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USS Devastator (MCM 6)

USS DEVASTATOR was the sixth of the fourteen AVENGER-class Mine Countermeasures Ships and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name. In mid-2012, the DEVASTATOR arrived at Manama, Bahrain aboard the MV TERN changing her homeport from San Diego to Bahrain. After 13 years of operations out of Bahrain, DEVASTATOR was both decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on September 25, 2025.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Equipment:

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Accidents aboard USS DEVASTATOR:

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USS DEVASTATOR History:

The story of USS DEVASTATOR begins in the mid-1980s, when the U.S. Navy moved to expand its dedicated mine countermeasures force after the experience of tanker and warship mining in the Persian Gulf. A construction contract for the sixth unit of the new AVENGER-class was awarded on August 20, 1986, to Peterson Builders in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, a yard chosen for its expertise in wooden-hulled construction with low magnetic signatures. The keel of DEVASTATOR was laid on February 9, 1987, and over the following months the yard assembled a hull built of oak, Douglas fir and Alaskan cedar sheathed in fiberglass, designed to minimize magnetic and acoustic signatures in minefields. The ship was launched on June 11, 1988, and then completed outfitting and trials before being formally accepted by the Navy on August 31, 1990. DEVASTATOR was commissioned into active service on October 6, 1990, at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, with Commander Dwaine E. Eisold as her first commanding officer and a crew of roughly 80 officers and enlisted sailors.

Following commissioning, DEVASTATOR conducted post-shakedown operations from Newport, working up her mine-hunting sonar and remotely operated mine neutralization vehicles and building basic proficiency in mine countermeasures tactics. As the Navy continued to focus on the Persian Gulf after Operation Desert Storm, DEVASTATOR was sent to the region in 1991. In October 1991, she took part in a hull-swap and crew exchange with USS GUARDIAN (MCM 5) at Manama, Bahrain. During this evolution, Commander George J. Smith Jr. assumed command of DEVASTATOR, bringing aboard a seasoned mine-warfare crew that had already operated in the demanding waters of the Gulf. Sea trials and shakedown activity in theater followed, before the ship returned to the United States to resume training and preparations for full integration into the mine warfare force.

In late 1992, the Navy consolidated its dedicated mine countermeasures ships at the newly established mine warfare homeport at Naval Station Ingleside on the Texas coast. DEVASTATOR departed the Northeast in autumn and, after a roughly 38-day transit that combined training and logistics stops, arrived at her new homeport of Ingleside on November 13, 1992, with the administrative homeport change effective from November 1. There, she reported to Mine Countermeasures Squadron One and began routine local operations in the Corpus Christi and Gulf of Mexico operating areas, repeatedly exercising mine detection, classification and disposal procedures and refining her engineering readiness under squadron oversight. These early years included demanding engineering inspections such as an Operational Propulsion Plant Examination and explosive safety assessments that established baseline standards for the ship's later deployments.

DEVASTATOR's first major overseas deployment began on February 16, 1993, when she sailed from Ingleside for a six-month deployment with the U.S. 6th Fleet in the North Atlantic and European waters. Over the course of this cruise, which lasted until August 13, 1993, the ship operated in the North Atlantic, the Norwegian Sea and the Baltic as well as in more southerly European waters. She conducted port visits to Oostende in Belgium, Aarhus in Denmark, Lisbon in Portugal, Cadiz and Vigo in Spain, and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, combining diplomatic presence and rest periods with resupply and minor upkeep. During the deployment, DEVASTATOR completed a Mine Readiness Certification Inspection on March 3, 1993, formally validating her mine-countermeasures proficiency, and participated in multinational NATO exercises including Blue Harrier and Linked Seas, where she worked alongside allied mine warfare forces to practice minehunting and "lead-through" operations that would be required to keep sea lines of communication open in crisis or conflict.

After returning to Texas in August 1993, the ship entered an extended maintenance and training cycle at Ingleside. A phased maintenance availability that began in mid-1993 focused on hull, machinery and mine-warfare system upkeep, reflecting normal mid-life requirements for a wooden-hulled ship operating in warm salt water. In October 1993, DEVASTATOR underwent an explosives safety inspection that reviewed magazines, handling procedures and ordnance stowage practices, and the results were noted as particularly strong. Through 1994 and 1995, she alternated between yard periods, pier-side maintenance and local training operations, including a Tailored Ship's Training Availability in March 1995 that brought the crew through successive drills in engineering, navigation, damage control and mine warfare. Command passed to Lieutenant Commander Jeffery S. Jones on January 1, 1995, and under his leadership the ship continued to refine minehunting drills in the Gulf of Mexico operating areas, ensuring that the crew remained ready for another extended deployment as NATO and U.S. planners continued to emphasize mine warfare capability in European and Middle Eastern waters.

