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USS Squall (PC 7)

USS SQUALL was the seventh CYCLONE - class patrol coastal boat. From November 2001 on, the CYCLONE - class ships were temporarily operated under US Coast Guard control for homeland defense. SQUALL was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on March 14, 2022, after nearly twenty-eight years of commissioned service. The decommissioning ceremony took place at Naval Support Activity Bahrain. She was subsequently turned over to the Royal Bahrain Naval Force. On March 30, 2022, two weeks after leaving U.S. service, she was commissioned into Bahraini service as RBNS AL-FAROOQ.

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Crew List:

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

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USS SQUALL History:

USS SQUALL originated in the early post-Cold War expansion of U.S. coastal and special operations capabilities, when the U.S. Navy ordered the CYCLONE-class patrol craft to provide fast, shallow-draft platforms for operations close to shore and in support of Naval Special Warfare forces. The contract for SQUALL was awarded on August 3, 1990, and the ship was built by Bollinger Shipyards at Lockport, Louisiana, a yard that constructed all of the CYCLONE-class. The patrol craft was laid down on February 17, 1993, launched on August 28, 1993, and delivered to the Navy on May 9, 1994. SQUALL was commissioned into U.S. Navy service on July 4, 1994, entering the fleet as the seventh ship of the CYCLONE class.

From the outset, USS SQUALL was assigned to Naval Special Warfare Command via Special Boat Squadron One, based at Coronado, California. Special Boat Squadron One controlled several patrol coastals, including USS HURRICANE (PC 3), USS MONSOON (PC 4), USS SQUALL and USS ZEPHYR (PC 8), and tasked them to deploy worldwide in support of training, exercises and contingency requirements for theater commanders, with a particular focus on the Pacific and Central Command regions.

Operating in this framework in the mid-1990s, SQUALL took part in a variety of coastal patrol, special operations support and training missions along the U.S. West Coast and in deployed waters. Open sources provide few day-to-day details for these early years, but it is clear that she was used as a small, fast, heavily armed platform to support Naval Special Warfare detachments, consistent with the mission profile of the CYCLONE-class under Special Boat Squadron One.

A major deployment came in 1997, when SQUALL and her sister ship USS ZEPHYR were sent to support Exercise UNITAS 38-97, the long-running series of combined naval exercises with Latin American navies. According to veterans' organizations and historical summaries of the CYCLONE-class, SQUALL and ZEPHYR completed a six-month deployment in support of UNITAS 38-97 that included a full circumnavigation of the South American continent. During this cruise, the patrol craft embarked with a larger U.S. task group and operated alongside other U.S. units and partner navies, conducting coastal operations, training serials and presence missions in a series of Latin American waters and ports. The deployment reflected the Navy's use of the CYCLONE-class as flexible, small units able to work closely with regional partners and to operate in confined coastal environments where larger combatants were less suited.

While still associated with Special Boat Squadron One, SQUALL also appeared in West Coast training events. On May 13, 1997, a photograph captured four CYCLONE-class ships of Special Boat Squadron One, Special Boat Unit 12 - HURRICANE, SQUALL, ZEPHYR and MONSOON - cruising in formation off the coast of San Diego. The image, taken after the class had been integrated into special operations support, shows the patrol craft operating as a small tactical group, highlighting their role as maneuverable, high-speed assets devoted to littoral operations and training.

In the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, USS SQUALL continued to serve under Naval Special Warfare Command but increasingly was drawn into broader fleet exercises and security missions. In 2000, she deployed to Hawaii to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2000 exercise. The RIMPAC 2000 organization listing includes SQUALL under Special Boat Squadron One, alongside helicopter units and support ships, as part of the multinational forces under U.S. Third Fleet. A Defense Visual Information Center photograph dated June 4, 2000 shows SQUALL moored pier-side at Merry Point in Pearl Harbor, painted in a distinctive splinter camouflage pattern while taking part in RIMPAC 2000. This deployment underscored how the patrol coastal ships were being used not only for special operations support but also for larger, multinational naval exercises, where their small-craft warfare skills and coastal patrol profile provided realism in scenarios involving swarming small-boat threats and harbor defense.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Navy increasingly employed the CYCLONE-class in homeland security roles on the U.S. coasts, and SQUALL was among the patrol craft used for such missions. Photographic evidence shows that by May 26, 2004, she was on homeland security patrol duty in the Pacific Northwest. On that date, she was photographed underway in Puget Sound on patrol around major naval installations at Naval Station Everett and Naval Submarine Base Bangor, providing a visible security presence near U.S. Navy facilities for warships and ballistic-missile submarines. The same series of images notes that at that time SQUALL was homeported in San Diego, indicating that she was temporarily operating in the Pacific Northwest while still administratively tied to a West Coast base. These patrols came in the early years of heightened post-9/11 port security and demonstrate how the CYCLONE-class, including SQUALL, were used to supplement Coast Guard and shore-based forces in protecting critical naval infrastructure and high-value units.

