{"id":46453,"date":"2023-08-11T20:20:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T20:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/08\/11\/fair-winds-and-following-seas-uss-mobile-bay\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:13:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:13:39","slug":"fair-winds-and-following-seas-uss-mobile-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2023\/08\/11\/fair-winds-and-following-seas-uss-mobile-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair winds and following seas, USS Mobile Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After nearly 37 years of service, after countless sailors called its humble hull home while carrying out a variety of missions worldwide<\/a>, the guided-missile cruiser Mobile Bay was decommissioned Thursday during a ceremony at Naval Base San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioned in 1987, Mobile Bay and its crew, known as \u201cMOBsters,\u201d helped evacuate the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1989 and launched 22 Tomahawk missiles in support of Operation Desert Storm, according to the Navy. It launched more Tomahawks in support of the Iraq war in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its sailors rescued thousands of displaced people after a volcanic eruption near Subic Bay, Philippines, in 1991 and in 2001 seized 10.5 metric tons of cocaine off the coast of Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Thursday\u2019s ceremony, Capt. Brandon Burkett, Mobile Bay\u2019s last commanding officer of the Ticonderoga-class cruiser (CG 53), said it was a privilege to work with the ship\u2019s final crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose who have gone to sea know that a ship is more than a machine that floats,\u201d Burkett said at the ceremony, according to a Navy release. \u201cWhen you are away from home for months on end, your ship becomes your home and your protection. We take care of her, and she takes care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t