USS Gridley (DLG-21/CG-21), a guided missile cruiser, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named after Charles Vernon Gridley, who distinguished himself with Admiral George Dewey's force at the Battle of Manila Bay on 1 May 1898.
Her keel was laid down by the Puget Sound Bridge and Drydock Company of Seattle, Washington. She was launched on 31 July 1961 sponsored by Mrs. Stuart D. Rose, great-granddaughter of Captain Gridley, and commissioned on 25 May 1963.
1960s
After outfitting at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, Gridley made a goodwill visit to British Columbia and then conducted acceptance trials out of her homeport, Long Beach, California. The new cruiser returned to Puget Sound Shipyard from 8 November to 9 December 1963, after which she joined the Pacific Fleet as "planned" flagship of Destroyer Squadron 19.
In that same time period, a letter of Commendation from the Commander Cruiser Destroyer Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, to the Gridley Commanding Officer A. M. Sackett, stated, the Gridley won the Battle Efficiency Competition within Destroyer Squadron NINETEEN for the period ending 30 June 1966. The Gridley had also won the Supply Efficiency Award.
Gridley operated along the California coast until sailing for the Orient 18 November. She left Subic Bay 2 January 1967 for plane guard duty in the China Sea and the Gulf of Tonkin. After varied duties in the fighting zone, she sailed for Australia en route to the West Coast and arrived Long Beach 8 June to prepare for future action.
During the 1976 Westpac, Gridley was based in Yokosuka, Japan.
On 21 August 1976, Gridley was involved in the fallout of Axe Murder Incident. This involved the murder of two U.S. Army officers by North Korean soldiers. Gridley was in-port in Yokosuka, Japan when this event happened; by the next morning the entire battle group was underway and stood off the coast of Korea for nearly a month.
1980s
In early 1980 Gridley and the frigate escorted the Battle Group/ 31st MEU from Pearl Harbor as a reserve in what culminated as Operation Eagle Claw, the effort to rescue the Iranian Embassy hostages. These 31st MEU deployments routinely included the Indian Ocean with port calls from Busan to Mombasa to include Diego Garcia.
In 1981 the ship deployed with Battle Group Charlie to the Middle East.
Upon returning to San Diego, California, in March 1982, Gridley was once again operating in Southern California waters, until October when she returned to Long Beach Naval Shipyard for an extensive upgrade and an overhaul of all engineering machinery. More upgrades were made to the ship's fire control and air search radars, sonar system was upgraded from the AN/SQS-23 to the AN/SQQ-23 PAIR, and the Phalanx close-in weapon system was installed during 1982. Gridley returned to the operational fleet in October 1983.
In July 1987 Gridley was part of the USS Ranger battle group, conducting strikes against Iranian oil platforms during Operation Nimble Archer, returning to San Diego in January 1988. The ship then departed San Diego, California for the Persian Gulf on 15 December 1988, operating with the Spruance-class destroyer to escort reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz during Operation Earnest Will. While homeward bound, transiting the South China Sea, Gridley rescued Vietnamese refugees sighted in a small boat off of the coast of Vietnam. A Vietnamese-speaking crewman aboard Gridley was able to translate for those rescued, facilitating the process. The crew was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal for their rescue efforts.
Gridley returned to San Diego in June 1989. On 17 October of that year, the ship's visit to Naval Station, Treasure Island, San Francisco, was interrupted by the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay area. Gridleys crew provided assistance to victims in San Francisco's severely damaged Marina district, and was awarded the Humanitarian Service Medal for disaster recovery efforts.
1990s
From February 1990 until March 1991, Gridley received the New Threat Upgrade at Southwest Marine Shipyard in San Diego, California. During the US$55 million overhaul, all engineering, berthing and food service areas were upgraded, and the ship's combat systems were dramatically enhanced. Improvements to the air search radars and Combat Direction System improved the ship's ability to detect and engage multiple air threats with its SM-1ER and SM-2ER surface-to-air missiles.
Following an extensive operational evaluation and qualification phase, Gridley deployed to the Persian Gulf, the ship operated in support of the aircraft carrier . Gridley rescued the disabled merchant vessel Adel 11 in the North Arabian Sea in June 1992. When Operation Southern Watch, the enforcement of a "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq, commenced in August, Gridley was the first ship on station off the coast of Kuwait. She provided coastal radar coverage and air-defense protection for ships in the northern Persian Gulf.
Gridley returned to San Diego in October 1992 and was overhauled at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company from January through April 1993. During that time, the ship was back fitted to accommodate the new SM-2ER block III missile. The modification gave the ship the capability to defeat the sea-skimming cruise missiles which have proliferated worldwide in the 1990s. In July 1993, Gridley fired several of the new missiles on the Pacific Missile Test Center range, scoring three successful hits. That same month, the ship rendezvoused with USS Constellation in Acapulco, Mexico, escorting her back to San Diego, after the carrier's three-year Service Life Extension Program overhaul at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
After a final port visit to San Francisco, in October 1993 Gridley returned to San Diego, where she was decommissioned, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, and transferred to the Maritime Administration for temporary lay-up on 21 January 1994. She was laid up in the Suisun Bay, California, reserve to await disposal. She was scrapped in 2005.