| USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Career (USA) |  |
| Name: | USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) |
| Ordered: |
22 September 1978 (as DDG-47) |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| Laid down: | 21 January 1980 |
| Launched: | 25 April 1981 |
| Sponsored by: | Nancy Reagan |
| Christened: | 16 May 1981 |
| Commissioned: | 22 January 1983 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 September 2004 |
| Struck: | 30 September 2004 |
| Fate: | Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia |
| Badge: |
 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Ticonderoga-class cruiser |
| Displacement: | Approx. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load |
| Length: | 567 feet (173 m) |
| Beam: | 55 feet (16.8 meters) |
| Draft: | 34 feet (10.2 meters) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 32.5 knots (60 km/h; 37.4 mph) |
| Complement: | 387 officers and enlisted |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
|
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | 2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters. |
| Motto: | "First AEGIS Cruiser" |
| Nickname: | Tico[1] |
USS Ticonderoga (DDG/CG-47), the fifth to bear the name, was a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. Homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the "Tico" was the lead ship of her class.
The Ticonderoga was the first combatant ship to feature the Aegis combat system (a limited version of the system had been tested in Norton Sound). This allows the ship to track and engage multiple targets (aircraft) much more effectively than any ship previously.
Etymology[]
CG-47 is the fifth United States Navy vessel to carry on the name Ticonderoga. The ship was named for the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775.[2] It was also named after the USS Ticonderoga that was nearly sunk during World War II. Most of the ships in the Ticonderoga class are similarly named for significant battles in U.S. history. The name "Ticonderoga" comes from an Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".[3]
History[]
U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan christens the USS Ticonderoga on 16 May 1981; she was a main sponsor of the ship's building.
The United States Navy built the first Aegis cruisers using the hull and machinery designs of Spruance-class destroyers. Ticonderoga was ordered as a guided missile destroyer, but redesignated as a cruiser before she was laid down.
The contract to build DDG-47 Ticonderoga was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding on 22 September 1978. On 1 January 1980, she was redesignated as a guided missile cruiser, CG-47. Her keel was laid down on 21 January 1980, the 35th anniversary of the devastating kamikaze attack on the Essex-class carrier Ticonderoga (CV-14). CG-47 was launched on 25 April 1981 and was delivered on 13 December 1982. She was commissioned on 22 January 1983 with First Lady Nancy Reagan, the ship's main sponsor, having the honor of christening the ship on 16 May 1981.
For a time in the late 1990s she was based at Pascagoula, Mississippi, as part of Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic's Westerns Hemisphere Group. She served in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will while under the command of Captain James M. Arrison III, USN.
Ticonderoga is towed from Naval Station Pascagoula immediately following her decommissioning on 30 September 2004.
On May 4, 2004, she completed transit of the Panama Canal and then moved to cross the equator. Her ship crew engaged in the rites and rituals of the crossing, inducting the Captain of the ship as well as many of the crew in to 'Shell-Backs'. She completed her final deployment on 3 August 2004, and was decommissioned on 30 September of that year. After her decommissioning, she was towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. Recently, however, she was put up for museum donation by the Navy and there is a strong effort to bring Ticonderoga to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she was built, to serve as a museum ship.[4]
The former USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) at berth at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in January 2008.
In popular culture[]
The Ticonderoga was featured in the 1986 Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, where she is part of a surface fleet built around the carrier Nimitz. During a surprise Soviet air raid, Ticonderoga unleashes her missiles at the incoming Soviet anti-ship missiles, and succeeded in eliminating just over 60% of the number of "vampires" she had targeted. Despite her best efforts and the efforts of the other ships Ticonderoga, Nimitz, Saratoga, and several other ships receive heavy damage from the attack, while Saipan, the French carrier Foch and a handful of other vessels are destroyed.
References[]
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.
- ↑ Cushman Jr., John H. (19 December 1987). "Navy Puts Its 'Spotter' Near the Gulf". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDD143EF93AA25751C1A961948260. Retrieved 13 Mar. 2009.
- ↑ GlobalSecurity.org USS Ticonderoga (CG-47).
- ↑ Afable, Patricia O. and Madison S. Beeler (1996). "Place Names", in "Languages", ed. Ives Goddard. Vol. 17 of Handbook of North American Indians, ed. William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, p. 193
- ↑ Ships Monthly. News April 2010. USS Ticonderoga to be floating museum
External links[]
- USS Ticonderoga webpage
- Navy News Story about Decommissioning
- USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) Veterans' Website
- Mississippi Martime & Warship Museum
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Ticonderoga (CG-47). |
| |||||||||||
The original article can be found at USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) and the edit history here.