USS Mason (DDG-87)

USS Mason (DDG-87) is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the United States Navy.

Homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, the USS Mason is the 37th Arleigh Burke class destroyer and the ninth of the Flight IIA variant. She was commissioned in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in April 2003. Her first captain was Commander David Gale.

This is the third ship with the name USS Mason. The first USS Mason (DD-191), in service from 1920 to 1941, was named for John Young Mason, well known for his service as the Secretary of the Navy for two American Presidents. The second USS Mason (DE-529) was named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason, a Naval Aviator who was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This ship is named for the crew of the second USS Mason (DE-529) as this was the first ship in the US Navy with this distinction of a predominantly black crew.

Ship history
USS Mason conducted her maiden deployment with the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) Carrier Strike Group in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in late 2004. Mason returned home after six months on 18 April 2005.

On 3 October 2006, the Mason departed Naval Station Norfolk for a seven-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in support of the Global War on Terrorism. She participated in Exercise Neon Falcon. The Mason returned home in May 2007.

The Mason deployed with the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) on 12 September 2008 for a scheduled deployment.

On 12 March 2011, she sailed through the Suez Canal en route to the Mediterranean, to support possible humanitarian or military action in response to the 2011 Libyan civil war. In April of 2011, a boarding team from the ship successfully liberated five Yemeni hostages from eleven Somali pirates who had taken over the Yemeni-flagged ship F/V NASRI. The pirates had seriously injured two other fishermen in their attack, left the wounded ashore, and then taken the NASRI to sea as a pirate mothership. Assault weapons, ammunition, rocket propelled grenades and launchers were destroyed by the boarding team. ,ref. .