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USS St. Louis (LCS 19)

USS ST. LOUIS is the 10th FREEDOM-variant hull littoral combat ship and the 7th ship in the Navy to bear the name of the city of St. Louis, Missouri.

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Crew List:

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

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USS ST. LOUIS History:

USS ST. LOUIS is a FREEDOM-variant littoral combat ship of the United States Navy, built by Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin, as part of the Navy's effort to field fast, modular surface combatants for operations in coastal waters and open ocean. She is the tenth FREEDOM-variant hull and the seventh U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of the city of St. Louis, Missouri. The construction contract for what would become ST. LOUIS was awarded on December 29, 2010, to the Lockheed Martin-led industry team building the FREEDOM-class ships.

On April 20, 2015, the Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, announced that Littoral Combat Ship 19 would carry the name USS ST. LOUIS. The naming release emphasized the long naval heritage connected to St. Louis, noting that previous ships of the name had patrolled the coasts of the Americas, suppressed piracy in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and supported U.S. maritime trade. The future ST. LOUIS was to be built at Marinette with a Lockheed Martin industry team.

Construction formally began with the keel-laying ceremony at Fincantieri Marinette Marine on May 17, 2017. In keeping with naval tradition, a welder authenticated the keel by welding the initials of the ship's sponsor, Barbara Broadhurst Taylor, onto a steel plate. The ceremony marked the start of module assembly for the 19th littoral combat ship, even though preliminary fabrication work on individual sections would already have been underway. At this stage, the broader LCS program was maturing: multiple FREEDOM-variant hulls were in various stages of construction at Marinette, while earlier ships were deploying from Mayport and San Diego.

The key milestone of launching and christening came on December 15, 2018, at Marinette. On that day, Barbara Broadhurst Taylor christened the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow, and the hull of LCS 19 was then launched sideways into the Menominee River from the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard. After launch, ST. LOUIS was moved to a fitting-out berth where combat systems, sensors and mission-package interfaces were installed and tested. By late 2019, the ship was ready for acceptance trials on Lake Michigan. In December 2019, the future ST. LOUIS conducted a series of graded in-port and underway evaluations overseen by the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey. According to Naval Sea Systems Command, the ship successfully concluded her acceptance trial on December 13, 2019, after completing the planned demonstrations of propulsion, maneuvering, navigation, communications and combat systems.

On February 6, 2020, the U.S. Navy formally accepted delivery of LCS 19 from the Lockheed Martin-Fincantieri Marinette Marine team during a ceremony on board the ship. Delivery represented the transition from a pre-commissioning construction program to a Navy asset undergoing post-delivery outfitting and trials in preparation for fleet service. After delivery, ST. LOUIS transited the Great Lakes and inland waterways on her way toward the Atlantic and her eventual homeport. Photographic evidence shows the ship passing downbound off Port Huron, Michigan, on June 21, 2020, as she left the upper Great Lakes for the lower lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway system. During this period, she continued post-delivery trials and worked through outstanding punch-list items typical of a new ship entering service.

ST. LOUIS was commissioned into active service on August 8, 2020, in a ceremony held at Naval Station Mayport, Florida. Because of public-health restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the commissioning took place as a small, largely virtual event rather than the traditional large public ceremony. Following commissioning, ST. LOUIS entered the post-commissioning phase that for FREEDOM-class ships combines additional testing, crew certifications and maintenance. Publicly available imagery shows her berthed at Naval Station Mayport in November 2020, reflecting her integration into the Mayport surface community. In these early years, she operated under the Navy's rotational crewing concept for littoral combat ships, with Blue and Gold crews alternating to maximize the ship's operational availability.

During this time, the Navy discovered and began addressing a design defect in the RENK combining gear used on FREEDOM-variant LCS propulsion systems. By late 2021 and into 2022, the Navy and Lockheed Martin had developed a technical fix for the combining gear problem, which had previously led to operational restrictions on some ships. ST. LOUIS was singled out early as the only in-service FREEDOM-variant LCS then scheduled to receive the full combining-gear modification, even as budget documents proposed her for early decommissioning. To implement the repair, ST. LOUIS underwent a rigorous post-commissioning availability at a BAE Systems shipyard in Jacksonville, Florida, where the combining gear was replaced and associated systems were overhauled. A Navy change-of-command article later described this availability as a major undertaking accomplished under the command of Commander Eric Turner, whose two-year tour oversaw the ship's transition from newly commissioned platform to an operationally ready unit with the combining-gear fix completed.

Despite the Navy's 2022 proposal to decommission several FREEDOM-variant LCS, including ST. LOUIS, as part of a rebalancing of resources away from the troubled anti-submarine warfare mission package, congressional debate and broader strategic assessments ultimately kept ST. LOUIS in active service. Commentary noted the seeming paradox of investing in an expensive combining-gear fix for a ship slated for decommissioning, and ST. LOUIS became a case study in the evolving view of where the LCS fit within the future fleet.

