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s e a f o r c e s – online
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Naval Forces
Technology, History & Information
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Guided Missile Frigate
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FFG 58 -
USS Samuel B. Roberts
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USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58)
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US Navy photo
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Type,
Class:
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Guided Missile Frigate; Oliver Hazard Perry – class (long
hull);
planned and built as FFG
58;
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Builder:
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Bath Iron Works, Bath,
Maine, USA
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STATUS:
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Awarded: March 22, 1982;
Laid down: May 21, 1984;
Launched: December 8, 1984;
Commissioned:
April 12, 1986;
ACTIVE UNIT/ in
commission (Atlantic Fleet)
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Homeport:
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Mayport, Florida, USA
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Namesake:
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Named after and in honor of Coxwain Samuel Booker Roberts
(1921 – 1942);
> see history, below;
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Ship's
Motto:
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> NO HIGHER HONOR <
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Technical Data:
(Measures, Propulsion,
Armament,
Aviation, etc.)
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see: INFO > Guided
Missile Frigate / Oliver Hazard Perry - class.
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Pictures,
photos & more ...
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Samuel
Booker Roberts
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Photo credits: US Navy, US Naval
Historical Center
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Namesake
& History:
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Coxwain Samuel
Booker Roberts (May 12, 1921 – September 27, 1942):
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Samuel Booker Roberts, Jr.
was a U.S. Navy coxswain who was killed in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and
became the namesake of three U.S. Navy warships.
Roberts was born in San Francisco, California, on May 12, 1921. He enlisted
in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1939 and was called to active duty in 1940.
Roberts served aboard the USS California (BB-44) and the transport USS
Heywood (AP-12), before being transferred to the troop transport USS
Bellatrix (AK-20, later AKA-20).
In 1942, Bellatrix was assigned to Task Group Four and became part of the
Guadalcanal Assault Force. As a coxswain for the Bellatrix's assault boats,
Roberts helped ferry supplies from the transport ships to a tenuous
beachhead.
After the ships withdrew in the face of Japanese attacks that began 7 August
1942, Roberts volunteered for duty on the island of Guadalcanal, where he was
attached to a Beachmaster unit at Lunga Point. The unit, which included Navy
and United States Coast Guard sailors, transported Marines and their supplies
to beaches along the island's northern coast, and also evacuated wounded
Marines.
Early on the morning of 27 September 1942, Roberts volunteered for a rescue mission
to save a company-size unit of Marines that had been surrounded by a larger
Japanese force. The rescue group of several Higgins boats was taken under
heavy fire and was perilously close to failure. Roberts volunteered to
distract Japanese forces by guiding his boat directly in front of their
lines, drawing their fire. This decoy act was performed effectively until all
Marines had been evacuated. However, as he was about to withdraw from the
range of the Japanese guns, Roberts’ boat was hit and he was mortally
wounded. His boatmates brought him back to base and he was flown out on a
medical evacuation flight, but died the next day.
Roberts was awarded the Navy Cross for his valor in the face of enemy fire.
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USS Samuel B. Roberts
(FFG 58):
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USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) is one
of the final ships in the United States Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry class of
guided missile frigates (FFG). The ship was severely damaged by an Iranian
mine in 1988, leading U.S. forces to respond with Operation Praying Mantis.
The frigate was named for Samuel B. Roberts, a Navy coxswain who was killed
evacuating Marines during the battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. FFG-58, the
third U.S. ship to bear the coxswain's name, was launched in December 1984 by
Bath Iron Works and sponsored by the wife of Jack Yusen, a sailor who served
in World War II and in the battle of Leyte Gulf on the former Samuel B
Roberts. Put in commission in April 1986 under the command of Commander Paul
X. Rinn, the ship racked up numerous awards and commendations even before its
first deployment.
The frigate deployed from its homeport of 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. The Roberts
had arrived in the Persian Gulf and was steaming peacefully on April 14 when
the ship struck an M-08 mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area it had
safely transited a few days previously. The mine blew a 15-foot (5 m) hole in
the hull, flooded the engine room, and knocked the two gas turbines from
their mounts. The crew fought fire and flooding for five hours, thereby
saving the ship. Ten sailors were medevaced for injuries sustained in the
blast; six returned to the Roberts in a day or so, while four burn victims
were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Germany, and eventually to
medical facilities in the United States.
When U.S. divers recovered several unexploded mines, they found that their
serial numbers matched the sequence on mines seized the previous September
aboard an Iranian minelayer named Iran Ajr. Four days later, U.S. forces
retaliated against Iran in Operation Praying Mantis, a one-day campaign that was
the world's largest surface engagement since World War II. U.S. ships,
aircraft, and troops destroyed two Iranian oil platforms used to control
Iranian naval forces in the Gulf, sank one Iranian frigate, damaged another,
and sent at least three armed, high-speed boats to the bottom. The U.S. lost
one Marine helicopter and its crew of two airmen.
Roberts was eventually carried back to Newport aboard the Mighty Servant 2, a
semi-submersible heavy-lift ship owned by a Dutch shipping firm. The frigate
was repaired in BIW's Portland, Maine, yard in time to make its second
deployment in 1990 for Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield.
The repair job was unique: the entire engine room was cut out of the hull,
and a replacement jacked up and welded into place.
On August 30, 1991, Joseph A. Sestak took command of Roberts, which was named
the Atlantic Fleet's best surface combatant in the 1993 Battenberg Cup
competition.
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… and patches …
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>> seaforces.org
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