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About the Name "Hopper"

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USS Hopper (DDG 70)

USS HOPPER is the 20^th ARLEIGH BURKE class guided missile destroyer and the first ship in the Navy named after Admiral Grace Hopper.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS HOPPER. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms:

Shield: Blue and gold are traditionally used by the Navy. The lion, a symbol of strength and courage, stands for the USS HOPPERS's characteristics of survivability and alludes to the ship's motto ( DARE AND DO ). The rampant lion has been adapted from the arms of Scotland and refers to Rear Admiral Hopper's heritage. Gold stands for excellence; blue is for devotion to duty.

Crest: The lozenge, traditionally used in the coats of arms of women, honors Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Her distinction as the first woman to achieve the rank of rear admiral is represented by the single silver star. The trident symbolizes her love for the United States Navy and her Naval service, the focus of her life's work. The lightning bolts, framing the bottom of the shield, connote the image of ship's hull cutting through the sea. They also represent the sophistication and power of the Aegis warship, in large part made possible by Admiral Hopper's pioneering work in the computer field. The wreath consists of laurel and oak representing honor and strength. Red denotes courage and sacrifice; gold stands for excellence.

Motto: The Latin phrase "AUDE ET EFFICE" translates into the English phrase "DARE AND DO", in context of a command. RADM Hopper was frequently quoted using this phrase when issuing advice. The phrase captures the spirit of RADM Hopper in her quest for pushing the limits of conventional thinking and looking beyond the norm for innovative solutions and approaches to problem solving. The simple phrase, in Latin, exemplifies the essence of Admiral Hopper's spirit while paying tribute to her tremendous academic achievements.

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USS HOPPER's Commanding Officers:

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About the Ship's name, about Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper:

USS HOPPER is named for Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, whose pioneering spirit in the field of computer technology led the Navy into the age of computers. During her career, she was know as the "Grand Lady of Software," "Amazing Grace" and "Grandma Cobol" after co-inventing COBOL (common business-oriented language). COBOL made it possible for computers to respond to words instead of just numbers, thus enabling computers to "talk to each other."

Rear Adm. Hopper retired from the Naval Reserve in January 1967, but was recalled to active duty in August 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson because of her much-needed expertise in applied computer science. Rear Adm. Hopper retired a second time in August 1986. She passed away on Jan. 1, 1992. This is the first time since World War II, and only the second time in Naval history, that a warship has been named for a woman from the Navy's own ranks.

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USS HOPPER History:

USS HOPPER entered service on September 6, 1997, at San Francisco, beginning life as a Hawaii-based, Flight I ARLEIGH BURKE-class destroyer built for multi-mission operations across the Indo-Pacific. After post-commissioning trials and workups, she participated in RIMPAC 1998 in the Hawaiian operating areas during the summer of 1998, then sailed west on August 31, 1998, for "PACMEF 98-2", a Western Pacific deployment that ran through February 26, 1999, and introduced the ship to 7th Fleet waters at the end of the post-Cold War era and just before the intensification of Persian Gulf sanctions enforcement. In early 2000, HOPPER joined Marine Expeditionary Force Exercise "MEFEX 00-2" from January 11 to February 17 off Southern California. By mid-year she was in the Persian Gulf supporting Operation Southern Watch, the long-running enforcement of Iraqi no-fly and maritime sanctions that shaped much of the U.S. Navy's posture in the region in the years before the 2003 Iraq War.

HOPPER opened 2002 with a composite training cycle alongside deploying forces off Southern California, then departed Pearl Harbor on April 1, 2002, for a six-month cruise split between the North Arabian Gulf and Arabian Sea as Enduring Freedom operations continued after the September 11 attacks. Through the summer she alternated maritime security, air defense picket, and visit-board-search-and-seizure tasking in 5th Fleet with underway replenishment shuttles and radar picket duty in the Arabian Sea before turning for home. She was back at Pearl Harbor in October 2002, as the Navy rotated forces through the region ahead of the next year's invasion of Iraq. The following year, HOPPER's schedule was dominated by local operations and pier-side work in Hawaii, with a summer port period in Honolulu in June 2003. In 2004, she again crossed the Pacific, getting underway from Pearl Harbor in late June for a Western Pacific and Indian Ocean tour that included September 2004's bilateral exercise INSPIRED SIREN in the Arabian Sea with the Pakistani Navy. That event focused on maritime interdiction and boarding drills and reflected Washington's counterterrorism partnerships in South Asia at the time. HOPPER returned to Hawaii in December 2004 and resumed training and maintenance.

In 2006, she deployed to Southeast Asia for CARAT 2006, sailing in May and operating with regional navies. The ship moored at Changi Naval Base, Singapore, in June and at Muara, Brunei, in August while exercising boarding procedures, maritime security tactics, and air-defense coordination with partner forces before returning to Pearl Harbor in September. After a stateside inter-deployment period, HOPPER deployed again in late 2007 as part of the TARAWA (LHA 1) Expeditionary Strike Group, leaving Pearl Harbor in mid-November with USS PORT ROYAL (CG 73) and other San Diego-based elements for a six-month swing through the 5th and 7th Fleet theaters. On January 6, 2008, while transiting the Strait of Hormuz with PORT ROYAL and USS INGRAHAM (FFG 61), she was involved in a widely publicized encounter with small craft of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. The U.S. ships executed standard warnings and maneuvers and continued their passage. The strike group completed operations in the Gulf and Western Pacific and HOPPER returned to Pearl Harbor in May 2008.

