USS Chafee (DDG-90)

USS Chafee (DDG-90) is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in United States Navy.

She is named for Senator John Lester Hubbard Chafee (1922–1999), a Marine veteran of Guadalcanal who also served as the Secretary of the Navy.

Chafee was laid down by the Bath Iron Works at Bath in Maine on 12 April 2001, launched on 2 November 2002 and commissioned on 18 October 2003. Chafee is an active unit of the Pacific Fleet and operates out of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; currently, Chafee is assigned to the Nimitz carrier group.

The construction of USS Chafee and USS Momsen, from initial steelcutting to sea trials, was documented in the Discovery Channel television special "Destroyer: Forged in Steel". The destroyers were not referenced by name, but their numbers were visible on their bows.

Ship history
Chafee left her homeport of Pearl Harbor 20 May 2005 for her maiden deployment with the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) Carrier Strike Group. She returned safely to her homeport after a regularly scheduled deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

Chafee departed Pearl Harbor 9 April 2007, as part of the San Diego based USS Nimitz (CVN-68) Carrier Strike Group (CSG) and deployed to the U.S 5th Fleet (C5F) area of operations. On 1 June 2007, the Chafee fired its main gun at Al-Qaeda suspects in the Puntland region of Somalia. The men were wanted for the 1998 United States embassy bombings. Chafee returned home to Pearl Harbor, 22 September 2007, marking the end a successful 167-day Western Pacific and Middle East deployment.