USS Clifton Sprague

USS Clifton Sprague (FFG-16) was an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate of the United States Navy, the tenth ship of that class. She was named for Vice Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague (1896–1955), hero of the Battle off Samar action of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where he received the Navy Cross. Clifton Sprague (FFG-16) was the first ship of that name in the US Navy. She was transferred to the Turkish Naval Forces in 1997 as TCG Gaziantep (F 490) and remains in active service.

USS Clifton Sprague, 17 November 1980
History
United States
Name: Clifton Sprague
Namesake: Vice Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague
Ordered: 27 February 1976
Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Laid down: 30 July 1979
Launched: 16 February 1980
Sponsored by: Courtney Sprague Vaughan, daughter of Adm. Sprague
Commissioned: 21 March 1981
Decommissioned: 2 June 1995
Stricken: 4 September 1997
Homeport: Naval Station Mayport
Identification:
Motto: "Nunc Paratus" (Ready Now)
Fate: Disposed of through the Security Assistance Program (SAP)
Badge:
TCG Gaziantep, 31 May 2010
History
Turkey
Name: TCG Gaziantep
Namesake: City of Gaziantep
Acquired: 27 August 1997
Identification: Hull number: F 490
Status: in active service
General characteristics
Class and type: Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate
Displacement: 4,100 long tons (4,200 t), full load
Length: 445 feet (136 m), overall
Beam: 45 feet (14 m)
Draft: 22 feet (6.7 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: over 29 knots (54 km/h)
Range: 5,000 nautical miles at 18 knots (9,300 km at 33 km/h)
Complement: 15 officers and 190 enlisted, plus SH-60 LAMPS detachment of roughly six officer pilots and 15 enlisted maintainers
Sensors and
processing systems:
Electronic warfare
& decoys:		 AN/SLQ-32
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 1 × SH-2F LAMPS I helicopter[1]

History

Ordered from Bath Iron Works on 27 February 1976 as part of the FY76 program, Clifton Sprague was laid down 30 July 1979, launched 16 February 1980, and commissioned 21 March 1981.

Clifton Sprague was part of the forces during Operation Urgent Fury, the US led 1983 Invasion of Grenada.[2] The frigate served as the clandestine mother ship for a pre-invasion reconnaissance team of Navy SEALs and Air Force combat controllers. Prior to D-Day on 25 Oct., the 20-man commando force twice attempted to use small boats launched from the frigate to reach a new airport under construction on Grenada's southwest coast. Their nighttime attempts to make an assessment of its military defenses and the condition of its uncompleted runway were frustrated both times by rough seas, equipment failures and bad luck.[3]

In July 1993, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg and Clifton Sprague participated in a passing exercise (PASSEX) with three Russian ships, cruiser Marshal Ustinov, destroyer Admiral Kharlamov and the replenishment ship Dnester. This was noteworthy because the two navies had an adversarial relationship for decades prior to the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.[4]

Clifton Sprague was part of the flotilla for Operation Uphold Democracy, the September 1995 US intervention in Haiti.[5]

She was decommissioned on 2 June 1995 at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, and was stricken from the US Navy register on 4 September 1997 after being transferred to Turkey.

TCG Gaziantep (F 490)

She was transferred to Turkey on 27 August 1997 as that nation's TCG Gaziantep (F 490), and then immediately modified into a G-class frigate by the Turkish Naval Yard. As of 2011, she was still in active service.

Awards

Clifton Sprague and her crew received the following unit awards, according to the US Navy unit awards website:[6]

Clifton Sprague was also nominated for the United States Public Health Service Outstanding Unit Citation for operations from 24 June 1994 to 12 July 1994, but did not receive the award. This was around the time that many refugees were fleeing Haiti in small boats.[8]

References
  1. "USS Clifton Sprague (FFG 16)". Navysite.de. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  2. "Facts: 30th Anniversary of the U-S-Caribbean Intervention in Grenada". US Southern Command.
  3. Kukielski, Philip (2019). The U.S. Invasion of Grenada : legacy of a flawed victory. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co. pp. 28–30. ISBN 978-1-4766-7879-5. OCLC 1123182247.
  4. "USS Gettysburg trains with Russian Ships". Gettysburg Times. Associated Press. 7 July 1993.
  5. "American Flotilla". Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph. Associated Press. 15 September 1994.
  6. "Unit Awards". US Navy. Archived from the original on 14 October 2004.
  7. "Desert Storm Apdx B". US Naval History and Heritage Command.
  8. "Haitians to go to Guantanamo". Syracuse Herald-Journal. Syracuse, New York. Associated Press. 29 June 1994.

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

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