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USS Hercules (PHM 2)

USS HERCULES was the second PEGASUS class hydrofoil boat. She was named for the constellation HERCULES, son of ZEUS in Greek mythology, and is the fourth ship in the US Navy to bear the name. Last homeported in Key West, Florida, the HERCULES - as well as her five sister ships - were decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on July 30, 1993. HERCULES was sold for scrapping on August 2, 1996.

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Crew List:

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

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USS HERCULES History:

USS HERCULES emerged from a Cold War era effort to field very fast, missile-armed patrol combatants built around hydrofoil technology - an approach meant to give small crews a way to cover large maritime areas quickly, while still being able to deliver credible firepower. In the mid-1970s, while the patrol hydrofoil missile program was still being debated and re-scoped, construction of the second ship of the series - the hull that would become USS HERCULES - was suspended with the vessel described as roughly 40 percent complete, reflecting the program's early turbulence and shifting priorities.

By the early 1980s, the program had regained enough momentum that USS HERCULES was completed as an improved example of the class. Built by Boeing Marine Systems and launched in Seattle, Washington on April 13, 1982, she was described at the time of decommissioning as the last of the Navy's patrol hydrofoil missile ships built by Boeing, incorporating "additional modifications and improvements" not found in the earlier five ships of the class. USS HERCULES entered commissioned service on January 15, 1983.

Once in service, USS HERCULES operated as part of the hydrofoil force based in Key West, Florida, a posture that fit both the regional geography and the missions the Navy increasingly emphasized in the 1980s: readiness, rapid response, and maritime law-enforcement support in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. From early in her career, the ship's combat system employment was pushed beyond demonstrations into practical, high-end events: the decommissioning program credits USS HERCULES as the first ship of the hydrofoil patrol combatant class to conduct a live Harpoon missile firing - an event highlighted not merely as a test, but as a demonstration of proficiency.

In 1984, USS HERCULES' operating schedule included major fleet and combined exercises alongside the ship's steady Key West-centered operational tempo. During Operation Ocean Venture '84 - a joint-service exercise run from April 20, 1984 through May 5, 1984 - USS HERCULES served as plane guard for USS AMERICA (CV 66), an employment that underlined how the Navy was experimenting with using the hydrofoils in support roles around carrier operations in addition to independent patrol tasks. That same year, she was also credited with participation in a law-enforcement operation identified as Spore Tailgate, during which she recorded her first two drug seizures.

Alongside those U.S.-focused activities, 1984 also saw USS HERCULES involved in UNITAS XXV, the long-running series of multinational naval exercises with South American partners that, in the 1980s, doubled as a practical demonstration of U.S. maritime presence and interoperability in the Western Hemisphere. A contemporaneous naval history entry notes USS HERCULES tied up with USS ARIES (PHM 5) on June 15, 1984 during the first phase of UNITAS XXV. Later in the same exercise cycle, USS HERCULES was photographed operating near Vieques Island on September 23, 1984. During UNITAS XXV, the ship also was the first hydrofoil patrol combatant to conduct foilborne naval gunfire support, a detail that matters because firing the gun while "up on the foils" was exactly the kind of demanding employment that tested whether the hydrofoil concept translated into practical combat capability.

Across the later 1980s, USS HERCULES continued operating from the Key West area within the broader squadron pattern of frequent underways, short-notice tasking, and a mix of training and real-world operations. A clear snapshot of that tempo appears on June 21, 1987, when USS HERCULES was documented operating off Key West during an underway replenishment evolution alongside USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69), underscoring that - even as a small combatant - she was integrated into larger fleet routines when needed.

USS HERCULES earned the Battle "E" in 1988, reflecting a measured peak of unit performance within the competitive readiness framework used by the Navy. In parallel with exercises and fleet support events, the ship's identity in public record became increasingly tied to maritime interdiction. By then, USS HERCULES had made more individual drug seizures - twelve - than any other surface ship in the United States Navy, and that she earned multiple joint and Coast Guard unit awards connected to those kinds of operations (including Joint Meritorious Unit Awards and Coast Guard unit commendations). These claims reflect the strategic and political context of the period: by the late 1980s and early 1990s, the U.S. government's maritime counterdrug effort had become a persistent mission set in the Caribbean and approaches to the southeastern United States, and the hydrofoils' speed made them attractive platforms for chasing small, fast targets.

By the early 1990s, USS HERCULES' operations also intersected with maritime migration and humanitarian realities in the Florida Straits and nearby waters. The ship rescued 56 Cuban refugees between July 1992 and March 1993 and brought them to safety - an extended window that suggests repeated encounters rather than a single event. USS HERCULES again earned the Battle "E" in 1992, meaning that even late in the class's service life she was still being evaluated as an active, high-performing unit rather than a platform in a long drawdown.

The end of USS HERCULES' active career came quickly and collectively, shaped less by ship-specific condition than by force-structure decisions in the post-Cold War drawdown. On June 13, 1993, USS HERCULES was documented traveling in formation with the rest of the hydrofoil squadron - USS PEGASUS (PHM 1), USS TAURUS (PHM 3), USS AQUILA (PHM 4), USS ARIES (PHM 5), and USS GEMINI (PHM 6) - en route to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia for the class's final ceremonies.

On July 30, 1993, USS HERCULES was decommissioned as part of that group event, an unusually synchronized retirement of an entire class. After a lay-up period on the James River, Virginia, ex-HERCULES was sold for scrapping on 2 August 1996.

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