Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60)
1987-2015
Rodney Maxwell Davis (7 April 1942-6 September 1967).
The first U.S. Navy ship named Rodney M. Davis.
(FFG-60: displacement 4,100; length 453'; beam 47'; draft 26'; speed 29 (plus) knots; complement 219; armament Mk 13 Guided Missile Launcher with RGM-84 Harpoon surface to surface missiles and RIM-66 Standard surface to air missiles, one 76 millimeter Mk 75 rapid fire gun, six Mk 46 torpedoes, one Mk 15 Phalanx Close-in Weapon System, two SH-60B Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System Mk III Seahawks; class Oliver Hazard Perry)
Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60) was laid down on 8 February 1985 at Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp., Los Angeles Division, San Pedro, Calif.; launched on 11 January 1986; sponsored by Mrs. Judy P. Davis, widow of the late Sgt. Davis; and commissioned on 9 May 1987, Cmdr. Craig R. Heckert in command.
Rodney M. Davis, and her embarked Coast Guard law enforcement detachment (LEDET), intercepted fishing vessel Mariana de Jesus in the Eastern Pacific, on 19 April 2007. The arrival of a maritime patrol aircraft overhead had panicked the ship’s master and crew and they had abandoned the vessel and the 31 migrants on board. Rodney M. Davis assisted the people and then transferred them to the El Salvadorian Navy. Four days later, Rodney M. Davis and Costa Rican Coast Guard vessel Juan Rafael Mora intercepted fishing vessel Kuerubin and 61 Chinese migrants, en route from Ecuador to Guatemala. The smugglers also abandoned the migrants after a maritime patrol aircraft flew over, and the frigate transferred the people to Juan Rafael Mora.
On 5 December 2008, Rodney M. Davis, while patrolling the Eastern Pacific with Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron (Light) (HSL) 43 Detachment 2 and LEDET 106 embarked, intercepted a fishing vessel and her crew of nine smugglers carrying more than four metric tons of cocaine, valued at more than $90 million. Rodney M. Davis returned from her six-month counternarcotics deployment to Naval Station (NS) Everett, Wash., on 21 April 2009. During her voyage the ship intercepted and seized six tons of cocaine and 160 pounds of marijuana, and disrupted shipments of 18 tons of cocaine and three tons of marijuana.
Rodney M. Davis was decommissioned on 23 January 2015 at NS Everett, Wash.
Detailed history under construction.
Mark L. Evans
4 March 2015
