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USS Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG 7)

USS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was the lead ship of the PERRY class of guided missile frigates. Built as the first "short hull" version in her class, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was lengthened in FY90 and received the SQQ-89 suite but was not equipped with RAST, leaving her unable to employ SH-60B helicopters.

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was homeported in Mayport, FL. Decommissioned on February 20, 1997, and stricken from the Navy list on May 3, 1999, the ship spent the following years laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, PA. OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was sold for scrapping to Metro Machine Corp., Philadelphia, PA., on September 9, 2005. Scrapping was completed in April 2006.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Name:

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry was born 3 August 1785 in South Kingston, R.I., and entered the Navy as a midshipman in 1799. After distinguished service in the Quasi-War with France and the Barbary Wars, Perry commanded American forces on Lake Erie in the War of 1812. There he won a decisive victory over the British on 10 September 1813 which gave control of the lakes to the United States. He died on board JOHN ADAMS lying off Port of Spain, Trinidad, 23 August 1819.

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Ship's History:

Commissioned at Bath, Maine, on 17 December 1977 after being ordered on 30 October 1973, laid down 12 June 1975, and launched 25 September 1976, USS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY entered service as the first of a new generation of US Navy guided-missile frigates. In 1978 she completed shakedown and rare full-ship shock-trial series-explosive tests that validated survivability standards for the steel-hulled, aluminum-superstructure design and left a long tail of alignment and superstructure-crack repairs.

As the Navy showcased its first-of-class, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY undertook public-outreach cruises on the Great Lakes: August-September 1978 and again in 1979, when she was photographed operating on Lake Erie (24 August 1979) and berthed at Milwaukee (5 September 1979). These trips paired recruiting events and open ships with seamanship and navigation training in confined waters - a useful counterpoint to Atlantic fleet workups.

In early 1980 the frigate began a busy operational rhythm. Underway in February, she ran two Caribbean periods with port calls at St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) and Curacao, then deployed to the Mediterranean from August to December 1980. A second Sixth Fleet deployment followed from August to December 1981. In May-June 1982, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY completed refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in July-August 1982 joined a South America cruise that emphasized group underway operations and interoperability.

From January to July 1983 she ranged from the Mediterranean through the Indian Ocean into the Persian Gulf during a period of heightened US presence operations. On 17 February 1983 she arrived at Port Said, Egypt, transited the Suez Canal, and continued east to join Gulf operations, crossing the Line on 2 May during the long deployment.

After mid-1980s fleet realignments, the ship shifted into the Naval Reserve Force: her homeport moved to Philadelphia on 1 April 1984 and she formally entered the Reserve Force on 16 June 1984. The pattern for the next years mixed Selected Reserve training weekends with Atlantic exercises and periodic maintenance. She returned to the Great Lakes for another recruiting cruise in June-September 1987, then entered an extended dry-docking availability from October 1989 to May 1990 that bundled hull, machinery, and combat-system upkeep.

Re-energized in the early 1990s, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY executed dedicated ASW readiness events and fleet exercises. In May 1992 she fired multiple live torpedoes in a SHAREM (Ship Anti-Submarine Warfare Readiness/Effectiveness Measuring) exercise and evaluated anti-torpedo tactics. In early 1993 she conducted a southern Caribbean counter-narcotics patrol, then battled a severe March storm on the return transit that caused structural cracking near the starboard hangar - damage the crew and Navy shipyard teams subsequently repaired.

Her most high-profile itinerary came in 1994. On 26 May, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY and the cruiser GETTYSBURG (CG 64) entered Halifax, Nova Scotia, then departed on 28 May for the Baltic to join BALTOPS 94. After arriving in Baltic waters on 6 June and completing multi-nation exercises, OLIVER HAZARD PERRY became - 17-19 June - one of the first US warships of the post-Cold-War era to visit the previously closed Russian port of Baltiysk (Kaliningrad Oblast), a symbolic waypoint in NATO-Russia naval engagement. She returned to Mayport on 16 July. Later that summer and into September she supported operations around Haiti - Able Vigil humanitarian interdiction in August, then Support/Uphold Democracy in September - embarking on-scene air-defense stations and maritime security duties and assisting in the recovery and care of hundreds of Cuban asylum seekers in the Florida Straits.

In 1996 the frigate completed Cruise-Missile Tactical Qualification by launching all four of her RGM-84 Harpoons, then sailed her final Great Lakes recruiting cruise from 14 June to 31 August. Ports included Duluth, Minnesota (10-14 July 1996), where she opened for public tours - part of a long tradition of bringing front-line ships to inland communities that remember namesake Commodore Perry's 1813 Lake Erie victory.

USS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY was decommissioned at Mayport on 20 February 1997 and stricken on 3 May 1999. She was laid-up with the inactive fleet at Philadelphia while museum-donation options were explored, was sold for scrapping in September 2005, and dismantling concluded in April 2006.

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Homeports of USS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY:

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