USS Fox (CG 33) - Unofficial US Navy Site

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General Characteristics Crew List Memorabilia Cruise Books About the Ship's Coat of Arms USS Fox' COs History About the Ship's Namesake Image Gallery to end of page USS Fox (CG 33)- formerly DLG 33 -- decommissioned -

USS FOX was the eighth ship in the BELKNAP - class of guided missile cruisers. Decommissioned on April 15, 1994, after almost 28 years of service, the ship spent the following years laid-up at Suisun Bay, Benicia, California, as part of the Reserve Fleet. In 2006, the FOX was towed to Brownsville, Tx., for scrapping. USS FOX was last homeported in San Diego, Ca., and was the fifth ship of the name in the US Navy and the third to honor Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1861-1865.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: January 16, 1962
	Keel laid: January 15, 1963
	Launched: November 21, 1964
	Commissioned: May 8, 1966
	Decommissioned: April 15, 1994
	Builder: Todd Pacific Shipyards Co., Los Angeles Division, San Pedro, Ca.
	Propulsion system:4 - 1200 psi boilers; 2 General Electric geared turbines
	Propellers: two
	Length: 548 feet (167 meters)
	Beam: 55 feet (16.8 meters)
	Draft: 28,5 feet (8.7 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 8,100 tons
	Speed: 30+ knots
	Aircraft: one SH-2F (LAMPS 1) helicopter
	Armament: two Mk 141 Harpoon missile launchers, one Mk-42 5-inch/54 caliber gun, two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, one Mk-10 missile launcher for Standard missiles (ER) and ASROC, Mk 46 torpedoes from two Mk-32 triple mounts
	Crew: 27 officers and 450 enlisted

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Crew List:This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS FOX. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

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• Click here to see which USS FOX memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS FOX Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1970
• WestPac Cruise Book 1971-72
• WestPac Cruise Book 1975-76
• WestPac Cruise Book 1980-81

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About the Ship's Coat of Arms: The motto is one associated with the English branch of the Fox family and dates back to the early 19th century. Literally translated, it means: "To do without saying"; freely translated, it might be rendered as: "Action without words": The sense is considered fitting for a ship of war and particularly symbolic of the capability of FOX. The colors of the shield are those of the national Ensign, symbolic of courage, loyalty and honor. Moreover, they are the colors of Gustavus Vasa Ericcson, King of Sweden in 16th century, to whom it is believed Secretary Fox traced his lineage. The running fox and battle helmet are an adaptation of the heraldic device on a coat of arms of the English branch of the Fox family. The fleet fox is symbolic of the speed, agility, and cunning that characterized the ship. The knight's helmet represents FOX's military purpose and readiness and the closed helm reiterating the purport of the motto.

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USS FOX' Commanding Officers:

Period	Name
May 28, 1966 - May 28, 1968	Captain Robert O. Welander, USN
May 28, 1968 - August 14, 1969	Captain Marshall D. Wood, USN
August 14, 1969 - January 22, 1971	Captain Paul Bolan, USN
January 22, 1971 - March 17, 1972	Captain Robert E. McCabe, USN
March 17, 1972 - May 8, 1974	Captain Robert M. Collins, USN
May 8, 1974 - April 17, 1976	Captain Robert E. Weeks, USN
April 17, 1976 - May 23, 1978	Captain James F. Kelly, Jr., USN
May 23, 1978 - March 14, 1980	Captain Robert J. Steele, USN
March 14, 1980 - April 3, 1982	Captain Leslie N. Palmer, USN
April 3, 1982 - September 29, 1984	Captain Donald R. Anderson, USN
September 29, 1984 - June 27, 1986	Captain Paul E. Tobin, Jr., USN
June 27, 1986 - April 30, 1988	Captain William W. Mathis, USN
April 30, 1988 - April 14, 1990	Captain Raymond W. Addicott, USN
April 14, 1990 - April 20, 1991	Captain Francis K. Holian, USN
April 20, 1991 - February 13, 1993	Captain David L. Peck, USN
February 13, 1993 - April 15, 1994	Commander Robert E. McCabe III, USN

