Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Cooperstown (LCS 23)

USS COOPERSTOWN is the 12th FREEDOM-variant littoral combat ship and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name, honoring the village of Cooperstown, New York, and specifically the Baseball Hall of Fame members who served in the armed forces.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS COOPERSTOWN memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS COOPERSTOWN History:

USS COOPERSTOWN is a FREEDOM-variant littoral combat ship designed for high-speed, shallow-draft operations with modular mission packages for mine countermeasures, surface warfare, and anti-submarine warfare. She is the first U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, honoring the village of Cooperstown, New York, and specifically the Baseball Hall of Fame members who served in the armed forces. Her motto, "America's Away Team", links that sporting heritage to her role as a forward-deployed combatant.

The ship emerged from the Navy's block-buy contract for FREEDOM-variant littoral combat ships awarded to the Lockheed Martin-led team building at Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin. On July 25, 2015, during a ceremony associated with the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that LCS 23 would be named USS COOPERSTOWN, explicitly dedicating the ship to Hall of Famers who had worn military uniforms in conflicts from the Civil War through the Korean War. In the following years, her hull modules were fabricated in Marinette and assembled on the yard's outdoor erection line as part of a continuous production run of FREEDOM-variant hulls.

On August 14, 2018, a keel-laying and authentication ceremony at Marinette formally marked the start of hull assembly. In maritime tradition, a plate bearing the sponsor's initials was welded into the structure, symbolically tying the ship to her sponsor and to the Cooperstown community. By November 2019, the ship was well along in construction and outfitting when Vice President Mike Pence visited Marinette on November 20, 2019, touring the nearly complete COOPERSTOWN and other LCS hulls as part of a speech highlighting naval shipbuilding and regional employment. The ship entered the water on January 19, 2020, when she was transferred via transporters into a launch basin and floated for the first time on the Menominee River, transitioning from structural assembly to full systems outfitting. On February 29, 2020, she was christened COOPERSTOWN at the yard, with her sponsor breaking a ceremonial bottle across the bow in keeping with naval custom.

Throughout 2020, COOPERSTOWN remained based in the Great Lakes while shipyard workers and Navy representatives completed the installation and integration of combat systems, sensors, communication suites, and aviation facilities. In December 2020, she conducted acceptance trials on Lake Michigan, demonstrating propulsion, maneuvering, navigation, weapons, and aviation operations under the supervision of the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey. High-speed runs and maneuvering trials in winter conditions validated the performance of the hull and combining gear within the limitations imposed by emerging FREEDOM-variant propulsion concerns. After further post-trial work, the Navy formally accepted delivery of COOPERSTOWN at Marinette on September 20, 2022, making her the twelfth FREEDOM-variant LCS delivered to the fleet. At that point she became a pre-commissioning unit under littoral combat ship squadron two.

With delivery complete, the crew moved aboard and began readying the ship for her transit to her East Coast homeport. In late September 2022, the crew marked a mast-stepping ceremony, placing symbolic items linked to the Hall of Fame veterans beneath the base of the mast before it was permanently fixed, reinforcing the ship's commemorative identity. In November 2022, COOPERSTOWN departed Marinette and began her "sail-around", passing through four of the Great Lakes, entering the Saint Lawrence Seaway, and navigating roughly 730 miles of confined inland and coastal waters before exiting into the Atlantic. Observers recorded her passage under the Thousand Islands Bridge as she left the seaway. By the end of this transit, she had rounded the U.S. East Coast and arrived at Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville, which became her homeport for subsequent trials and training.

In early 2023, COOPERSTOWN operated from Mayport in local training areas to continue post-delivery testing and crew certifications. On March 11, 2023, while conducting routine operations off the southeastern United States, she responded to a distress call from a civilian sailing vessel and rendered assistance, an early operational incident recorded in Navy reporting as a rescue at sea. As preparations for commissioning progressed, the ship sailed north to New York. In late April 2023, she arrived in New York harbor and moored at Pier 88 on Manhattan's west side, near the preserved carrier INTREPID (CVS 11).

