Guided Missile Frigate
FFG 58 - USS Samuel B. Roberts
Type, Class:		Guided Missile Frigate; Oliver Hazard Perry - class (long hull) planned and built as FFG 58
Builder:		Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, USA
STATUS:		Awarded: March 22, 1982 Laid down: May 21, 1984 Launched: December 8, 1984 Commissioned: April 12, 1986 ACTIVE UNIT/ in commission (Atlantic Fleet)
Homeport:		Mayport, Florida, USA
Namesake:		Named after and in honor of Coxwain Samuel Booker Roberts (1921 - 1942) > see history, below;
Ship's Motto:		NO HIGHER HONOR
Technical Data: (Measures, Propulsion, Armament, Aviation, etc.)		see: INFO > Oliver Hazard Perry - class Guided Missile Frigate
ship images
USS Samuel B. Roberts launches a BQM-74E aerial target drone during Exercise UNITAS 46-05 USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) aboard the semi-submersible heavy lift ship “Mighty Servant 2” after the ship struck a mine in the Persian Gulf on April 14, 1988
Samuel Booker Roberts
Namesake & History:
Coxwain Samuel Booker Roberts (May 12, 1921 – September 27, 1942):
Samuel Booker Roberts, Jr. was a U.S. Navy coxswain who was killed in the Battle of Guadalcanal, and became the namesake of three U.S. Navy warships. Roberts was born in San Francisco, California, on May 12, 1921. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1939 and was called to active duty in 1940. Roberts served aboard the USS California (BB-44) and the transport USS Heywood (AP-12), before being transferred to the troop transport USS Bellatrix (AK-20, later AKA-20). In 1942, Bellatrix was assigned to Task Group Four and became part of the Guadalcanal Assault Force. As a coxswain for the Bellatrix's assault boats, Roberts helped ferry supplies from the transport ships to a tenuous beachhead. After the ships withdrew in the face of Japanese attacks that began 7 August 1942, Roberts volunteered for duty on the island of Guadalcanal, where he was attached to a Beachmaster unit at Lunga Point. The unit, which included Navy and United States Coast Guard sailors, transported Marines and their supplies to beaches along the island's northern coast, and also evacuated wounded Marines. Early on the morning of 27 September 1942, Roberts volunteered for a rescue mission to save a company-size unit of Marines that had been surrounded by a larger Japanese force. The rescue group of several Higgins boats was taken under heavy fire and was perilously close to failure. Roberts volunteered to distract Japanese forces by guiding his boat directly in front of their lines, drawing their fire. This decoy act was performed effectively until all Marines had been evacuated. However, as he was about to withdraw from the range of the Japanese guns, Roberts’ boat was hit and he was mortally wounded. His boatmates brought him back to base and he was flown out on a medical evacuation flight, but died the next day. Roberts was awarded the Navy Cross for his valor in the face of enemy fire.
USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58):
1988 deployment and mine strike The frigate deployed from its home port in Newport, Rhode Island in January 1988, heading for the Persian Gulf to participate in Operation Earnest Will, the escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War. The Roberts had arrived in the Persian Gulf and was heading for a refueling rendezvous on April 14 when the ship struck an M-08 naval mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area it had safely transited a few days previously. The mine blew a 15-foot (5 m) hole in the hull, flooded the engine room, and knocked the two gas turbines from their mounts. The blast also broke the keel of the ship; such structural damage is almost always fatal to most vessels. The crew fought fire and flooding for five hours and saved the ship. Ten sailors were medevaced for injuries sustained in the blast, six returned to the Roberts in a day or so. Four burn victims were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Germany, and eventually to medical facilities in the United States. When U.S. divers recovered several unexploded mines, they found that their serial numbers matched the sequence on mines seized the previous September aboard an Iranian mine-layer named Iran Ajr. Four days later, U.S. forces retaliated against Iran in Operation Praying Mantis, a one-day campaign that was the largest American surface engagement since World War II. U.S. ships, aircraft, and troops destroyed two Iranian oil platforms used to control Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf, sank one Iranian frigate, damaged another, and sent at least three armed, high-speed boats to the bottom. The U.S. lost one Marine helicopter and its crew of two airmen in what appeared to be a night maneuver accident rather than a result of hostile operations. Repairs On 27 June 1988, Roberts was loaded onto the Mighty Servant 2, a semi-submersible heavy lift ship owned by Dutch shipping firm Wijsmuller Transport and carried back to Newport for $1.3 million. The frigate arrived at BIW's Portland, Maine, yard on 6 October 1988 for repairs. The repair job was unique: the entire engine room was cut out of the hull, and a 315-ton replacement module was jacked up and welded into place. She undocked 1 April 1989 for sea trials. The repairs were completed three weeks ahead of schedule at a cost of $89.5 million, $3.5 million less than expected. By comparison, USS Princeton, which was damaged by a moored mine during the 1991 Gulf War, was repaired for $24 million. But the cruiser was not directly struck by the mine and its displacement is nearly twice that of Roberts. The mine that nearly sank Roberts had an estimated cost of $1,500. After 13 months of repairs, Roberts was returned to service in a 16 October 1989 ceremony. -- more history wanted --
patches
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