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USS FOX History: USS FOX was built at Todd Shipyards, San Pedro - commissioned at Long Beach Naval Shipyard on May 28, 1966, and shifted to her new homeport of San Diego on October 6, 1966, after a summer of fitting-out and combat-systems shake-down. Her early identity formed immediately in the Western Pacific: by mid-1967, she was on PIRAZ duty in the Gulf of Tonkin, building and holding the recognized air picture and controlling carriers' strikes while also standing search-and-rescue (SAR) alert. On October 23, 1967, a FOX air intercept controller vectored carrier-based F-4s to a MiG-21 over Hanoi - the first confirmed Vietnam-War shoot-down directed from a shipboard controller - capturing the precision radar/ID work that defined her Vietnam deployments. Typical ports in this period were functional rather than leisurely: Subic Bay for ammunition and repair, short resets at Yokosuka or Sasebo, and liberty at Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, or Singapore between long line periods. FOX's Vietnam tempo carried into the conflict's last years. On January 11, 1972, while operating near Vinh, she fired two Terrier surface-to-air missiles at a North Vietnamese MiG-21 (no kill credited), and in 1972 she also served as the at-sea evaluation platform for the CNO's DV-98 LAMPS project - early steps in integrating embarked helicopters with surface combatants' sensors and weapons. She finished the war with repeated PIRAZ/SAR cycles, then returned to West Coast training and inspections pending the fleet-wide surface-combatant redesignations. The redesignation on June 30, 1975, reclassified the former destroyer leader as CG 33, aligning her title with her principal task: long-range air defense for carrier groups. The strategic map was widening: FOX made her first Red Sea visit in March 1976, a prelude to the greater pull of the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf as the decade closed. After the Iranian Revolution and the seizure of U.S. hostages on November 4, 1979, the Navy surged presence to the Arabian Sea. FOX's first Persian Gulf deployment followed in November 1980, with her days split between air-picture management on carrier screen stations and the constant choreography of replenishment groups pushing fuel and stores forward. Logistics and liberty remained short and purposeful at Diego Garcia, Singapore, and the Japanese hubs, with long at-sea spells the norm. The early- to mid-1980s settled into a demanding rhythm of San Diego workups, trans-Pacific passages, and combined exercises in the Philippine and South China Seas, interspersed with Indian Ocean extensions as instability around the Horn of Africa and in Southwest Asia persisted. Incremental shipyard periods on the West Coast bundled hull preservation with radar, fire-control, and combat-direction reliability work so a 1960s hull could manage 1980s threat densities. RIMPAC-linked events out of Pearl Harbor and bilateral drills with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force kept crews current on long-range missile employment and replenishment underway while FOX continued her pattern of short, functional port calls at Subic Bay, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokosuka, and Sasebo. Escalation in the Gulf after the May 17, 1987 attack on USS STARK (FFG 31) and Kuwait's request for protection pulled FOX into convoy escort under Operation Earnest Will. Through late 1987 and into 1988 she rotated through air-defense and identification stations on approaches to the Strait of Hormuz, coordinated with maritime patrol aircraft and surface screens around reflagged tankers, and used Bahrain and Muscat for brief fuel, stores, and repair windows. The work was methodical - hold a clean air and surface picture, deconflict allied activity, and keep escorts predictable enough to deter attacks - recognized with a second Meritorious Unit Commendation for the 1987 deployment. To extend her relevance, FOX entered a deep New Threat Upgrade (NTU) modernization at National Steel & Shipbuilding Co., San Francisco, from October 1, 1989 to October 27, 1990. NTU integrated SPS-48E/SPS-49 air-search radars, SPG-55B fire-control, improved combat-direction and tracking (with SM-2 downlink), and doctrine to time-share illuminators - dramatically improving her ability to manage dense airspace around a carrier while employing SM-2ER. Post-availability trials and combat-systems qualifications ran into late 1990, after which FOX returned to fleet exercises and theater presence with far better track-handling and engagement coordination than she had possessed at the decade's start. The final operational chapter spanned the early 1990s. As coalition operations crested and then gave way to maritime interception and sanctions enforcement, FOX alternated West Coast readiness with Pacific and Indian Ocean sorties that blended joint exercises, high-density airspace control, and routine presence. Her last overseas deployment concluded near the end of 1993, after which she began inactivation. She decommissioned at San Diego on April 15, 1994, entered the reserve fleet at Suisun Bay, and remained laid-up until towed to Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping in 2006.

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About the Ship's Namesake: Born in Saugus, Massachusetts, on 13 June 1821, Gustavas V. Fox entered the Navy as a midshipman in 1838. He served in cruising warships, including Commodore Perry's squadron during the Mexican War, the Coast Survey, and finally commanded U.S. Mail steamers plying the Atlantic coastal routes. Resigning from the Navy in 1856, he entered business in Lowell, Massachusetts. At the onset of the Civil War, he volunteered for service and received a temporary appointment as a Lieutenant in the Navy. In April 1861, he was dispatched in the steamer BALTIC to relieve Fort Sumter; before he could land his embarked troops, the Confederate bombardment began and, after the surrender of the fort, he coukl only transport the remnants of Major Anderson's command back to New York. He was appointed Chief Clerk of the Navy Department in May 1861 and at President Lincoln's insistence the office of Assistant Secretary of the Navy was created for him by an act of Congress in August 1861. Fox was a forceful, outspoken individual with considerable experience in oceangoing steamships and he soon gained Lincoln's confidence. By sheer force of personality, he rose to a dominant position in the direction of naval affairs within the Department; similarly, his influence in government circles afforded him a major role in the tactical as well as strategic direction of the naval aspects of the Union war effort. He was a powerful champion of the controversial inventor John Ericcson and the equally controversial monitor-type of ironclad. Whatever the merits of the latter in the context of the times, it may now be noted that the concept soon led to the generally accepted practice of concentrating a ship's firepower in a small number of large guns mounted in revolving armored turrets and hence the battleships and cruisers of a later day. Fox resigned from his position in 1866 to represent the President on a special mission to Russia. Characteristically, he made the voyage in the monitor MINANTONOMAH, the first ship of the type to cross the Atlantic. He then returned to business in Lowell, Massachusetts and resided there until his death on 29 October 1883.

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USS FOX Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken and contributed by Michael Martin. It shows the FOX being scrapped at Brownsville, Tx., in 2006. The photo was taken on October 25, 2006.

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