By USS Taylor (FFG 50) Public Affairs
MAYPORT, Fla. -- The Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Taylor (FFG 50) concluded more than 30 years of service to the Navy during a decommissioning ceremony led by Cmdr. Joel Rodriguez, commanding officer, held May 8 at Naval Station Mayport.
More than 400 crew members, plank owners, family members and friends gathered to bid farewell to the celebrated frigate. Among the ceremonial guests were Adm. Philip S. Davidson, commander, U.S. Fleet Forces Command and retired Capt. Steve Fitzgerald, Taylor’s commissioning commanding officer.
The crew completed its final deployment Aug. 9, 2014, to the U.S. 6th and 4th Fleet areas of responsibility. During the deployment the ship conducted theater security cooperation, maritime security operations and partner-building exercises in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in support of Operation Active Endeavor. Mid-deployment, Taylor transitioned to the Caribbean in support of the Joint Interagency Task Force South counter-illicit trafficking mission.
“The Decommissioning Ceremony focuses on the lifetime of the ship. It is a chance to reminisce, remember and reunite not just as individuals, but as a whole,” said Cmdr. Murzban Morris, a previous commanding officer. “Every one of us here, has at some point in the past 30 years been a part of this ship. In good times, bad and all levels in between, we have been a part of USS Taylor’s heritage. And with that, we have each been a part of something greater represented here today.”
The keel of the Oliver Hazard Perry-class Frigate was laid May 5, 1983, at the Bath Iron Works Shipyard in Bath, Maine. She launched Nov. 5, 1983 and commissioned Dec. 1, 1984. Taylor is named for Cmdr. Jesse Taylor who was a veteran of World War II, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during a rescue attempt of a downed pilot near the North Vietnamese port of Haiphong in November 1965.
Taylor is slated to be transferred for foreign military sales to Taiwan.
For more news from commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, visit www.navy.mil/local/surflant/.