USS Sentry (MCM 3)

- decommissioned -

USS SENTRY was the third AVENGER-class Mine Countermeasures Ship. In mid-2012, SENTRY arrived in Manama, Bahrain, aboard the MV TERN changing her homeport from San Diego to Bahrain. She was decommissioned in Manama, Bahrain, on September 24, 2025, after decades of forward-deployed mine countermeasures service in the U.S. 5th Fleet area. According to U.S. Navy contracting and planning documents, she is slated to be transported by heavy-lift ship from Bahrain to the Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she will be laid up pending final disposal.

General Characteristics:	Keel Laid: October 8, 1984
	Launched: September 20, 1986
	Commissioned: September 2, 1989
	Decommissioned: September 24, 2025
	Builder: Peterson Shipbuilders, Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
	Propulsion System: four diesels
	Propellers: two
	Length: 224 feet (68.28 meters)
	Beam: 39 feet (11.89 meters)
	Draft: 11,5 feet (3.5 meters)
	Displacement: 1,312 tons
	Speed: 14 knots
	Armament: Mine neutralization system, two .50 caliber machine guns
	Crew: 8 Officers, 6 Chief Petty Officers and 58 Enlisted

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

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

Click here to view the list.

go to the end of the page

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

go to the end of the page

go to the end of the page

USS SENTRY History:

USS SENTRY was ordered on December 23, 1983, as part of the AVENGER-class mine countermeasures program that the U.S. Navy developed to give NATO and U.S. Commanders a modern capability to find and neutralize naval mines in congested coastal waters and strategic chokepoints. Built with a wooden hull sheathed in fiberglass to reduce magnetic signature, USS SENTRY was laid down on October 8, 1984, at the Peterson Builders yard in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, launched on September 20, 1986, and commissioned into service on September 2, 1989.

Upon commissioning, USS SENTRY joined the mine warfare force at Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, which became the principal U.S. base for dedicated mine countermeasures vessels in the late Cold War and immediate post-Cold War era. Through the early 1990s, she settled into the standard deployment and training rhythm for the AVENGER-class: periods of basic and advanced training in the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic, mine warfare exercises with other U.S. and allied units, and availability periods alongside for maintenance at Ingleside. The ship's mission was to provide a platform for high-definition mine-hunting sonar and remotely operated mine neutralization systems, allowing her to clear sea lanes and approaches to ports in support of both peacetime and contingency operations.

In 1993, USS SENTRY undertook a six-month deployment to European waters that marked her first extended overseas cruise. During this period, she joined the NATO Standing Naval Force Channel (STANAVFORCHAN), a multinational squadron responsible for mine warfare, escort and surveillance duties in the North Sea and English Channel, and took part in the NATO mine warfare exercise Blue Harrier in the Baltic Sea. The deployment reflected the post-Cold War focus on maintaining allied mine countermeasures proficiency in busy European sea lanes that had been heavily mined in both world wars and that remained strategically important for NATO reinforcement routes. Secondary references associate this 1993 cruise with a sequence of port calls around the North Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic, including ports in Belgium, Denmark, France, Portugal and Spain, but exact dates for individual visits are not consistently documented in publicly available sources.

Through the mid and late 1990s, USS SENTRY remained homeported at Ingleside and continued what the Navy later summarized as a "regular deployment cycle" out of that base. In practice this meant recurring mine warfare exercises in the Gulf of Mexico and western Atlantic, underway training in navigation, engineering and mine-hunting tactics, and periodic participation in larger fleet exercises where mine countermeasures ships cleared exercise minefields ahead of major amphibious or surface task groups. The ship's operations in this period fit into a broader U.S. effort to keep mine warfare skills sharp after the experience of the 1991 Gulf War, where Iraqi minefields had demonstrated the continuing relevance of dedicated MCM forces.

By March 16, 2000 USS SENTRY was photographed operating in company with coastal minehunter USS KINGFISHER (MHC 56), illustrating her integration into composite mine warfare groups that combined larger AVENGER-class ships with smaller coastal minehunters. In May 2002, another official photograph recorded USS SENTRY underway on the Hudson River, showing the ship operating in the approaches to New York. Although specific tasking for that period is not spelled out in open sources, the timing coincides with heightened port security and harbor defense efforts in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when mine countermeasures units were occasionally used to demonstrate and exercise capabilities in major U.S. ports.

On June 24, 2004, USS SENTRY was documented taking part in a basic seamanship and engineering evolution titled "tow and be-towed" off Ingleside. In that event, recorded in an official U.S. Navy photograph, mine countermeasures ship USS SCOUT (MCM 8) towed USS SENTRY and then swapped roles, each ship required to tow the other at a minimum of five knots and execute a controlled 90-degree turn. Evolutions of this type ensured that AVENGER-class crews could maintain control of one another in the event of propulsion casualties or mine damage and reinforced close coordination between ships in the mine warfare squadron. Throughout this period, USS SENTRY continued to cycle between basic training, certifications, and shorter deployments as part of the Ingleside-based mine warfare force.

