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USS Ross History

Homeports of USS Ross

About the Name "Ross"

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USS Ross (DDG 71)

USS ROSS is the 21st ship in the ARLEIGH BURKE - class of AEGIS guided missile destroyers and the first ship in the Navy named after Capt. Donald K. Ross. In June 2014, ROSS shifted her homeport from Norfolk, Va., to Rota, Spain, and remained forward-deployed for more than 8 years. She shifted her homeport back to Norfolk in September 2022.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS ROSS. 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:

The Shield:

The gold and dark blue on the shield of the coat of arms represent the Navy. The anchor stands for the anchorage at Pearl Harbor, attacked December 7, 1941, by Japanese aircraft, bringing the United States into World War II. The lightning flashes symbolize the unexpected assault and resulting bloodshed. The ship's propeller represents Warrant Officer Ross and the badge of a Navy machinist, a post he held at the time of the action. His heroism during the attack is recalled by the inverted silver star which stands for the Medal of Honor he won for valor on board the battleship USS NEVADA. The shape of the shield refers to the Aegis armament and capabilities of DDG 71. Gold stands for excellence, red for courage.

The Crest:

The griffin on the crest, noted for vigilance, intelligence and valor, reflects the versatility of the DDG 7l's operating capabilities. It holds a trident denoting the range of USS ROSS's offensive equipment and firepower.

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History of USS ROSS:

USS ROSS' keel was laid on April 10, 1995 in Pascagoula, Miss., and her christening was held one year later. ROSS' plankowning crew moved aboard in April 1997 and sailed her to Galveston, Texas for the Commissioning on 28 June 1997.

After commissioning, ROSS sailed on a six-week Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trial and then traveled back to Pascagoula for a three-month Post Shakedown Availability (PSA). ROSS then returned to her homeport of Portsmouth, Virginia and completed the Basic Training Phase including Engineering Certification, CART II, TSTA I, and III, Cruise Missile Tactical Qualification, Final Evaluation Period (FEP), and Logistics Management Assessment.

ROSS completed the Intermediate Training Phase and in early 1999, she sailed with the THEODORE ROOSEVELT Battle Group for a Joint Task Force Exercise in preparation for a six-month deployment commencing on March 26, 1999. During this deployment to the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas, ROSS participated in Operation Allied Force. On September 22, she returned to Norfolk, Va.

On May 15, 2000, she got underway for Northern Europe to participate in Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2000. She served as flagship for Commander Carrier Group Eight and together with the USS PETERSON (DD 969) she operated with more than 50 ships from numerous European countries. During the exercise the destroyer visited Stockholm, Sweden and Kiel in Germany before returning to the United States in late June.

In September 2001, USS ROSS deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Gulf supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and conducting operations in support of UN resolutions against Iraq. During the deployment, ROSS was part of the THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) Battle Group.

On September 11, 2001 ROSS deployed on three-hour notice in order to defend the United States' eastern seaboard in response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. ROSS acted for a time as Regional Air Defense Commander, in support of Commander, North American Air Defense Command. ROSS was also recognized that year with the prestigious Arizona Memorial Trophy for being the most combat ready ship in the US Navy.

Just weeks after the attacks, on October 17, 2001, ROSS again deployed, this time to the Mediterranean Sea in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. While deployed, ROSS played a crucial role on the global war on terrorism and provided much needed air defense and strike capabilities. Returning from deployment on April 16, 2002, ROSS maintained her combat readiness by participating in numerous exercises, including BALTOPS 2003 in the Baltic Sea, and completed the inter-deployment training cycle to prepare for her next deployment.

On April 30, 2004, ROSS left Norfolk, Virginia, on her third deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The ship completed four months of operations in the FIFTH and SIXTH Fleet areas of responsibility, conducting Maritime Interdiction Operations and participating in the ceremonies surrounding the 50th commemoration of the Allied assault at Normandy.

