WAVY’s Navy Ship Salute is a feature on WAVY News 10 Today. Each month, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, WAVY-TV 10 will profile a different ship based at the world’s largest Navy base: Naval Station Norfolk. The series aims to better introduce our viewers to some of the largest floating taxpayer assets there are, as well as life aboard a U.S. Navy ship.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — After 37 years in service, USS Leyte Gulf is being prepped for decommissioning.
The Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser is one of few left in the Navy. It returned to Naval Station Norfolk in May, and now, parts of the ship are being taken off so its legacy can live on in other vessels.
For this WAVY Navy ship salute, we were welcomed on board by a very enthusiastic crew. Commissioned back in 1987, this guided-missile cruiser was sent out during the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom. It also had its fair share of missions countering drug runs and pirates.
After nabbing a makeshift submarine with more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine, the Leyte Gulf finished its final deployment in early 2024.
“We’re going through the ship, clearing everything out, finding all the good equipment and pulling that off the ship and giving it to other ships on the waterfront so they can be ready to go over the horizon,” explained Commanding Officer Brian Harrington.
The cruiser is named after the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines.
“We brought 283 ships to that fight,” said Lieutenant Junior Grade Beaux Davis. “Just ourselves against the Empire of Japan. Of those ships, we only lost eight. So the plaque downstairs commemorates those ships and those that we lost at sea. Above that plaque, we have two swords. We have a naval officer sword and a Japanese naval officer sword from that battle.”
The crew brought our news team all the way up to 0-6 level. Up top, ET1 Jaidan Parra showed WAVY’s Nick Broadway the sat comms system he was dismantling.
“I’ve been on board for four years, and I’ve worked on all sorts of equipment ranging from radar systems, communication systems to phones, you name it.” Parra said. “Anything with a circuit card and electricity running through it.”
Previous commanding officers will revisit the ship in late September during its decommissioning ceremony in Norfolk.