On May 6, 2023, USS COOPERSTOWN was commissioned at Pier 88 in New York City, across from the INTREPID Sea, Air & Space Museum. The ceremony formally placed the ship in active service and underscored her link to both the Navy and the baseball community; she was the first U.S. Navy ship commissioned in New York since USS NEW YORK (LPD 21) in 2009. Following commissioning, she returned to Mayport and entered a period of intensive trials and training. During the remainder of 2023, she completed combat-system testing and final contract sea trials, including live-fire gunnery with her 57-millimeter main gun and small-caliber weapons, flight operations from the stern flight deck, and boat handling from the stern ramp. She also took on public-outreach duties, including a visit to Philadelphia for Navy Week, where she moored on the Delaware River, hosted receptions, and opened for public tours that brought thousands of visitors aboard.

On February 26, 2024, COOPERSTOWN held a change-of-command ceremony at Mayport. Commander Daxton Moore, who had led the ship through delivery, sail-around, the early rescue at sea, commissioning in New York, and major outreach events, was relieved by Commander Patrick Earls. Under the new command team, the ship's focus shifted increasingly toward longer-term readiness, scheduled maintenance, and modernization. In line with the Navy's efforts to address reliability issues on the FREEDOM variant and upgrade mission systems, COOPERSTOWN entered maintenance periods in the Jacksonville area, including work at local yards identified for FREEDOM-class sustainment. These availabilities concentrated on improving propulsion and auxiliary-system reliability and updating key combat-system elements.

From late 2024 into mid-2025, movement records show COOPERSTOWN alternating between shipyard and Naval Station Mayport as dockings and pier-side availabilities were completed. On January 15, 2025, she undocked from a dry dock at a Jacksonville shipyard and shifted to a nearby pier. On February 13, she returned to Mayport and moored at Wharf D2, then later at Wharf C2, as she prepared for a return to sea. Short underways from Mayport on May 9 and June 25, 2025, tested systems following maintenance and exercised the crew in standard evolutions. Another brief underway followed on July 11. On July 21, she moored at Wharf D3 at Mayport and on August 1 she shifted again to Wharf D4, continuing a pattern of short sea periods and pier moves typical of a ship completing maintenance and workups.

In the second half of 2025, COOPERSTOWN took part in her most complex operational activity to date when she joined UNITAS 2025, the long-running multinational maritime exercise. From September 15 to October 3, 2025, she participated as the designated "robotics and autonomous systems" hub, operating in the Atlantic with forces from more than twenty partner and allied nations. Embarked technicians operated the V-BAT unmanned aircraft system from her flight deck, using the tail-sitting vertical-takeoff drone to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for scenarios throughout the exercise. The ship's role as a launch and control platform for unmanned aircraft demonstrated how the FREEDOM-variant design could integrate emerging robotic systems into multinational maritime operations. During UNITAS 2025, MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL (LCS 21) also operated in the exercise, reflecting a growing presence of FREEDOM-variant hulls in Western Hemisphere partnership activities.

After UNITAS, COOPERSTOWN continued to be used as a public-engagement platform. In November 2025, she again visited Philadelphia, this time in support of Navy and Marine Corps 250th anniversary commemorations, mooring on the Delaware River and hosting events linked to the broader celebration of naval heritage. Around the same time, the ship's leadership changed once more. On November 21, 2025, while the ship was at sea, she held an underway change-of-command ceremony at which commander Patrick Earls was relieved by Commander Andrew Masters. Navy accounts credited Earls with overseeing the ship's major dry-dock availability, her participation in UNITAS 2025, her role in the 250th anniversary events, and the completion of basic-phase certifications that positioned COOPERSTOWN for her first full operational deployment.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS COOPERSTOWN Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Littoral Combat Ships List.

Back to Ships List.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.