helicopters and the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle, sharpening surface surveillance and targeting skills in a multi-threat training environment and completing the independent deployment certification demanded before an overseas cruise. The culmination of KAUFFMAN's late-career preparations came with her final deployment. On January 11, 2015, USS KAUFFMAN departed Naval Station Norfolk for the last time as an operational unit, getting underway for a deployment to the U.S. 4th Fleet area of responsibility in support of Operation Martillo.

Operation Martillo is a long-running multinational effort under U.S. Southern Command that targets illicit trafficking routes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, combining U.S. Navy and Coast Guard assets with partner-nation forces to disrupt the maritime movement of narcotics from Central and South America toward North America and beyond. Once in the Caribbean Sea early in the deployment, KAUFFMAN embarked an HSL-60 detachment nicknamed "The Immortals", operating SH-60B helicopters and integrating airborne surveillance with the ship's surface picture. Navy imagery from late January 2015 shows KAUFFMAN conducting high-speed turns and basic seamanship drills while deployed to the 4th Fleet area of responsibility as part of Operation Martillo, emphasizing that, even on her last cruise, the crew continued to drill core ship-handling skills. During these weeks, the ship's visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team repeatedly practiced tactical movements and boarding procedures on the flight deck and at sea in preparation for real interdiction operations against suspected traffickers.

On March 9, 2015, KAUFFMAN called at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A Navy photograph from that date shows sea-and-anchor detail as the ship moored at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, with the caption noting that KAUFFMAN was at that time underway in support of Operation Martillo within the 4th Fleet area of responsibility. The Guantanamo visit provided logistics support and an opportunity for short rest while the frigate shifted between patrol boxes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. Throughout the spring, the embarked helicopters flew frequent sorties - including documented night operations in February 2015 - while the crew and an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) maintained boarding teams at high readiness.

As the deployment progressed, KAUFFMAN's team began to achieve the law-enforcement results that Operation Martillo is designed to produce. The ship's LEDET used the embarked SH-60B's surveillance and cueing to direct intercepts of go-fast boats and other suspect craft in international waters, particularly in the Eastern Pacific where much of the cocaine flow toward North America is concentrated. According to a U.S. Navy press release issued July 8, 2015, one of the interdictions occurred on June 21 in the Eastern Pacific. During that event, KAUFFMAN, with her embarked Coast Guard personnel, intercepted a suspect vessel detected during routine patrol. After the helicopter from HSL-60 spotted the craft, the LEDET boarded it, discovered multiple bales of contraband and ultimately seized 598 kilograms of cocaine - valued at roughly $14.7 million - and detained three suspected traffickers. That press release also records that this late-deployment seizure raised KAUFFMAN's cumulative total of narcotics interdicted during the cruise to 8,499 kilograms, somewhat under 20,000 pounds, reflecting a series of successful boardings earlier in the deployment.

After completing operations in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, KAUFFMAN turned back toward the U.S. East Coast in the summer of 2015. On July 7, 2015, the ship was photographed in Mayport, Florida, offloading ammunition in the Naval Station Mayport basin "in preparation for decommissioning later this year", a clear signal that her operational work was finished and that she was entering the final administrative stages of her service.

Following this ammunition offload, the frigate proceeded to her homeport at Norfolk later in July, closing out the deployment and beginning the physical preparations for inactivation. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Navy coverage and USNI reports marked her return as the last scheduled deployment by an OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class frigate, underscoring the end of an era for that class in U.S. service. The formal end came on September 18, 2015, when friends, family members and former crew gathered at Naval Station Norfolk for KAUFFMAN's decommissioning ceremony. With this ceremony, Norfolk's last PERRY-class frigate left active service and only USS SIMPSON (FFG 56), based in Mayport, remained briefly in commission as the final active U.S. PERRY-class frigate.

After decommissioning, KAUFFMAN was removed from the Navy's active lists, closing a service life that had included more than twenty deployments across the Middle East, Africa, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean, with a particular emphasis on counter-narcotics and counter-piracy missions.

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Homeports of USS KAUFFMAN:

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USS KAUFFMAN Patch Gallery:

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USS KAUFFMAN Image Gallery:

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

The photos below were taken by Brian Barton on July 23, 2002, when USS KAUFFMAN departed Norfolk on her 2002 deployment to the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf.

The photos below were taken by me and show the KAUFFMAN at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 6, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the KAUFFMAN at NASSCO, Norfolk, Va., during her Selected Restricted Availability (SRA), in October 2013.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the decommissioned KAUFFMAN at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., waiting to be towed to Philadelphia, Penn., for lay-up. The photos were taken on October 6, 2015.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the KAUFFMAN laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Penn., shortly after her arrival from Norfolk, Va. The photos were taken on October 16, 2015.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the KAUFFMAN laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Penn., on October 7, 2018.

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