By the early 2010s, the Navy decided to concentrate most of the remaining CYCLONE-class ships in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility to support operations in the Arabian Gulf and adjacent waters. As part of this shift, the destroyer squadron responsible for patrol craft in 5th Fleet, Destroyer Squadron 50, oversaw a naval control of shipping exercise called Lucky Mariner 13 (LM13) that began on November 30, 2012. That exercise involved multiple time zones, several U.S. task forces and interagency participation, and included patrol coastal ships such as USS TEMPEST (PC 2), USS SQUALL and USS THUNDERBOLT (PC 12).

In 2013, SQUALL's forward-deployed role became permanent when she shifted homeport to Naval Support Activity Bahrain, in Manama, to join the concentration of CYCLONE-class units in the region under Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. This homeport change is noted in official summaries of the ship and in broader listings of CYCLONE-class patrol craft, which show SQUALL as based in Bahrain from this period until decommissioning. On July 3, 2013, a DVIDS photograph shows SQUALL transiting from Khalifa Bin Salman Port to Mina Salman pier at Naval Support Activity Bahrain. The caption explains that the arrival of SQUALL, TEMPEST and THUNDERBOLT increased the number of coastal patrol ships in 5th Fleet to eight, specifically to support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the region. From this point onward, SQUALL's operational life was dominated by routine patrol, escort, and exercise duties in the Arabian Gulf and surrounding waters under Task Force 55.

Soon after arriving in Bahrain, USS SQUALL became a regular participant in 5th Fleet exercises. On December 9, 2013, she was photographed transiting the Persian Gulf during exercise Spartan Kopis, a U.S. 5th Fleet training event designed to validate the use of joint aviation assets in a maritime environment and to exercise joint force command-and-control and communications. In this context, SQUALL operated as a surface platform working with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, mirroring the kind of joint environment she could encounter in real-world operations where air and surface assets must coordinate closely against fast inshore attack craft, mines or other threats.

In January 2015, Spartan Kopis again provided a detailed glimpse of SQUALL's operational employment. A U.S. Naval Forces Central Command photo from January 14, 2015 shows SQUALL steaming in the Arabian Gulf while acting as a simulated small-boat threat toward the guided-missile destroyer USS MITSCHER (DDG 57) during a strait-transit drill in Spartan Kopis 15-01. The exercise is described as a quarterly event integrating surface and aviation units to practice established tactics, techniques and procedures against small-boat threats and to maintain mine countermeasure defenses. At the time, MITSCHER was deployed in the 5th Fleet area supporting Operation Inherent Resolve and maritime security operations. SQUALL's role in the scenario illustrates how patrol coastal ships were used to help larger surface combatants train against realistic swarming threats in constrained waters such as the Strait of Hormuz.

USS SQUALL's most publicly visible operational incident occurred in August 2016 and reflected the tense maritime environment between U.S. forces and Iranian units in the northern Arabian Gulf. On August 24, 2016, while SQUALL and TEMPEST were operating in international waters of the northern Arabian Gulf alongside a Kuwaiti patrol boat, they were approached multiple times by small craft of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. According to U.S. 5th Fleet spokesmen, the Iranian craft repeatedly closed to short range, at one point to within about 200 yards of TEMPEST, ignoring radio calls, whistles, and warning flares. After these "unsafe and unprofessional" approaches and a near head-on situation that forced TEMPEST to maneuver to avoid collision, SQUALL ultimately fired three warning bursts from a .50-caliber machine gun into the water ahead of one of the approaching Iranian boats, causing it to turn away. Later the same day, one of the Iranian craft again maneuvered aggressively in front of the destroyer USS STOUT (DDG 55), prompting STOUT to take evasive action. The incident drew international media attention and was cited by U.S. officials as an example of increased Iranian harassment of U.S. ships at that time.