Beginning in early 2009, HOPPER executed a three-month Mid-Pacific/Western Pacific employment under the then-new "MidPac" operational model for Hawaii-based surface combatants, including time in the Western Pacific and a port call at Yokosuka, Japan, before returning to Pearl Harbor on April 23, 2009. On July 30, 2009, she conducted a high-visibility Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) event, launching an SM-3 Block IA during exercise STELLAR AVENGER and successfully intercepting a sub-scale ballistic-missile target launched from Kauai's Pacific Missile Range Facility. Through late 2009, she prepared for the next cycle. By July 2010 she was back at sea for RIMPAC 2010 in the Hawaiian ranges, where HOPPER integrated in large-force maritime and air-defense scenarios with allied navies before returning to port the same month.

On April 15, 2011, HOPPER departed Pearl Harbor for an independent deployment spanning the Western Pacific and the U.S. Central Command area. The ship's tasking emphasized BMD and maritime security as the Arab Spring altered the strategic picture in the Middle East. She operated across 5th and 7th Fleets into 2012 and was photographed in Tokyo Bay in April 2012 during the tail end of that long employment. After a maintenance and training period in Hawaii, HOPPER got back underway from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in mid-March and later that year, on September 6, 2013, departed again for an independent deployment bridging the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean at a time when Syria's civil war and Iran nuclear talks framed 5th-Fleet operations while deterrence in Northeast Asia drove 7th-Fleet tempo. She returned to Pearl Harbor on May 6, 2014, and in June 2014 contributed Aegis long-range surveillance and track data to the Ground-based Midcourse Defense FTG-06B homeland-defense intercept test, an integrated event linking sea-based sensors to the GMD architecture.

The ship's next cycle emphasized readiness and integration in Hawaii, followed by an independent deployment beginning in late summer 2016. HOPPER returned from that six-month cruise on February 22, 2017, having operated across the Arabian Gulf, Western Pacific, and Indian Ocean while the coalition air war against ISIS and maritime security in the Bab el-Mandeb and Strait of Hormuz shaped daily operations. After a brief turnaround, she sailed again on September 28, 2017, for another independent Western Pacific-Middle East deployment. Entering 7th Fleet in January 2018, HOPPER asserted navigational rights and freedoms on January 17, 2018, near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and continued into 5th Fleet for Gulf security tasks and maritime partnership stops. She concluded the four-month deployment with port visits to Bahrain, Singapore, and Guam, returning to Pearl Harbor on February 9, 2018.

HOPPER's 2019-2020 period was maintenance-heavy, culminating in undocking at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on February 28, 2020, following a dry-docking availability that modernized hull, mechanical, electrical, and combat-system components - a schedule that would soon overlap with the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Navy's adjusted maintenance and basic-phase training routines. She resumed local operations and certifications through 2021 and into 2022, when the ship held a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on June 30, 2022, during the fleet's broader return to pre-pandemic exercise tempo in the central Pacific.

In early 2023, HOPPER joined Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training (SWATT) off California with units of Carrier Strike Group ONE, conducting multi-ship air, surface, and strike drills. Photos from March 18-21, 2023, show HOPPER maneuvering in formation with USS KANSAS CITY (LCS 22) and USS STERETT (DDG 104), part of the live-fire, advanced-tactics syllabus that prepares surface units for deployment. By the autumn of 2023, she was forward again with CARRIER STRIKE GROUP ONE in the Philippine Sea and South China Sea amid heightened U.S.-ally exercises with Japan and the Philippines. On November 25, 2023, HOPPER conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation near the Paracel Islands, asserting navigational rights consistent with international law before resuming routine operations. In December, she hosted visit-board-search-and-seizure training with Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, reflecting the Navy-Marine Corps emphasis on distributed maritime operations in the first island chain.

In June 2024, HOPPER entered Dry Dock 4 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a Selected Restricted Availability-docking period focused on work not possible alongside, including tank preservation and modernization tasks. She successfully undocked on March 11, 2025, clearing a major milestone toward sea trials and a return to full operations. On June 27, 2025, HOPPER marked another waypoint with a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, continuing her role within Destroyer Squadron ONE and CARRIER STRIKE GROUP ONE's surface screen. Through the summer of 2025, she completed post-availability testing and crew certification events in Hawaiian waters, poised to rejoin the Indo-Pacific operating pattern.

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Homeports of USS HOPPER:

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USS HOPPER Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the HOPPER passing a US Navy attack submarine off Waikiki on March 7, 2012, and one day later at the Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hi.

The photos below were taken by Shiu On Yee and show the HOPPER at Hong Kong on February 7, 2017. HOPPER visited Hong Kong February 5-8, and is presently on a WestPac Cruise. She deployed from Pearl Harbor, Hi., on August 25, 2016, and has since operated in the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. Port visits included Darwin in Australia, Bahrain and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the HOPPER at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hi., on March 18, 2022.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the HOPPER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on May 29, 2022.

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