USS Gridley CG 21 – History of the U.S. Navy's Guided Missile Cruiser & Navy Decals

USS Gridley CG 21 – History, Service Record & Navy Decals

The USS Gridley (CG-21) was the sixth ship of the Leahy class of guided missile cruisers — the U.S. Navy's first purpose-built guided missile cruiser class — serving the Pacific Fleet through three decades of Cold War service. Named for Captain Charles Vernon Gridley, USN — the captain of the protected cruiser USS Olympia and the recipient of one of the most famous commands ever uttered in the history of American naval warfare.

On the morning of May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey stood on the bridge of his flagship USS Olympia as the Asiatic Squadron steamed into Manila Bay to engage the Spanish fleet anchored under the guns of Cavite. Captain Charles Gridley commanded Olympia from the bridge beside his commodore. As the squadron made its final approach and Dewey gave the order to open fire, he turned to Gridley and delivered the command that has echoed through American naval history ever since: “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.”

Within hours, Dewey's squadron had destroyed the entire Spanish fleet at Manila Bay without the loss of a single American life — one of the most complete and one-sided naval victories in the history of warfare, and the battle that announced the United States as a global naval power. Gridley's Olympia led the American line through every pass across the Spanish fleet, her guns delivering the devastating fire that sank or disabled every Spanish warship in the bay. Captain Gridley had been seriously ill before the battle and had been advised against sea duty, but he refused to leave his post. He died of his illness just weeks after Manila Bay, on June 5, 1898, before he could return home to the hero's welcome that awaited him. His name, forever linked to Dewey's immortal command, stands as one of the most recognized in the history of the U.S. Navy — and USS Gridley honored that legacy of duty, courage, and sacrifice throughout her Cold War career.

Keel, Launch & Commissioning

Gridley's keel was laid down on July 15, 1960, at the Puget Sound Bridge and Dredging Company in Seattle, Washington. She was launched on July 31, 1961, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on May 25, 1963, as the sixth ship of the Leahy class under hull designation CG-21 (originally designated DLG-21, reclassified as CG-21 in 1975).

Class & Design

USS Gridley was one of nine Leahy-class guided missile cruisers — the Navy's first purpose-built guided missile cruiser class, designed to provide area air defense for carrier strike groups. At approximately 533 feet in length and displacing approximately 8,200 tons fully loaded, she carried the twin-arm Terrier surface-to-air missile systems fore and aft — the “Double-End Terrier” configuration that gave the class its 360-degree air defense capability — along with the ASROC anti-submarine rocket system and torpedo tubes. Later upgrades replaced the Terrier missiles with the more capable Standard Missile system and added Harpoon anti-ship missiles, maintaining her combat effectiveness through the Cold War's final decades.

Cold War Pacific Fleet Service

Commissioned in May 1963, USS Gridley was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, where she served as an escort for carrier battle groups and conducted Cold War operations across the vast expanse of the Pacific and into the Western Pacific during one of the most demanding and consequential periods in American naval history. Homeported on the West Coast, she deployed repeatedly to the Western Pacific throughout the Cold War, participating in the full range of Pacific Fleet operations — carrier battle group escorts, Vietnam War operations, and the sustained forward presence that was the foundation of American naval power in the Pacific throughout the Cold War.

Vietnam War service was a central chapter of Gridley's operational career, as she deployed to the Western Pacific and operated in the Gulf of Tonkin and along the Vietnamese coast — providing surface warfare capability, anti-submarine warfare support, and contributing to the naval operations that sustained American commitments in Southeast Asia through the most difficult years of that conflict.

Throughout her Pacific Fleet career, Gridley escorted the carrier battle groups that were America's primary instrument of Pacific power projection — the same kind of naval power that her namesake Captain Gridley had helped project into Manila Bay in 1898, turning the United States into a Pacific naval power in a single morning's fighting. The connection between the two ships named Gridley — one announcing American Pacific naval power, the other sustaining it through the Cold War — gives USS Gridley CG-21 a particularly resonant place in the story of American naval power in the Pacific.

Decommissioning

USS Gridley was decommissioned on September 25, 1993, after 30 years of commissioned service — a career spanning three decades of Cold War Pacific Fleet operations from the Kennedy era through the Cold War's end.

Legacy

For the sailors who served aboard Gridley — the missile technicians, sonar operators, electronics warfare specialists, and surface warfare professionals who kept this Pacific Fleet guided missile cruiser operational and ready through 30 years of Cold War service — she represents a career of exceptional dedication to American naval power in the Pacific. Named for the officer at Dewey's side when American naval power announced itself to the world at Manila Bay with the most famous command in U.S. Navy history, USS Gridley spent 30 years ensuring that American naval power in the Pacific remained as decisive as it was on that May morning in 1898 when Captain Gridley fired the guns that made the United States a global naval power.

Shop USS Gridley CG 21 Navy Gifts & Decals

Honor your service or give a meaningful gift to a USS Gridley veteran with our full line of USS Gridley CG 21 products:

• USS Gridley CG 21 Aluminum License Plate — Show your Navy pride on the road.
• USS Gridley CG 21 License Plate U.S. Flag — A patriotic twist on the classic plate.
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