In addition to this high-profile encounter, official historical summaries note that on September 10, 2016, SQUALL took part in formation exercises in the Arabian Sea, reflecting continued use of the patrol coastal ships in coordinated maneuvers with other U.S. and partner units in the wider region beyond the confined waters of the northern Gulf.

Multinational exercises also remained a significant part of SQUALL's tasking. In February 2017, she participated in the Omani-hosted exercise Khunjar Haad, a multilateral surface, air and mine-countermeasures exercise conducted in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Contemporary reports and later summarized deployment histories for the mine countermeasures ship USS DEXTROUS (MCM 13) note that on February 19, 2017, DEXTROUS operated in company with patrol coastal ships USS MONSOON and USS SQUALL, as well as Royal Navy destroyer HMS DARING, French anti-air frigate FS FORBIN, and Royal Navy mine countermeasures vessels HMS BANGOR and HMS MIDDLETON, alongside Royal Navy of Oman corvette AL SHAMIKH and other Omani units. The exercise focused on improving interoperability in surface warfare, air defense, maritime security and mine warfare, and SQUALL's participation placed her within a complex multinational task group operating under Omani leadership.

By the end of the 2010s, the remaining CYCLONE-class ships based in Bahrain were almost continuously engaged in maritime security patrols, escort duties and regional exercises. USS SQUALL was a regular participant in bilateral and multilateral events with Gulf partners. In early 2020, she joined Nautical Defender 20, a bilateral maritime exercise between the U.S. Navy and the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. A DVIDS image dated February 21, 2020, shows SQUALL departing Naval Support Activity Bahrain for Nautical Defender 20, while a related series of images and captions documents U.S. and Saudi personnel conducting visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) training at Jubail, Saudi Arabia later that month, with SQUALL among the participating units. These activities emphasized maritime interdiction skills, combined training with Saudi forces and the reinforcement of long-term regional security cooperation.

Throughout 2020, USS SQUALL also featured in high-visibility movements of major U.S. combatants through the region. As tensions with Iran remained elevated, she operated with carrier strike group elements and other surface forces to demonstrate U.S. presence and freedom of navigation. U.S. Navy and media imagery from November 8, 2020, shows Vice Admiral Samuel Paparo, then Commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet, observing the aircraft carrier USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) from SQUALL's bridge wing in the Persian Gulf, illustrating the use of the small patrol craft as close escort and command platforms during carrier movements.

In 2021, SQUALL continued to feature in exercises designed to deepen cooperation with regional partners. During Neon Defender 21, a bilateral exercise between the United States and Bahrain held in April 2021, SQUALL operated alongside the Royal Bahrain Naval Force fast attack craft RBNS ABDUL RAHMAN AL FADEL, Bahrain Coast Guard boats, guided-missile destroyer USS MAHAN (DDG 72), patrol coastal ship USS HURRICANE, U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC ADAK and U.S. and Royal Saudi air assets.

Even as retirement plans for the CYCLONE-class solidified, USS SQUALL remained active. Information releases and imagery from January 2021 and later indicate that she continued to participate in iterations of Nautical Defender with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, operating alongside other patrol coastal ships and U.S. Coast Guard units in the Arabian Gulf to hone boarding procedures, escort skills and joint maritime command and control.

By 2021 and 2022, Navy planning documents such as the FY-22 projected ship inactivation schedule list SQUALL among the patrol coastal ships slated for foreign military sale and decommissioning. SQUALL was inactivated, decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on March 14, 2022, all on the same date, after nearly twenty-eight years of commissioned service. The decommissioning ceremony took place at Naval Support Activity Bahrain, reflecting her status as a long-term forward-deployed unit in the region.

Following decommissioning, USS SQUALL did not go directly to disposal. Instead, continuing the trend of transferring CYCLONE-class ships to partner navies, she was turned over to the Royal Bahrain Naval Force. On March 30, 2022, two weeks after leaving U.S. service, she was commissioned into Bahraini service as RBNS AL-FAROOQ. In that status she remained based in Bahrain and continued to operate in the same regional waters where she had spent the latter half of her U.S. Navy career, now as part of a partner navy's coastal defense and maritime security force.

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USS SQUALL Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by me and shows the SQUALL at the BAE Shipyard at Norfolk, Va., on October 28, 2010. Unfortunately, only the stern was visible.

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