Shortly after her return in August 2004, ROSS commenced an accelerated basic training cycle and entered Metro Machine Shipyard for her first docking maintenance period in March 2005. She emerged in June, and then spent the summer pursuing the balance of her warfare certifications. In September 2005, she was selected to replace USS THOMAS S. GATES (CG 51) as flagship for UNITAS 47-06, after a significant portion of GATES' crew was displaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. With only two weeks’ notice, ROSS put to sea for a two-month deployment embarking Commander, Destroyer Squadron SIX and sailing to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the multinational exercise. ROSS returned on Thanksgiving Day 2005, and then began preparations for another overseas movement, departing Norfolk in February 2006 to participate in NEPTUNE WARRIOR 061 in the waters surrounding Scotland.

Upon return to Norfolk, ROSS’ crew had only one month to prepare for a six-month deployment in support of Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR in the Mediterranean Sea. ROSS deployed on May 1, 2006, as part of Standing NATO Maritime Group TWO (SNMG 2). During the deployment ROSS conducted more than 850 queries of merchant shipping, over 40 helicopter landings, and traveled more than 45,000 nautical miles. ROSS returned to Norfolk November 6, 2006, having spent 10 of the past 14 months at sea.

2007 began with ROSS preparing for a scheduled February INSURV (Board of Inspection and Survey). That inspection was moved to August and in April ROSS entered BAE Shipyard for a two and a half month Selected Restricted Availability (SRA). During the SRA ROSS received the Tactical Tomahawk WCS (TTWCS), berthing modifications, SHF SATCOM, and the crew performed major preservation work throughout the ship. ROSS completed the major Engineering inspections as well as INSURV later in 2007.

ROSS sailed on deployment on February 20, 2008, into the U.S. Fifth and Sixth Fleet areas. Across spring and summer 2008, she conducted maritime security operations tied to the Global War on Terrorism, operating between the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf as part of routine coalition escort, presence, and counter-illicit-traffic tasks. She returned to the East Coast later in 2008 to resume training and readiness cycles. In 2010, ROSS again deployed, this time with the HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) Carrier Strike Group. Getting underway from Norfolk on May 21, 2010, with the carrier, USS NORMANDY (CG 60), and destroyers including USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81) and USS OSCAR AUSTIN (DDG 79), she crossed into the Red Sea and Suez in June and spent much of the deployment in the Arabian Sea supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn. She returned to Norfolk on December 20, 2010, closing a cruise marked by persistent air and maritime operations with coalition partners. In 2011, while stateside between deployments, ROSS took part in Fleet Week Port Everglades events and received a significant defensive-systems upgrade that fall when the Joint Biological Point Detection System was installed, adding near-real-time biological threat detection to her survivability suite. Through 2012-2013, she remained an East Coast destroyer preparing for forward-deployment, completing ballistic-missile-defense modernization and workups that would underpin her later European tasking.

ROSS shifted homeport to Naval Station Rota, Spain in June 2014, as one of the first four forward-deployed ballistic-missile-defense destroyers assigned to Commander, Task Force 65. Soon after arrival she began patrols focused on the European Phased Adaptive Approach to missile defense and on reassurance operations amid tensions following Russia's annexation of Crimea. On September 3, 2014, ROSS entered the Black Sea for training and exercise activity with regional navies, including participation in the U.S.-Ukraine co-hosted exercise Sea Breeze. She made a visible port call at Constanta, Romania on September 5, then proceeded toward Ukrainian waters for the exercise's events. During a subsequent port call in Turkey, three ROSS sailors were assaulted ashore in Istanbul on November 12, 2014, an incident widely reported at the time and condemned by both nations' authorities.

Her second forward-deployed patrol ran from March 18 to July 20, 2015 and combined Mediterranean presence with Black Sea operations and bilateral drills with NATO allies and partners. While in the Black Sea in late May and early June 2015, Russian SU-24 aircraft made unusually close passes near the ship. The U.S. Navy stated ROSS remained in international waters and continued scheduled operations. That autumn, ROSS's ballistic-missile-defense role took center stage during At-Sea Demonstration 2015 off Scotland. On October 20-21, 2015, she launched a STANDARD MISSILE-3 interceptor and successfully engaged a Terrier ballistic-missile target on a foreign test range - the first such U.S. Navy intercept conducted from European waters - while USS THE SULLIVANS (DDG 68) fired a STANDARD MISSILE-2 against anti-ship-cruise-missile surrogates in the same event, which involved multiple allied navies.