Naval Station Ingleside's closure in the late 2000s drove a restructuring of the mine warfare basing concept. In September 2009, USS SENTRY shifted her homeport from Ingleside to Naval Base San Diego, California, where she reported to Commander, Mine Countermeasures Squadron TWO. The move placed the ship on the U.S. West Coast and aligned her with a group of AVENGER-class ships intended to support Pacific Fleet and Middle East mine warfare requirements. After arriving at San Diego in September 2009, USS SENTRY entered a period of local operations in the eastern Pacific: refresher training, mine warfare drills off southern California, and preparations for possible forward deployment. The broader geopolitical context at this time included growing concern over the vulnerability of key maritime chokepoints - especially the Strait of Hormuz - to mine threats from regional actors such as Iran.

On March 15, 2012, the U.S. Navy publicly announced that USS SENTRY would be one of several mine countermeasures ships moved to the Persian Gulf region to strengthen the mine warfare presence there. The decision formed part of a larger U.S. and allied effort to deter any attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz and to demonstrate the ability to keep oil and commerce flowing through the region. The Navy's official history notes that USS SENTRY arrived at Naval Support Activity Bahrain, the main logistics and command hub for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and U.S. 5th Fleet, in June 2012. From that point on, the ship was forward-deployed in the 5th Fleet area of operations on a scheme of roughly seven-month deployments, with crews rotating from San Diego to provide continuous manning.

Almost immediately after her arrival in theater, USS SENTRY began participating in multinational mine warfare exercises. In September 2012, official imagery shows USS SENTRY in formation with fellow mine countermeasures ship USS DEVASTATOR (MCM 6), the British destroyer HMS DIAMOND (D 34) and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary dock landing ship RFA CARDIGAN BAY (L 3009) in the Gulf of Oman during International Mine Countermeasures Exercise (IMCMEX) 2012. IMCMEX brought together mine warfare forces from multiple navies to practice locating and neutralizing simulated mine threats in and around key sea lanes leading to the Strait of Hormuz.

In May 2013, another series of official photographs recorded USS SENTRY taking part in International Mine Countermeasures Exercise 2013. One widely published image, dated May 21, 2013, shows French minehunter FS SAGITTAIRE (M 650), USS SENTRY and Royal Navy SANDOWN-class minehunter HMS SHOREHAM (M 112) maneuvering in formation in the Persian Gulf during the exercise. IMCMEX 2013 again emphasized multinational cooperation and interoperability in mine warfare and reflected the U.S. and coalition emphasis on safeguarding arterial shipping routes connecting the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean. USS SENTRY's participation with French and British minehunters in a complex exercise setting underlined her integration into a wider coalition mine warfare force.

On May 12, 2015, USS SENTRY was photographed in another strategically important chokepoint: the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb, which links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. In that image, Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit stand armed watch on USS SENTRY's deck as part of a small-caliber action team while the ship transits the heavily trafficked strait. The Marines were embarked from the 24th MEU, which was deployed on the ships of the IWO JIMA (LHD 7) Amphibious Ready Group, and had temporarily augmented USS SENTRY's force protection posture for the transit.

Throughout the mid-2010s, USS SENTRY remained forward-deployed in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. This region, as U.S. Central Command later summarized, includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean, plus the critical chokepoints at the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb. Within this maritime space USS SENTRY and her sister ships conducted a mixture of routine patrols, mine-hunting exercises, port visits and presence operations aimed at reassuring regional partners and deterring potential adversaries from using mines to disrupt shipping. Open sources indicate that USS SENTRY took part in repeated iterations of multinational mine warfare exercises and ongoing training with regional navies, although full year-by-year operational details are not publicly released.

A specific snapshot of these activities comes from the summer of 2019. A NAVCENT news release dated August 16, 2019, notes that USS SENTRY, together with USS DEVASTATOR, USS GLADIATOR (MCM 11) and USS DEXTROUS (MCM 13), completed mine warfare operations from July 5 to July 18 in the Arabian Gulf. While this release focuses on a two-week window, it illustrates the pattern of SENTRY's work in the Gulf: repeated underway periods, often with other MCMs, honing the skills needed to respond quickly if real mines were ever laid.

In parallel with these operations, USS SENTRY continued to serve as a platform for joint and combined training. Events like IMCMEX, later broadened into the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) series, brought together mine warfare, surface, air and unmanned systems from many countries. Although detailed public records for every iteration do not exist, USS SENTRY's permanent forward-deployed status in Bahrain meant she was regularly available for such exercises and demonstrations of mine-hunting and clearance techniques with allies and partners.

By the early 2020s, the AVENGER-class mine countermeasures ships, including USS SENTRY, were approaching four decades of service. The U.S. Navy had begun moving toward a new generation of mine countermeasures systems, including unmanned surface and underwater vehicles to be carried by other platforms. As those newer systems matured, the Navy planned the retirement of the aging wooden-hulled MCM ships. USS SENTRY, still based in Bahrain and serving under Commander, Naval Surface Group Central, continued to operate in the Gulf region during this transition period, maintaining mine warfare readiness and contributing to 5th Fleet's presence while plans for decommissioning were developed.

USS SENTRY was decommissioned in Manama, Bahrain, on September 24, 2025, after decades of forward-deployed mine countermeasures service in the U.S. 5th Fleet area. According to U.S. Navy contracting and planning documents, she is slated to be transported by heavy-lift ship from Bahrain to the Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she will be laid up pending final disposal. Current official indications point toward dismantling/scrapping rather than preservation as a museum ship, transfer to another navy, or use as a target.