USS San Jacinto (CG-56)

USS "San Jacinto" (CG-56) is a Sclass|Ticonderoga|cruiser in the United States Navy. She is named for the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.

The "San Jac" was built at Pascagoula, Mississippi and commissioned January 23 1988 by then Vice President George H. W. Bush in Houston, Texas. She completed her fitting out & work-ups, then deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in late March 1989, returning in October. While "San Jacinto"' and her sistership USS|Philippine Sea|CG-58|2 were underway off the Virginia coast performing testing of their Mk 7 AEGIS weapons systems (SPY-1A & Standard Missiles), the Iraqi army invaded and occupied Kuwait. The next day "Philippine Sea" detached and headed back to Mayport, Florida. The day after that, "San Jacinto" returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia to prepare for the massive sortie to the Middle East.

After CINCLANT had all their ships provisioned, barely 5 days later, "San Jacinto" headed for the Mediterranean. Other ships in the battle group included USS|America|CV-66, "Philippine Sea", and USS|John F. Kennedy|CV-67.

She fired the opening shots of Operation Desert Storm with the launch of two BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, firing a total of 16 missiles during the 43-day war. While stationed in a search area at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in the Red Sea, her VBSS (Visit/Boarding/Search/Seizure) teams inspected several dozen ships for contraband being smuggled for the Iraqi government. The crew came to call that duty station 'San-Jacircles' or 'San-Jac in the Box'.

External links

* [http://www.hullnumber.com/CG-56 CG-56 Personnel Roster at HullNumber.com]
* [http://www.navysite.de/cg/cg56.html "USS San Jacinto" webpage]