USS Dale DLG-19

• Commissioning Date: USS Dale (DLG-19) was commissioned on 23 November 1963, entering service just days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. • Name Origin: The ship was named after Commodore Richard Dale, a notable officer in the United States Navy during the American Revolutionary War and the Barbary Wars. • Class: USS Dale was a Leahy-class guided missile frigate, designed as part of a new generation of warships equipped to counter modern air and missile threats. • Vietnam War Service: Dale served multiple deployments to the Western Pacific and participated in Operation Linebacker, providing anti-aircraft defense and support during the Vietnam War. • Redesignation: In 1975, the U.S. Navy reclassified all DLGs as guided missile cruisers, and Dale’s hull number changed from DLG-19 to CG-19. • Notable Upgrade: USS Dale was the first ship of her class to receive the New Threat Upgrade (NTU) combat system, dramatically increasing her missile capabilities in the 1980s. • Cuban Missile Crisis: Although commissioned after the crisis, Dale’s design and early missions were directly influenced by lessons learned during the 1962 confrontation. • Space Recovery Missions: Dale participated in recovery operations for several NASA missions, including support for Apollo missions as a recovery ship in the Atlantic. • Cold War Operations: Throughout the Cold War, Dale conducted numerous surveillance and tracking missions against Soviet naval forces, playing a key role in intelligence gathering. • Decommissioning and Fate: USS Dale was decommissioned on 27 September 1994, after 31 years of service, and was eventually scrapped in 2000.