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USS Boone (FFG 28)

USS BOONE was the 20^th frigate in the PERRY class and the second long-hull version in that class. Since 1998 the frigate was part of the NRF training naval reservists. Last homeported in Mayport, Fla., the BOONE was decommissioned on February 23, 2012. Subsequently laid up at Philadelphia, BOONE was towed to Campbeltown, Scotland, on August 18, 2022, for use as a target during exercise Atlantic Thunder 22. Ex-BOONE was sunk as a target in the North Atlantic on September 7, 2022, by US and British forces.

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Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

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• Click here to see which USS BOONE memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS BOONE Cruise Books:

• Counter-Drug Cruise Book 2002-03

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USS BOONE in the News:

• March 24, 2003 - Boone Rescues 160 Ecuadorians Adrift

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About the Coat of Arms:

The Shield:

At the chief, or upper portion of the shield, are the colors of the Distinguished Service Cross Ribbon, signifying the award of this medal to Vice Admiral Joel T. Boone while serving with the Second Army Division in France. The reversed gold star alludes to Admiral Boone's Medal of Honor, this country's highest award. The red cross, a symbol of medical service, bears a fleur-de-lis, referring to Admiral Boone's illustrious service in France. Oak, a symbol of strength, is formed into a wreath denoting honor and excellence. Medical officers of the Navy wear oak leaves. The six white stars represent Admiral Boone's Silver Star Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters.

The Crest:

The eagle on a globe refers to the Marine Corps insignia and Admiral Boone's service and assignment with the Marine Corps. The eagle and U.S. shield also reflects Admiral Boone's service to three presidents and his later association with the Veterans Administration.

The Motto:

The scroll, its colors alluding to the first navy jack, bears the motto of that flag. The phrase, "Don't Tread on Me" reminds us of the American Revolution and also sets the standard for the traditional rules of engagement of the United States Navy. It serves as fair warning to potential enemies of the lethality of a warship and the U.S. Navy's propensity to prevail in battle against forces of apparently superior advantage.

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About the Ship's Namesake:

Admiral Boone's Medal Of Honor citation: "For gallantry and bravery while serving with the Sixth Regiment, United States Marines, in actual conflict with the enemy at and in the vicinity of Vierzy, France on 19 July 1918. With absolute disregard for personal safety ever mindful of the suffering and fallen, Lieutenant Boone, leaving the shelter of the ravine, went forward onto the open field where there was no protection and, despite the extreme enemy fire of all caliber, applied dressings and first aid to wounded Marines. Twice that day the dressing and supplies were exhausted, he went through a heavy barrage of large-caliber shells, both high explosive and gas, to replenish these supplies, returning quickly, and administered them in saving the lives of the wounded. LT Boone's determining and persevering actions, courageous spirit, and selfless devotion to duty reflected great credit upon him, and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

Following World War I, Admiral Boone served on the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, as Director of the Bureau of Naval Affairs with the Red Cross. In 1922, he became the Medical Officer aboard the Presidential Yacht, USS MAYFLOWER, where he was physician to Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge. Between 1929 and 1933, he was also Presidential Physician during the administration of Herbert Hoover.

Admiral Boone served in numerous posts after 1933 until his retirement in 1950. His posts took him across the United States and the Pacific becoming the Senior Medical Officer aboard USS RELIEF and USS SARATOGA, and at Naval Air Station San Diego, California. From 1943-1945, he served as Medical-Officer-in-Charge at the Naval Hospital in Seattle, Washington. In 1945, upon a promotion to Commodore, Admiral William F. Halsey chose him to be one of the three officers to liberate allied prisoners of war in Japan. In addition, he served as the Naval Medical Corps Representative at the surrender ceremonies of the Japanese aboard USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945.

The Joel T. Boone Clinic on the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Virginia was dedicated to him on March 15, 1972. Admiral Boone was also involved with the Veterans Administration and other organizations until his death in 1974.

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Accidents aboard USS BOONE:

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USS BOONE History:

USS BOONE was ordered on January 23, 1978, laid down by Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle on March 27, 1979, launched on January 16, 1980, and commissioned in Seattle on May 15, 1982. Her first commanding officer was Commander Claude A. La Varre. The first months of her career were occupied by the standard but demanding sequence of post-commissioning trials and certifications required to bring a new OLIVER HAZARD PERRY-class frigate fully into fleet service. In May and June 1982 she completed Harpoon certification, a light-off examination, and crew certification, then departed the Pacific Northwest for her Atlantic Fleet assignment. During that transfer she loaded ammunition at Indian Head, called at San Francisco and San Diego, transited the Panama Canal on July 15, 1982, and continued to her new homeport of Mayport. From August 23, 1982, to September 10, 1982, she underwent refresher training at Guantanamo Bay, where she operated with USS GLOVER (FF 1098) and USS OLIVER HAZARD PERRY (FFG 7) and carried out gunnery drills, replenishment exercises, and other readiness events. In September 1982, she conducted a weapons systems alignment test and antisubmarine exercises off Andros Island, and from October into November she completed Combat Systems Ship Qualification Trials and fired successful surface-to-air missiles at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. USS BOONE returned to Mayport on November 22, 1982, entered final contract trial preparations, and closed the year in leave and upkeep.