On January 13, 2023, ST. LOUIS held a change-of-command ceremony at Mayport. Commander Jon Williams relieved Commander Eric Turner as commanding officer of the ship's Blue Crew in a ceremony on board. The Navy's report on the event emphasized that under Turner's leadership the ship had successfully completed the demanding combining-gear availability at BAE and restored her readiness for sea, and that Williams, previously executive officer of USS LITTLE ROCK (LCS 9) Blue, was assuming command as the ship prepared for future operations.

Through 2023, ST. LOUIS continued to work up from Mayport. Publicly released material highlights training and leadership events for the crew and the broader LCS community rather than specific at-sea operations, but it is clear that the ship was progressing toward her first long deployment. In early 2024, she was photographed underway during testing near Mayport, reflecting final preparations and certifications.

ST. LOUIS began her maiden deployment on June 15, 2024, when she departed Naval Station Mayport for operations in the U.S. 4th Fleet area of responsibility. A Stars and Stripes account reported that she sailed to support missions against illicit drug trafficking in the Caribbean, with the "Rangers" of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 50 Detachment 4 embarked, together with a U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment. A later official Navy narrative identified the deployment as lasting from June 15, 2024, to February 24, 2025, and as her first extended operational period.

During the early phase of this deployment, ST. LOUIS operated primarily in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific under U.S. Southern Command and U.S. 4th Fleet, assigned to Task Force 45/Destroyer Squadron 40. With Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 50 Detachment 4 and U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachments 105 and 407 embarked, she conducted counter-drug patrols and interdictions aimed at disrupting transnational criminal organizations moving narcotics by sea. Over the course of five separate operations, the ship and her embarked forces disrupted and confiscated more than 100 million dollars' worth of illicit contraband, according to Navy figures.

In August 2024, ST. LOUIS transited the Panama Canal and entered the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Operating along the Pacific coasts of Central and South America, she deployed farther south than any previous FREEDOM-variant littoral combat ship, reaching Valparaiso, Chile. There she participated in UNITAS 65, the 65th iteration of the long-running multinational maritime exercise first held in 1959. Operating alongside naval forces from 44 countries, ST. LOUIS took part in events designed to improve interoperability, practice combined operations, and demonstrate collective commitments to regional maritime security.

After completion of these Pacific events, ST. LOUIS again transited the Panama Canal to return to the Caribbean. Her mission set then shifted when she received new orders to support U.S. Southern Command's Joint Task Force-Bravo (JTF-Bravo) in response to the deteriorating security situation in Haiti. In this phase, the ship served as an afloat fueling station and search-and-rescue platform for UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters of the 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, which were conducting evacuations from Haiti. ST. LOUIS and the helicopter unit executed more than 50 deck landings to validate procedures and sustain operations, demonstrating the ship's ability to support sustained rotary-wing traffic and act as a forward-deployed logistics hub.

Toward the end of the deployment, ST. LOUIS was tasked to support Joint Task Force Operation Southern Guard at U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She arrived at Guantanamo at the end of January 2025 and provided personnel and support to expand the base's Maritime Operations Center and associated facilities for handling migrants. Navy reporting describes her sailors erecting 50 tents and setting up several hundred cots in a short period, preparing the site to receive up to 2,000 people as part of Department of Homeland Security–led operations. ST. LOUIS concluded her maiden deployment when she returned to Naval Station Mayport on February 24, 2025. The Navy characterized the eight-month cruise as a deployment marked by "many firsts", including operations in both the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, the far-southern deployment to Valparaiso and UNITAS, intensive counter-drug work with Coast Guard detachments, support to JTF-Bravo in Haiti, and participation in Operation Southern Guard.

After a post-deployment stand-down and maintenance period, ST. LOUIS returned to sea in the summer of 2025. On August 21, 2025, while operating in Tampa Bay, Florida, the ship experienced a casualty to one of her main propulsion diesel engines. In what Navy sources describe as the first self-sufficient at-sea engine repair of its kind on a littoral combat ship, the crew conducted a complex main propulsion diesel engine repair using only shipboard tools and expertise, without contractor assistance, and restored full propulsion while remaining on mission.

In the latter part of 2025, ST. LOUIS undertook a surge deployment in support of maritime homeland defense under U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM). Operating in what Navy releases termed the "Gulf of America", she deployed with Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 50 Detachment 5, the "Valkyries", and an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 408. Under USNORTHCOM authorities and in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the ship conducted maritime interdiction operations intended to prevent the flow of illegal drugs and other illicit activity toward the U.S. southern border. During this surge deployment, ST. LOUIS also made at least one documented port visit. Imagery indicate that she moored at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, from October 15 to October 22, 2025, before getting underway again.

USS ST. LOUIS completed this USNORTHCOM surge deployment when she returned to Naval Station Mayport on November 10, 2025.

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