Commissioning and namesake
The frigate was named for Samuel B. Roberts, a Navy coxswain who was killed while evacuating the U.S. Marines during the battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. Roberts was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. ''Samuel B. Roberts'' was the third U.S. ship to bear the coxswain's name, after , a , commissioned in 1944 and sunk in the Battle off Samar later that year; and , a , commissioned in 1946 and struck in 1970. ''Samuel B. Roberts'' was Ship naming and launching, launched in December 1984 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine and sponsored by the wife of Jack Yusen, a member of DE-413's crew. The frigate was put in Ship commissioning, commission in April 1986 under the command of Commander Paul X. Rinn.1988 deployment and mine strike
''Samuel B. Roberts'' deployed from her homeport in Newport, Rhode Island, in January 1988, heading for the Persian Gulf to participate in Operation Earnest Will, the escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War. ''Samuel B. Roberts'' had arrived in the Persian Gulf and was heading for a refueling rendezvous with USS San Jose (AFS-7), USS ''San Jose'' on 14 April when the ship struck an Iranian mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area she had safely transited a few days earlier. The mine blew a hole in the hull, flooded the engine room,“Hold on to something!” — A Moment that Shifted the Fate of the USS Samuel B. Roberts CrewRepairs
On 27 June 1988, ''Samuel B. Roberts'' was loaded onto , a semi-submersible Heavy lift ship#Submerging types, heavy lift ship owned by Netherlands, Dutch shipping firm Wijsmuller Transport and carried back to Newport for $1.3 million. The frigate arrived at BIW's Portland, Maine, yard on 6 October 1988 for repairs. The repair job was unique: the entire engine room was cut out of the hull, and a 315-ton replacement module was jacked up and welded into place. She undocked 1 April 1989 for sea trials. The repairs were completed three weeks ahead of schedule at a cost of $89.5 million, $3.5 million less than expected. By comparison, , which was damaged by a moored mine during the 1991 Gulf War, was repaired for $24 million;Annati however, the cruiser was not directly struck by the mine and her displacement is nearly twice that of ''Samuel B. Roberts''. The mine that nearly sank ''Samuel B. Roberts'' had an estimated cost of $1,500. After 13 months of repairs, ''Samuel B. Roberts'' was returned to service in a 16 October 1989 ceremony.After repair
''Samuel B. Roberts'' made her second deployment in 1990 for Operation Desert Shield (Gulf War), Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. The frigate operated as part of the Red Sea Maritime Interception Force, an international force of ships that enforced U.N. sanctions against Iraq. The frigate's sailors boarded more than 100 merchant ships in efforts to prevent cargo shipments to or from Iraq. On 28 March 1991, she returned to Newport. ''"Sammy B"'', as the ship is sometimes called, was later homeported in Naval Station Mayport, Mayport, Florida. On 30 August 1991, Joseph A. Sestak took command of ''Samuel B. Roberts'', which was named the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Atlantic Fleet's best surface combatant in the 1993 Battenberg Cup competition. ''Samuel B. Roberts'' was decommissioned at Mayport on 22 May 2015, then towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. In late 2022, the ship was towed from Philadelphia to EMR International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, for Ship breaking, scrapping.Gallery
References
Annati, Massimo ''Al diavolo le mine'' RID magazine, Coop. Riviera Ligure, Italy, n. 6/2005Further reading
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