USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

History

USS Long Beach (CLGN-160/CGN-160/CGN-9) was a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser in the United States Navy and the world's first nuclear-powered surface combatant. She was the third Navy ship named after the city of Long Beach, California.

She was the sole member of the Long Beach class, and the last cruiser built for the United States Navy to a cruiser design; all subsequent cruiser classes were built on scaled-up destroyer hulls (and originally classified as destroyer leaders) or, in the case of the Albany class, converted from already existing cruisers.

Long Beach was laid down 2 December 1957, launched 14 July 1959 and commissioned 9 September 1961 under the command of then-Captain Eugene Parks Wilkinson, who previously served as the first commanding officer of the world's first nuclear-powered vessel, the submarine USS Nautilus. She was deployed to Vietnam during the Vietnam War and served numerous times in the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. But by the 1990s, nuclear power was deemed too expensive to use on surface ships smaller than an aircraft carrier in view of defense budget cutbacks after the end of the Cold War. Long Beach was decommissioned on 1 May 1995 instead of receiving her third nuclear refueling and proposed upgrade. After removal of the nuclear fuel, superstructure, and sections of the bow and stern, the hull segment containing the reactor and machinery spaces was moored at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and sold for scrap.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Long Beach (CGN-9), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

1. 1957
   She was reclassified CGN-160 in early 1957, but was again reclassified as CGN-9 on 1 July 1957.
2. 1961
   5 July 1961 – Long Beach underway for the first time using her own nuclear power.
3. 1962
   Returning to Norfolk, Virginia 7 February 1962, Long Beach, trained off the east coast and in the Caribbean.
4. 1963
   After overhaul and installation of new equipment at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Long Beach again trained in the Caribbean, and then sailed 6 August 1963 to join the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean for peacekeeping operations.
5. 1964
   28 April 1964 – Second deployment to the Mediterranean for "Nuclear Task Force One".
6. 1967
   9 December 1967 – Present at Long Beach to welcome RMS Queen Mary on her first call ever to her new home port.
7. 1972
   Long Beach received a Combat Action Ribbon for action on 26 April 1972, a few days after the Battle of Đồng Hới.
8. 1991
   Long Beach deployed to the region beginning 28 May 1991 to support Operation Provide Comfort, which was after Operation Desert Storm was over and major hostilities had ended in late February 1991.
9. 1994
   A deactivation ceremony occurred on 2 July 1994 at Norfolk Naval Station, and the ship was then towed over to Newport News Shipbuilding where her entire superstructure was removed and her reactors were defueled.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Long Beach (CGN-9)”

More history

• Naval History and Heritage Command (DANFS)
• Wikipedia: USS Long Beach (CGN-9)