In 2016, ROSS continued the forward-deployed patrol cycle, operating in the Mediterranean and Black Sea and participating in Black Sea exercises that aimed to improve regional maritime security and interoperability. In early 2017, she shifted to the Eastern Mediterranean during a period of heightened concern over Syria's civil war and chemical weapons use. On April 7, 2017, from positions in the Eastern Mediterranean, ROSS and USS PORTER (DDG 78) launched a combined salvo of 59 TOMAHAWK land-attack missiles against Shayrat Air Base in Syria. The strike, ordered by the U.S. government following the April 4 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, targeted Syrian military infrastructure assessed to be connected to chemical weapons employment. After the strike, ROSS conducted an April 10 port visit to Larnaca, Cyprus, then sailed to Haifa, Israel, departing on May 12. Through the summer of 2017, she ranged north, conducting anti-submarine and presence operations in the Norwegian Sea and the High North.

In February 2018, ROSS entered the Black Sea on February 16-17 and was joined there by USS CARNEY (DDG 64) for a rare two-destroyer "proactive presence" patrol intended to underscore allied commitment to regional security. That patrol closed at the end of February. In 2019, ROSS again steamed into the Black Sea in mid-April for maritime security operations. Her movements were closely tracked by regional militaries, and that Black Sea period and the months following included port visits to Odesa, Ukraine - where she pulled in on December 24 - and Constanta, Romania, reinforcing ties with both navies and signaling ongoing support for freedom of navigation. She completed her ninth forward-deployed patrol on March 14, 2020, having also exercised with the French carrier task group built around FS CHARLES DE GAULLE (R 91) earlier that winter. Late February 2020, found ROSS in Varna, Bulgaria, for a scheduled port call, and on March 3 she exited the Black Sea for the Mediterranean.

Later in 2020, ROSS pushed into the Arctic as part of a revitalized U.S. and allied High North presence. She operated in the Barents Sea beginning October 19, supported by USNS LARAMIE (T-AO 203), and in the course of her High North work that year also trained alongside the Royal Navy and Royal Norwegian Navy. Imagery from September showed her conducting replenishment with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's RFA TIDESPRING (A 136). She departed the Barents Sea on November 1 after thirteen days in the High North, then returned to routine Sixth Fleet tasking. In summer 2021, ROSS entered the Black Sea on June 26 for Exercise Sea Breeze 2021, the largest iteration of that long-running U.S.-Ukraine-led drill, and joined U.K. patrol vessel HMS TRENT (P 224) for exchange activities. She then shifted to Exercise Breeze 2021, arriving Varna, Bulgaria on July 11 for the Bulgarian-led multinational event, and completed her eleventh forward-deployed patrol back in Rota on July 26, 2021.

ROSS began her twelfth patrol on December 27, 2021. She called at Toulon, France, on January 29, 2022, then continued Mediterranean operations as the European security environment deteriorated with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Amid increased U.S. and NATO vigilance, ROSS remained on Sixth Fleet tasking. Command staff visited the ship at sea on February 25. After nearly eight years in Europe and twelve forward-deployed patrols, she concluded her tour as a Forward Deployed Naval Forces-Europe destroyer, departing Rota on September 6 and arriving back at Naval Station Norfolk on September 10, 2022, to complete the homeport shift to the United States.

Back in Norfolk, the Navy placed ROSS into an Extended Dry-Docking Selected Restricted Availability at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair. Awarded in August 2022 and begun in November 2022, the work package combined maintenance and modernization on hull, machinery, combat systems, and habitability to posture the ship for another service phase. After approximately eighteen months in availability, ROSS completed sea trials on May 24, 2024, formally closing the EDSRA. Through 2025, she executed the Basic Phase and multi-unit certifications, participated in multinational exercises, and conducted advanced tactical training in support of the GEORGE H. W. BUSH (CVN 77) Carrier Strike Group. On August 15, 2025, the destroyer held a change-of-command ceremony in Norfolk, marking the transition from the deep availability period to a new operational chapter.

