USS Chosin Joins Pacific Fleet — 13th Aegis Cruiser By Ingalls

The USS Chosin (CG 65), the 13th Aegis guided missile cruiser to be built for the U.S. Navy by Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton, recently joined the U.S. Pacific Fleet after being commissioned at the shipyard last month.

The Navy and Ingalls invited the general public to attend the ceremony, and to participate in guided tours aboard the CG 65 immediately following the commissioning at the company's facilities on the west bank of the Pascagoula River.

Gen. Raymond G. Davis, USMC (ret.), delivered the principal address at the commissioning.

General Davis earned the Congressional Medal of Honor as a lieutenant colonel during the 1st Marine Division's historic fight to breakout, during the bitter-cold winter of 1950, from a Chinese Communist encirclement at the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War, the battle for which CG 65 is named.

There, against overwhelming odds, he led his battalion in a fourday battle which saved a rifle company from annihilation, and opened a mountain pass for the escape of two trapped Marine regiments.

Some 400 members of "The Chosin Few," an organization of the survivors of the breakout at Chosin, were on hand for the commissioning. The general's wife, Willa, served as ship's sponsor for the USS Chosin, and participated in the commissioning ceremony. As sponsor, Mrs.

Davis christened the ship with the traditional bottle of champagne during ceremonies at Ingalls in October 1989.

Also participating in the commissioning were Adm. John W. Nyquist, USN, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations, Surface Warfare; Vice Adm. Peter M. Hekman Jr., USN, Commander, Naval Sea Systems Command; Vice Adm. David M. Bennett, USN, Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet; Rear Adm. John T. Hood, USN, Aegis Shipbuilding Program Manager; Capt. R. Bruce Woodruff, USN, Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, Pascagoula; and Jerry St. Pe, senior vice president of Litton Industries and president of Ingalls Shipbuilding.

Col. Charles R. Frissell, USAF, Staff Chaplain, Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., offered the invocation.

Capt. Martin J. Mayer, USN, assumed command of the USS Chosin, with Lt. Comdr. Michael A.

LeMieux, USN, as his executive officer.

The CG 65 joins the fleet as one of the U.S. Navy's most capable battle group surface combatants. Her Aegis Combat System is an extensive integration of electronic detection, engagement and control equipment, which provides the ship with truly multimission capabilities. Four fixed array radar antennae, mounted on the ship's superstructure, replace conventional rotating radars, enabling the ship and her crew to scan in all directions simultaneously.

The CG 65 is also equipped with the MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS). Four GE LM2500 gas turbine engines power the 9,500-ton ship to speeds in excess of 30 knots. The vessel is 567 feet long, with a 55-foot beam.

Ingalls, lead shipbuilder for five of the latest classes of Navy surface combatants, has delivered 54 major warships into the Navy's Fleet since 1975, a major portion of the surface combatants delivered during the period.

Twelve Ingalls-built Aegis cruisers have preceded the USS Chosin into the U.S. Navy's Fleets since 1983. Following CG 65, Ingalls has six additional Aegis cruisers and six Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) Class Aegis destroyers in various stages of production.

USS Wasp (LHD 1), first of a new class of multipurpose amphibious assault ships being built by Ingalls, was commissioned in July 1989, and construction is well under way on three additional ships of the class, Essex (LHD 2), Kearsarge (LHD 3) and Boxer (LHD 4).

Maritime Reporter Magazine, page 54, Feb 1991

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