By 1984 she had moved into regular forward operations, and in June 1984 she was documented in the Persian Gulf escort environment during the early escalation of U.S. protection missions for merchant shipping, operating with ships that included USS SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON (FFG 13), USS LUCE (DDG 38), and later USS JOHN L. HALL (FFG 32).

Her service in the second half of the decade remained closely tied to Middle East Force requirements. On November 5, 1985, she entered the Middle East Force operating area and remained engaged there through the following months. During 1989, she passed through an intensive preparation cycle that included an operational propulsion plant examination, Combat Systems Readiness Review phases, and an intermediate maintenance availability before deploying under Commander Destroyer Squadron Twenty. On July 11, 1989, she departed with USS DEYO (DD 989) and USS JACK WILLIAMS (FFG 24) for another Middle East deployment, and during that period she carried out convoy escort and related forward-operating duties connected with U.S. Gulf security operations.

By the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992, USS BOONE was documented in the northern Red Sea in support of the United Nations sanctions regime against Iraq following the Gulf War. That deployment was associated with the wider USS AMERICA (CV 66) battle group cycle from December 1991 into June 1992, and records also place USS BOONE and USS THORN (DD 988) together on the homeward transit from that deployment.

USS BOONE earned the Battle Efficiency award for 1994, with the result formally confirmed to the ship on February 16, 1995, shortly after an operational propulsion plant examination. Later that year, she deployed on the MED 95-3 cruise to the Mediterranean and Adriatic, where she took part in Operation Sharp Guard, the long-running maritime embargo operation directed against the former Yugoslavia. On November 30, 1995, USS DE WERT (FFG 45) relieved USS BOONE in the Otranto operating area, confirming her service on blockade and patrol duties there. USS BOONE began 1996 in Bari, Italy, identified in her own command history material as the ninth port visit of that deployment, before later returning to the western Atlantic.

In March 1998, she received the Battle Efficiency award for 1997, and on April 3, 1998, she arrived back at Mayport from another deployment. By that point she was serving in the Naval Reserve Force training structure while remaining available for operational duty.

From 1999 onward her service increasingly centered on counter-drug operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Her 1999 command history records that she began the year in Mayport preparing for a counter-drug deployment, and contemporary reporting later showed her turning over Caribbean-area duties to USS ROBERT G. BRADLEY (FFG 49). In 2000 she again opened the year in Mayport standdown and then entered a two-week intermediate maintenance availability in January. By 2002 and 2003 she was once more on active patrol. On January 22, 2003, while south of Ecuador, she intercepted a suspicious go-fast boat, seized 4,000 pounds of narcotics, and arrested six people. During the same deployment, she operated in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific and made port calls at Gulfito, Costa Rica, Panama City, Panama, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On March 24, 2003, while on patrol, she rescued 160 Ecuadorians from a disabled fishing boat. She returned to Mayport on April 1, 2003, after a deployment that also included visits to Manta, Cozumel, and St. Thomas.

In 2006, USS BOONE re-entered a more formal multinational deployment cycle. In June 2006, she joined USS MONTEREY (CG 61) and USS THE SULLIVANS (DDG 68) in Neptune Warrior, a pre-deployment exercise in the Atlantic intended to improve interoperability with NATO units, and on June 26, 2006, she conducted an underway replenishment with the Spanish replenishment ship SPS PATINO. She then deployed to European and Mediterranean waters with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1. On August 24, 2006, while transiting from Algeria toward Spain during Mediterranean patrol operations south of the Spanish coast, she intercepted a suspected smuggling speedboat and recovered contraband abandoned after the craft fled into Algerian waters.

On November 30, 2006, while on patrol in the western Mediterranean, USS BOONE lost her rudder after the securing nut at the end of the rudder stock worked loose and eventually came free. The ship retained only limited maneuverability and was towed to Rota, Spain, where an emergency underwater repair effort was organized in early December. The repair period at Rota was reported from December 2-28, 2006, after which USS BOONE was able to resume operations. Later accounts of the repair state that the replacement rudder used in the operation was taken from USS CROMMELIN (FFG 37).

BOONE returned to Mayport on January 31, 2007, after roughly six months away from homeport, having contributed to U.S. 6th Fleet operations, Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean, and support to the Spanish coast guard. After her return she entered dry dock from April 2 to April 13, 2007, and remained involved in follow-on testing and maintenance activity at Mayport from April through July.

