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USS Thomas S. Gates Set for Deployment

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040310-02

Release Date: 3/10/2004 8:26:00 AM

By Stacey Byington, Naval Station Pascagoula Public Affairs

PASCAGOULA, Miss. (NNS) -- USS Thomas S. Gates (CG 51) will leave its homeport at Naval Station Pascagoula, Pascagoula, Miss., for a five-month deployment March 10. The deployment will cover a variety of missions, including a circumnavigation of the South American continent.

Gates' deployment will include counter-drug operations, high-profile port visits along the eastern Atlantic seaboard; escorting the nation's newest carrier, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), to her new homeport in San Diego; and international exercises with South American navy ships.

"This is an unprecedented deployment with many training opportunities for Gates," noted Cmdr. Richard A. Rainer Jr., Gates' commanding officer.

Gates' eastern seaboard tour will include a visit to New London, Conn., home of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Philadelphia, Pa., where Gates was commissioned in August 1987; and Annapolis, Md., home of the U.S. Naval Academy, where Gates will serve as the visiting ship for this year's graduation ceremony.

Gates was selected to escort Reagan on her maiden voyage to San Diego, where Reagan will be homeported. Reagan is the ninth aircraft carrier of the nuclear-powered Nimitz class. Gates' escort duties will include a visit to Punta del Este, Uruguay, and a voyage around the southern tip of South America, one of the most hazardous and legendary passages in maritime history.

Gates is an Aegis guided-missile cruiser, one of three assigned to Destroyer Squadron 6, homeported at Pascagoula. It is a multi-mission surface combatant capable of supporting carrier strike groups or amphibious forces, operating as a flagship of a surface strike group, or operating independently.

It has a crew of more than 350 men and women, and has the ability to carry out multi-dimensional, multi-threat combat missions. As part of its Aegis weapons arsenal, Gates is equipped with SPY-1 radar, sophisticated displays and computer systems, and advanced surface-to-air missiles, and is ideally suited to perform duties as "Defender of the Republic" against a complex and fast-moving air attack of any kind.

Gates is scheduled to return in early August 2004.