USS Chosin CG 65 – History of the U.S. Navy's Aegis Guided Missile Cruiser & Navy Decals

USS Chosin CG 65 – History, Service Record & Navy Decals

The USS Chosin (CG-65) was the nineteenth ship of the Ticonderoga class of Aegis guided missile cruisers, serving the Pacific Fleet through more than two decades of distinguished active service. Named for the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir — fought from November 27 to December 13, 1950, in the frozen mountains of North Korea — one of the most legendary and brutal combat actions in the history of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army, a fighting withdrawal through seven divisions of Chinese People's Volunteer Army troops in temperatures that plunged to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, that has become synonymous with American military courage, endurance, and refusal to accept defeat regardless of the odds.

The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

In late November 1950, the Korean War had reached a moment of apparent triumph for United Nations forces. General Douglas MacArthur's troops had driven the North Korean People's Army to the Yalu River — the border with China — and MacArthur had promised that the boys would be home by Christmas. Then, on the night of November 27, 1950, approximately 120,000 soldiers of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army came across the Yalu and struck the UN forces along a broad front in North Korea's frozen mountain interior. Around the Chosin Reservoir in the Taebaek Mountains, approximately 15,000 U.S. Marines and Army troops found themselves completely surrounded and outnumbered more than eight to one, in one of the most desperate tactical situations American forces had faced since the Bulge.

The temperature at Chosin dropped to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit — cold so severe that weapons froze, morphine syringes had to be thawed in mouths before use, blood plasma froze in its containers, and men who stopped moving risked freezing to death where they stood. Frostbite casualties rivaled combat casualties. The wounded who survived the night often lost fingers, toes, and limbs to the cold. And yet the Marines and soldiers of Task Force Faith and the 1st Marine Division not only refused to surrender — they fought.

When a correspondent asked Major General Oliver P. Smith, commanding the 1st Marine Division, about the retreat from Chosin, Smith gave one of the most celebrated replies in the history of American arms: “Retreat, hell! We're not retreating, we're just attacking in a different direction.” And that is precisely what the Marines did. Rather than surrendering or disintegrating, the 1st Marine Division and attached Army units fought their way 78 miles south through seven Chinese divisions to the port of Hungnam, maintaining unit cohesion, bringing their dead and most of their wounded, destroying equipment they could not carry, and inflicting casualties on the Chinese forces that surrounded them at every step. By December 13, the last UN troops had reached Hungnam, where the Navy mounted one of the greatest evacuations in military history — the Hungnam Evacuation — lifting 105,000 troops, 98,000 Korean civilians, 17,500 vehicles, and 350,000 tons of supplies from the Hungnam beachhead under naval gunfire support.

The Chinese paid an enormous price for their Chosin victory. Estimates of Chinese casualties at the Chosin Reservoir range from 25,000 to 60,000 killed, wounded, and frostbitten — several entire divisions effectively destroyed as fighting forces. Three Chinese divisions that had encircled the Marines were so shattered they never fought effectively again. The “Frozen Chosin” became a permanent part of Marine Corps legend — proof that American fighting men, properly led and properly trained, could endure anything the enemy and the elements could inflict and still come out fighting. USS Chosin carried that legacy of iron endurance and indomitable fighting spirit throughout her Pacific Fleet career.

Keel, Launch & Commissioning

Chosin's keel was laid down on July 22, 1988, at the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on January 22, 1990, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on January 12, 1991, as the nineteenth ship of the Ticonderoga class under hull designation CG-65.

Class & Design

USS Chosin was one of 27 Ticonderoga-class Aegis guided missile cruisers, equipped with the Mk 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) carrying a mixed load of Standard Missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and ASROC across 122 cells. At approximately 567 feet in length and displacing approximately 9,600 tons fully loaded, she also carried two 5-inch/54 caliber guns, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, two Phalanx close-in weapon systems, and torpedo tubes, paired with the full AN/SPY-1 Aegis radar and combat system.

Pacific Fleet Career & Combat Operations

Commissioned in January 1991 — just as Operation Desert Storm began — USS Chosin was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, homeported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and deployed extensively to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf throughout her career. She participated in Operation Desert Storm in early 1991, contributing Tomahawk fires and Aegis air defense capabilities to the Coalition naval campaign in the Persian Gulf — adding Gulf War combat distinction to a ship commissioned just weeks before her first combat deployment.

Following Desert Storm, USS Chosin continued her Pacific Fleet career through more than two decades of Western Pacific deployments — escorting carrier strike groups, conducting freedom of navigation operations across the Asia-Pacific theater, participating in bilateral and multilateral exercises with allied navies, and maintaining the American forward naval presence in the Western Pacific that was the foundation of regional stability. Homeported at Pearl Harbor, she was part of the Pacific Fleet's central reserve striking force, deploying forward as needed to reinforce the Yokosuka-based forward-deployed carrier strike group and to respond to crises across the vast Pacific theater.

USS Chosin subsequently participated in operations during the War on Terror, adding additional combat operational experience to an already distinguished career that spanned from the Cold War's final days through more than two decades of post-Cold War Pacific Fleet operations.

Decommissioning

USS Chosin was decommissioned on December 11, 2015, after nearly 25 years of commissioned service — a career spanning from the opening days of Operation Desert Storm through the post-Cold War era and the War on Terror, with Pacific Fleet deployments that kept her at the operational center of American naval power in the Asia-Pacific region.

Legacy

For the sailors who served aboard Chosin — the Aegis system operators, VLS technicians, combat systems specialists, and surface warfare professionals who kept this Pacific Fleet cruiser ready and lethal through nearly 25 years of demanding service — she represents a career of exceptional dedication. Named for the frozen reservoir where 15,000 Marines and soldiers refused to be destroyed by 120,000 Chinese troops and -40°F temperatures, fighting 78 miles south through seven Chinese divisions with the cry of “Retreat, hell! We're attacking in a different direction!” — USS Chosin embodied that same spirit of absolute refusal to yield throughout every year of her Pacific Fleet career. The Frozen Chosin veterans attacked in a different direction until they reached the sea. USS Chosin's crews held that same standard until the very last day.

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