In December 2007, she deployed again for counter-trafficking operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. In February 2008, she trained off Florida in Task Group Exercise 02-08 with USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73), USS FARRAGUT (DDG 99), USS KAUFFMAN (FFG 59), HMCS IROQUOIS, HMCS VILLE DE QUEBEC, HMCS ST. JOHN'S, HMCS PRESERVER, and HMCS CORNER BROOK. Early in April 2008, she began a six-month U.S. Southern Command deployment. On May 10, 2008, USS BOONE and embarked Coast Guard LEDET 404 completed their first successful interdiction of that cruise, seizing 1.3 metric tons of cocaine. She remained on counter-drug patrol through the summer and into early autumn. On September 3, 2008, while investigating a suspicious vessel, she rescued 50 migrants. She returned to Mayport on October 5, 2008, after six months in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean. During that deployment she had transited the Panama Canal four times, seized 3.6 tons of illegal drugs, and made port visits that included Panama, Cartagena, Puerto Quetzal, and Cozumel.

At the start of 2010, USS BOONE was operating as part of Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 and serving in Operation Ocean Shield, NATO's counter-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of Africa. During that deployment, she operated with ships that included HDMS ABSALON, HMCS FREDERICTON, and HMS CHATHAM. After leaving the Gulf of Aden in March 2010, she moved into the Mediterranean and northern European exercise circuit, making port visits at Aksaz, Turkey, and Civitavecchia, Italy, before participating in Exercise Brilliant Mariner from April 12, 2010, to April 23, 2010. She then made a six-day port visit to Copenhagen, crossed the Atlantic with Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 for the Canadian exercise Halcyon RV, arrived at St. John, New Brunswick, on May 28, 2010, and entered Quebec City on June 3, 2010. On June 4, 2010, Commander Roy Love relieved Commander Steven J. Petroff as commanding officer aboard the ship. On June 25, 2010, she arrived at Halifax for the Canadian Naval Centennial and International Fleet Review, and on July 7, 2010, she returned to Mayport, completing a six-month deployment that had taken her from the Gulf of Aden to northern Europe and Canada. Later in the year, she also paid a routine port visit to Port Everglades on December 2, 2010.

Her final operational year was 2011. On January 28, 2011, she was serving as an opposition-force unit during USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH (CVN 77) Composite Training Unit Exercise events. On April 1, 2011, USS BOONE departed Mayport for Southern Seas 2011, a deployment built around theater security cooperation, UNITAS exercises, and counter-illicit-trafficking patrols in U.S. 4th Fleet waters. She made a goodwill port call at Castries, Saint Lucia, on April 5, 2011, then arrived at Salvador, Brazil, on April 15, 2011, together with USS THACH (FFG 43), USS NITZE (DDG 94), and USCGC ESCANABA for the Atlantic phase of UNITAS. She visited Rio de Janeiro on April 26, 2011, Rio Grande in early May, Montevideo in mid-May, anchored off Punta Arenas from May 20, 2011, to May 24, 2011, and arrived at Puerto Montt on May 30, 2011. On June 10, 2011, she and USS THACH reached Talcahuano after completing exercises with the Chilean submarine GENERAL CARRERA. On June 24, 2011, the two frigates arrived at Valparaiso for the Pacific phase of UNITAS, and later calls included Coquimbo and another visit to Valparaiso.

After a stop in Panama, USS BOONE operated from Bahia Malaga, Colombia, from August 15, 2011, to August 18, 2011. On August 30, 2011, about 200 nautical miles from the Galapagos Islands, she seized the fishing vessel MARIA CANELA with approximately 1.3 tons of cocaine and nine people aboard. USS BOONE returned to Mayport on September 18, 2011, after nearly six months away. Her last underway period followed in November 2011 and included a visit to New York for Veterans Day events. She returned to Mayport for the final time on November 17, 2011. On December 9, 2011, Lieutenant Commander Robert Speight relieved Commander Roy Love as the ship's eighteenth and final commanding officer. USS BOONE was decommissioned at Naval Station Mayport on February 23, 2012, ending almost thirty years of service. After years in inactive status, she was towed from Philadelphia to Campbeltown, Scotland, in August 2022 for use as a target in Atlantic Thunder 22 and was sunk in the North Atlantic on September 7, 2022.

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USS BOONE Patch Gallery:

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USS BOONE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOONE at Naval Base Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on April 10, 2010. BOONE is a participant of NATO Exercise Brilliant Mariner from April 12 - 22, 2010. The reason for the flag on half-mast is that Poland's President Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash earlier that day.

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOONE laid up between her sisterships JOHN L. HALL (FFG 32) and STEPHEN W. GROVES (FFG 29) at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn. The photos were taken on May 4, 2012.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the BOONE laid up between her sisterships at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Penn., on October 3, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOONE laid up among her sisterships at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on October 21, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOONE laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on October 16, 2015.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the BOONE laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on October 17, 2016. She has been moved to the inner basin again.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the BOONE laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on May 27, 2022.

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