In 1997, DEVASTATOR returned to the 6th Fleet area for a second Mediterranean deployment, participating in the mine warfare exercise series often referred to as EURO 97. During this period, she again worked with allied minehunters and support ships, repeating route-survey and mine clearance scenarios in European coastal waters amid the post-Cold War focus on regional crises in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean. As before, the deployment combined operational training with port calls supporting logistics and crew rest, though the detailed sequence of ports has not been publicly documented in the same granularity as the 1993 cruise. By the end of the decade, DEVASTATOR had established herself as a regular contributor to Atlantic Fleet mine warfare readiness, cycling through inspections, certifications and multinational training with a focus on the Gulf of Mexico and 6th Fleet theaters.

The early 2000s brought a more operational tempo and a series of leadership changes. On February 24, 2000, Lieutenant Commander Clifford A. Pish assumed command, taking over an Alpha-crew leadership position within the dual-crew system that the AVENGER-class used to maximize deployment time. That same year, DEVASTATOR completed a significant phased maintenance availability at Peterson Ship Repair in Ingleside, which included hull work and upgrades to the AN/SQQ-32 mine-hunting sonar. A technical availability from August 5 to 16, 2000, implemented Ship Alteration 109K, modernizing the sonar to the (V)3 standard with improved classification arrays and software, and the ship also underwent further dry-dock work and diesel inspections extending into 2001. In August 2000, she diverted from training to assist in search-and-rescue operations for a downed MH-53 helicopter in the Corpus Christi operating area, reflecting the way mine countermeasures ships could support local maritime safety tasks in addition to their specialized role.

With the international security environment shifting after the attacks of September 11, 2001, DEVASTATOR's deployments increasingly intersected with the broader Global War on Terrorism. Earlier that year, on February 15, 2001, she had departed Ingleside for a roughly five-and-a-half-month deployment to the eastern Pacific, where she conducted exercises and interoperability training with other U.S. and allied units, emphasizing minehunting tactics in littoral waters. In 2003, the ship undertook a more directly operational mission: on January 13, 2003, she sailed for a five-month deployment to the Mediterranean in support of what would become Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this deployment, DEVASTATOR conducted route-survey operations near the Suez Canal and in adjacent sea lanes, checking for potential mine threats and helping ensure that logistics and combatant ships moving toward the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea could transit safely as tensions with Iraq built and coalition operations began in March 2003. After returning to Ingleside around June 2003, she resumed a pattern of inspections, local training and shorter exercises. Command changed several times in this period, with Lieutenant Commander Kendall Gennick assuming command on July 1, 2003, followed in later years by Lieutenant Commander John K. Reilley on December 14, 2006 and Lieutenant Commander Matthew Tucker on November 25, 2007, reflecting normal rotation within the small-ship community.

DEVASTATOR also took part in a number of regionally focused deployments and exercises outside the central war zones. On February 3, 2005, she visited Mobile, Alabama, for Mardi Gras, a port call that combined community relations with resupply and maintenance. Later that spring, on April 1, 2005, the ship departed Ingleside for a five-month deployment to the eastern Pacific and the U.S. Southern Command region, returning on August 29 after operations that included mine-countermeasures training and cooperation with U.S. and partner-nation forces in Western Hemisphere waters. Throughout this era, the ship routinely supported Gulf of Mexico exercises, including Gulf of Mexico Exercise (GOMEX) 08-2, completed in November 2007, which focused on minehunting and neutralization scenarios off the U.S. Gulf Coast. On July 8, 2008, she conducted sea trials off Texas to test upgraded minesweeping equipment following maintenance, demonstrating the Navy's continued investment in keeping the aging wooden-hulled class technically relevant.

As the mine warfare force shifted westward, DEVASTATOR's homeport changed again. In 2009, the Navy closed Naval Station Ingleside and relocated the AVENGER-class ships to the Pacific. DEVASTATOR departed Texas in the spring and, after a roughly month-long transit that combined training at sea with fuel and logistics stops, arrived at Naval Base San Diego on May 22, 2009, joining Mine Countermeasures Squadron Seven and aligning her future activities with Pacific Fleet and Middle East requirements. Photographs from this period show the ship mooring at her new California homeport following arrival from the Gulf Coast. The move reflected a broader strategy that anticipated sustained demand for mine countermeasures in the Arabian Gulf and western Pacific.

DEVASTATOR's new basing enabled participation in major fleet exercises. In 2010, she took part in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, operating from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, in late June. During RIMPAC 2010, she contributed to multinational mine warfare scenarios alongside a wide array of allied ships and aircraft, practicing detection and clearance of simulated minefields to keep approaches to strategic ports and sea lanes open. Two years later, the ship transitioned from a U.S. homeport to a forward-deployed posture: in 2012, DEVASTATOR was transported aboard a heavy-lift ship to Naval Support Activity Bahrain in Manama, where she joined other AVENGER-class ships permanently based in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. From Bahrain, she began a series of rotations throughout the Arabian Gulf and nearby waters, conducting minehunting exercises, patrols around key chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, and presence operations in support of regional maritime security.

Throughout the 2010s, DEVASTATOR became a familiar presence in 5th Fleet mine warfare exercises and multinational operations. In November 2014, she was photographed in the Gulf of Oman coming alongside the British landing ship dock RFA CARDIGAN BAY (L 3009) during the International Mine Countermeasures Exercise (IMCMEX), a large multinational event that drew a substantial fraction of the world's navies to practice mine clearance, maritime security operations and infrastructure protection in and around the 5th Fleet area. Operating alongside British and other allied forces, DEVASTATOR used her sonar, remotely operated vehicles and minesweeping gear in realistic scenarios designed to protect shipping lanes and critical offshore infrastructure.

