USS ''Gravely'' (DDG-107) is an guided missile

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. She is named after Vice Admiral

Samuel L. Gravely, Jr. Samuel Lee Gravely Jr. (June 4, 1922 – October 22, 2004) was a United States Navy officer. He was the first African American in the U.S. Navy to serve aboard a fighting ship as an officer, the first to command a Navy ship, the first fleet comman ...

Commissioned in 2010, she has been on several overseas deployments.

Construction

''Gravely'' is the 57th destroyer in her class. She was authorized on 13 September 2002 and her keel was laid down on 26 November 2007 at

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding HII (formerly Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.) is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States as well as a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. HII, ranked No. 371 on the Fortune 500, wa ...

Ingalls Shipbuilding Ingalls Shipbuilding is a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States, originally established in 1938, and now part of Huntington Ingalls Industries, HII. It is a leading producer of ships for the United States Navy, and at 12,500 ...

shipyard in

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 22 ...

. ''Gravely'' was launched on 30 March 2009. The ship is named after Vice Admiral

Admiral Gravely's wife, Alma Gravely, christened the ship on 16 May 2009 and serves as ship's sponsor. Retired Navy Admiral J. Paul Reason was the principal speaker at the ceremony, which was held at Northrop's facility in Pascagoula. She successfully completed

sea trials A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and i ...

in June 2010. ''Gravely'', Northrop Grumman's 27th

Aegis The aegis ( ; grc, αἰγίς ''aigís''), as stated in the ''Iliad'', is a device carried by Athena and Zeus, variously interpreted as an animal skin or a shield and sometimes featuring the head of a Gorgon. There may be a connection with a d ...

'equipped

guided missile destroyer A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers who have a prim ...

, was commissioned at

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the ...

on 20 November 2010.

Service history

In late August 2013 along with her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s , , and , ''Gravely'' was sent to patrol the eastern

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

in response to rising rumors of an imminent US military intervention in the Syrian civil war. On 28 October 2013, the destroyers ''Gravely'' and ''Ramage '' answered a distress call from a vessel carrying immigrants located off the coast of

Kalamata, Greece Kalamáta ( el, Καλαμάτα ) is the second most populous city of the Peloponnese peninsula, after Patras, in southern Greece and the largest city of the homonymous administrative region. As the capital and chief port of the Messenia reg ...

. On 18 November 2013, ''Gravely'' returned to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, completing her first overseas deployment. On 28 March 2016, ''Gravely'' provided assistance to , which had seized a stateless

dhow Dhow ( ar, داو, translit=dāwa; mr, script=Latn, dāw) is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with settee or sometimes lateen sails, used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Typically spor ...

transporting weapons. Once the weapons were offloaded, the dhow and its crew were released. In June 2016 while escorting the aircraft carrier the destroyer had a close encounter with a Russian Navy frigate causing Russian and US Navy officials to accuse each other of dangerous and unprofessional conduct. On 11 March 2019, as part of

Carrier Strike Group Eight Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, abbreviated as CCSG-8 or COMCARSTRKGRU 8, is one of five U.S. Navy carrier strike groups currently assigned to the United States Fleet Forces Command. the group flagship is the ''Nimitz''-class aircraft carrier ...

(CSG-8), ''Gravely'' received the

Meritorious Unit Commendation The Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC; pronounced ''muck'') is a mid-level unit award of the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. Army awards units the Army MUC for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding achievement or s ...

award in support of

Operation Inherent Resolve Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the U.S. military's operational name for the International military intervention against IS, including both a campaign in Iraq and a campaign in Syria, with a closely-related campaign in Libya. Throu ...

during the 2015-2016 deployment. On 13 May 2022, ''Gravely'' took part in a

PASSEX A passing exercise (a PASSEX in U.S. Navy terminology) is an exercise done between two navies to ensure that the navies are able to communicate and cooperate in times of war or humanitarian relief. Common drills include flashing light drills, semap ...

training with the

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

navies in the northern

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

. In May 2022, ''Gravely'' was homeported out of

Naval Station Norfolk Naval Station Norfolk is a United States Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, that is the headquarters and home port of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command. The installation occupies about of waterfront space and of pier and wharf space of the Hamp ...

and a part of

Destroyer Squadron 28 Destroyer Squadron 28 (DESRON 28), is a squadron of warships of the United States Navy. It is an operational component of Carrier Strike Group Eight Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, abbreviated as CCSG-8 or COMCARSTRKGRU 8, is one of five U. ...

, along with

Carrier Strike Group 8 Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, abbreviated as CCSG-8 or COMCARSTRKGRU 8, is one of five U.S. Navy carrier strike groups currently assigned to the United States Fleet Forces Command. the group flagship is the ''Nimitz''-class aircraft carrier ...

led by the . On 24 June 2022, ''Gravely'' returned to

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

2023 Israel-Hamas war

On 14 October 2023,

Lloyd Austin Lloyd James Austin III (born August 8, 1953) is a retired United States Army four-star general who, since his appointment on January 22, 2021, has served as the 28th United States secretary of defense. He is the first African American to serv ...

directed and her carrier strike group, which includes the cruiser , along with ''Gravely'' and sister-destroyers and , to the

eastern Mediterranean Eastern Mediterranean is a loose definition of the eastern approximate half, or third, of the Mediterranean Sea, often defined as the countries around the Levantine Sea. It typically embraces all of that sea's coastal zones, referring to communi ...

in response to Israel's war with Hamas. This is the second carrier strike group to be sent to the region in response to the conflict, following and her group, which was dispatched only six days earlier.

References

External links

Official website of PCU ''Gravely''
Retrieved 2016-07-01. *
Commissioning website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravely (Ddg-107) Arleigh Burke-class destroyers Ships built in Pascagoula, Mississippi 2009 ships Carrier Strike Group Two