USS Ticonderoga (CG-47)

USS Ticonderoga (DDG/CG-47), the fifth to bear the name, was a guided-missile cruiser of the United States Navy. Homeported in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the "Tico" was the lead ship of her class.

The Ticonderoga was the first combatant ship to feature the Aegis combat system (a limited version of the system had been tested in USS Norton Sound (AVM-1)). This allows the ship to track and engage multiple targets (aircraft) much more effectively than any ship previously.

Etymology
CG-47 is the fifth United States Navy vessel to carry on the name Ticonderoga. The ship was named for the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. It was also named after the USS Ticonderoga that was nearly sunk during World War II. Most of the ships in the Ticonderoga class are similarly named for significant battles in U.S. history. The name "Ticonderoga" comes from an Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways".

History


The United States Navy built the first Aegis cruisers using the hull and machinery designs of Spruance-class destroyers. Ticonderoga was ordered as a guided missile destroyer, but redesignated as a cruiser before she was laid down.

The contract to build DDG-47 Ticonderoga was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding on 22 September 1978. On 1 January 1980, she was redesignated as a guided missile cruiser, CG-47. Her keel was laid down on 21 January 1980, the 35th anniversary of the devastating kamikaze attack on the Essex-class carrier Ticonderoga (CV-14). CG-47 was launched on 25 April 1981 and was delivered on 13 December 1982. She was commissioned on 22 January 1983 with First Lady Nancy Reagan, the ship's main sponsor, having the honor of christening the ship on 16 May 1981.

For a time in the late 1990s she was based at Pascagoula, Mississippi, as part of Commander, Naval Surface Forces Atlantic's Westerns Hemisphere Group.

She served in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will while under the command of Captain James M. Arrison III, USN.



On May 4th 2004, she completed transit of the Panama Canal and then moved to cross the equator. Her ship crew engaged in the rites and rituals of the crossing, inducting the Captain of the ship as well as many of the crew in to 'Shell-Backs'. She completed her final deployment on 3 August 2004, and was decommissioned on 30 September of that year. After her decommissioning, she was towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia. Recently, however, she was put up for museum donation by the Navy and there is a strong effort to bring Ticonderoga to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she was built, to serve as a museum ship.



In popular culture
The Ticonderoga was featured in the 1986 Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, where she is part of a surface fleet built around the carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68). During a surprise Soviet air raid, Ticonderoga unleashes her missiles at the incoming Soviet anti-ship missiles, and succeeded in eliminating just over 60% of the number of "vampires" she had targeted. Despite her best efforts and the efforts of the other ships Ticonderoga, Nimitz, USS Saratoga (CV-60), and several other ships receive heavy damage from the attack, while USS Saipan (LHA-2), the French carrier Foch and a handful of other vessels are destroyed.