In March 2019, she experienced one of the more serious shipboard incidents of her career when a fire broke out pierside at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on March 14, around 20:00 local time. Sailors from DEVASTATOR, sister mine countermeasures ships USS SENTRY (MCM 3), USS GLADIATOR (MCM 11) and USS DEXTROUS (MCM 13), and patrol coastal ship USS WHIRLWIND (PC 11), together with the NSA Bahrain fire department, brought the blaze under control within about an hour. There were no injuries, and subsequent reports indicated only limited damage to the forward berthing area.

In the early 2020s, the ship continued to take part in increasingly complex combined exercises as unmanned systems and new mine-hunting technologies were introduced. On April 10, 2023, she was documented in the Arabian Gulf participating in exercise Artemis Trident, a two-week counter-mine drill involving forces from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Sailors aboard DEVASTATOR prepared and operated SLQ-60 SeaFox mine neutralization vehicles and associated equipment, working alongside divers and explosive ordnance disposal teams from the partner navies. The exercise, coordinated under U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, aimed to refine shared tactics for detecting, classifying and clearing naval mines in constrained waters that are central to global energy and trade flows.

That same year, DEVASTATOR underwent a major docking selected restricted availability (DSRA) in Bahrain. The maintenance period lasted about seven months and focused on propulsion, electrical systems, structural repairs and preservation of her aging wooden hull and fiberglass sheathing. On December 17, 2023, the ship departed Naval Support Activity Bahrain for sea trials, and the following day Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center Detachment Bahrain reported that the DSRA had been completed 18 days ahead of schedule. The official announcement on December 20, 2023, emphasized that the early completion would allow DEVASTATOR to return to 5th Fleet tasking and continue maritime security and mine countermeasures operations in the region.

In 2024 and 2025, DEVASTATOR's operations increasingly reflected the Navy's transition from legacy manned mine countermeasures ships to a mix of Littoral Combat Ships and unmanned systems. Forward-deployed in Bahrain as one of the last AVENGER-class ships in 5th Fleet, she integrated with Task Force 59, the Navy's experimental unmanned and artificial-intelligence task force for the region. In November 2024, DEVASTATOR took part in the Digital Talon 3.0 exercise under Task Group 59.1, operating alongside unmanned surface vessels and aerial systems to test new concepts for locating and tracking mines and other maritime threats. A U.S. Navy report on the exercise highlighted DEVASTATOR's role in providing a manned mine-warfare platform against which the performance of autonomous systems could be measured, and noted integration with units including the patrol cutter USCGC EMLEN TUNNELL (WPC 1145).

On February 18, 2025, during a routine patrol in the Persian Gulf within Qatari territorial waters, DEVASTATOR was involved in a high-profile rescue operation that brought her long career into public view one last time. The Iranian-owned, Qatari-flagged general cargo vessel M/V SHAYESTEH developed a severe list and began to sink after flooding, prompting a mayday call. Operating in company with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC CLARENCE SUTPHIN JR. (WPC 1147), DEVASTATOR responded to the distress signal. Seven mariners, five Iranian and two Indian nationals, abandoned the vessel into life rafts as it capsized. Personnel from DEVASTATOR assisted in recovering them and transferring them to CLARENCE SUTPHIN JR. for medical evaluation. Public reporting indicated that all seven were rescued without injury and that the cargo vessel ultimately sank without causing broader safety or environmental incidents.

By mid-2025, DEVASTATOR was the last AVENGER-class mine countermeasures ship operating forward in the 5th Fleet area. As the U.S. Navy accelerated retirement of older mine warfare platforms and brought Littoral Combat Ships with modular mine countermeasures packages into Bahrain, DEVASTATOR's mission shifted toward mentoring and transition. Under Lieutenant Commander Alex Turner, who took command in August 2024, the crew supported hand-over activities and training with newer units while continuing patrols and exercises around key choke points such as the Strait of Hormuz.

On September 25, 2025, the ship's active career concluded with a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in Manama. The event, presided over by Vice Admiral George Wikoff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, also recognized the recently decommissioned sister ships USS SENTRY (MCM 3), USS GLADIATOR (MCM 11) and USS DEXTROUS (MCM 13). Speeches marked nearly three and a half decades of service by DEVASTATOR and her crews, emphasizing their contribution to protecting sea lanes and maintaining regional stability. After the ceremony, the ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and prepared for transport to the United States, with official statements indicating that DEVASTATOR and her three sister ships would be moved to the U.S. East Coast for potential reserve storage or disposal.

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USS DEVASTATOR Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the DEVASTATOR at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on March 23, 2010.

The photos below were taken by me and show the DEVASTATOR undergoing maintenance at San Diego, Calif., on September 29, 2011.

The photos below were taken by me and show the DEVASTATOR still undergoing maintenance at San Diego, Calif., on March 15, 2012.

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