USS San Jacinto (CG-56)

USS San Jacinto (CG-56) is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser in the United States Navy. She is named for the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution.

The "San Jac" was built at Pascagoula, Mississippi and commissioned 23 January 1988 by then vice-president George H. W. Bush in Houston, Texas. She completed her fitting out and work-ups, then deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in late March 1989, returning in October. While San Jacinto and her sister ship USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) were underway off the Virginia coast performing testing of their Mk 7 AEGIS weapons systems (SPY-1A and standard missiles), the Iraqi army invaded and occupied Kuwait. The next day, Philippine Sea detached and headed back to Mayport, Florida. The day after, San Jacinto returned to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, to prepare for the massive sortie to the Middle East.

After CINCLANT had all their ships provisioned, barely five days later, San Jacinto headed for the Mediterranean. Other ships in the battle group included USS America (CV-66), Philippine Sea, and USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67).

She fired the opening shots of Operation Desert Storm with the launch of two BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, firing a total of 16 missiles during the 43-day war. She was also the first ship of her class to be deployed with a full load of 122 missiles. While stationed in a search area at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in the Red Sea, her Visit/Boarding/Search/Seizure teams inspected several dozen ships for contraband being smuggled for the Iraqi government. The crew came to call that duty station 'San-Jacircles' or 'San-Jac in the Box'.

San Jacinto was assigned to Carrier Group Two.

During the 2000–2001 deployment of Carrier Group Two, San Jacinto had aboard Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron Light 42 (HSL-42) Det 8 with two SH-60B Seahawks.

On 26 May 2010 USS San Jacinto's VBSS (Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure) team rescued 5 Yemenis hostages from 13 suspected pirates. The master stated his dhow had been under pirate control for one day only. The VBSS team detained the pirates on the dhow without conflict.

On 13 October 2012, San Jacinto was involved in a collision with the nuclear submarine USS Montpelier off the coast of northeastern Florida. The cruiser suffered damage to its sonar dome. San Jacinto would have been unable to join Carrier Strike Group Ten and the USS Harry S Truman to the Persian Gulf, had they deployed on schedule, due to the emergency dry docking.