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Homeports of USS ROSS:

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About the Destroyer's Name, about Capt. Donald K. Ross:

Donald Kirby Ross was born in Beverly, Kansas, on December 8, 1910, and enlisted in the United States Navy in June 1929. He rose through the enlisted ranks, was warranted Machinist in 1940, and joined the crew of the battleship USS NEVADA (BB 36) in November 1940.

As a junior Warrant Officer onboard USS NEVADA, Ross earned the Medal of Honor for "extraordinary courage and disregard of his own life during the attack on the Fleet at Pearl Harbor" on December 7, 1941, according to the citation accompanying his award.

"When his station in the forward dynamo room became almost untenable due to smoke, steam and heat," the citation continues, "he forced his men to leave that station and preformed all the duties himself until blinded and unconscious. Upon being rescued and resuscitated, he returned and secured the forward dynamo room and proceeded to the after dynamo room, where he was later again rendered unconscious by exhaustion. Upon recovering consciousness, he returned to his station, where he remained until directed to abandon it."

Ross was presented the Medal of Honor by Admiral Chester Nimitz on April 18, 1942, and was commissioned Ensign in June 1942. Later in the war, he also participated in the landing at Normandy and Southern France.

Ross retired in July 1956 as a Captain after 27 years of consecutive active duty aboard every type of surface ship then afloat.

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USS ROSS Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the USS ROSS at Naval Base Kiel, Germany, after participating in BALTOPS 2000 in June 2000.

The photos below were taken by Brian Barton on July 23, 2002, when USS ROSS was at Naval Base Norfolk.

The photos below were taken by me and show the USS ROSS moored alongside USS VELLA GULF (CG 72) at Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on June 20-23, 2003, after participating in BALTOPS 2003.

The photos below were taken by Carl Groll on June 20, 2003, and show the ROSS entering the German port of Kiel at the end of BALTOPS 2003.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ROSS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on November 9, 2008.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ROSS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 6, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the ROSS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 28, 2013.

The photo below was taken by me and shows the ROSS anchored off Greenock, UK, on March 30, 2014, prior to her participation in exercise Joint Warrior 141 off the coast of Scotland.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the ROSS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on May 8, 2014.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ROSS departing Royal Navy Base Faslane in Scotland on October 4, 2015, to join Exercise Joint Warrior 152.

The photos below were taken by me and show the ROSS at Naval Base Toulon, France. All but the last photo were taken on September 15, 2016. ROSS arrived on September 13, to join the strike group formed around the French aircraft carrier CHARLES DE GAULLE (R 91). The last photo shows the ROSS with the aircraft carrier behind her during sunrise on September 19. Later that day, the ships departed for the eastern Mediterranean to conduct strikes against the Islamic State.

The video and the photos below were taken by me and show the ROSS departing HMNB Clyde in Faslane, UK, to participate in Exercise Joint Warrior 181 on April 22, 2018. USS ROSS is presently on her sixth forward-deployed patrol.

The clip and the photos below were taken by me and show the USS ROSS arriving at Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on June 21, 2019, after participating in BALTOPS 2019.

The photos below were taken by me during an open ship event aboard USS ROSS as part of the Kiel Week at Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on June 22, 2019.

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The photos below were taken by Sven Scheller and show USS ROSS at Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on September 24, 2020. USS ROSS is presently on her tenth forward-deployed patrol and is using Naval Base Kiel to replenish and refuel while operating in the Baltic Sea.

The photos below were taken by Sven Scheller and show USS ROSS departing Naval Base Kiel, Germany, on September 24, 2020. USS ROSS is presently on her tenth forward-deployed patrol and it's ROSS' second visit to Kiel during her current patrol.

The photo below was taken by Helwin Scharn and shows USS ROSS at her homeport Rota, Spain, on May 22, 2022.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS ROSS at BAE Systems Norfolk Ship Repair in Norfolk, Va., on October 9, 2023.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows USS ROSS at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on October 4, 2024.

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