USS Michael Murphy Starts Maiden Deployment

The guided-missile destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) departed Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Oct. 20 for an independent deployment to the Western Pacific Ocean.

The ship and crew of more than 300 Sailors, assigned to Destroyer Squadron Three One (DESRON 31), are scheduled to conduct goodwill activities with partner nations along with various presence operations such as Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) during the ship’s first operational forward deployment.

USS Michael Murphy crew was also joined by a law enforcement detachment from U.S. Coast Guard District 14, who embarked on the ship to participate in OMSI, and is scheduled to conduct maritime law enforcement operations from the ship to administer U.S. and Pacific Island Nations fisheries laws and suppress illicit activities. OMSI is a joint Department of Defense (Navy), Department of Homeland Security (USCG) and Department of Commerce (NOAA) program.

USS Michael Murphy is named for Lt. (SEAL) Michael P. Murphy, a New York native who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during Operation Red Wing in Afghanistan in 2005. Murphy was the first person to be awarded the medal for actions in Afghanistan, and the first member of the U.S. Navy to receive the award since the Vietnam War.

Michael Murphy is a multi-mission ship with anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare surface combatants capabilities; designed to operate independently or with an associated strike group.

The ship is homeported in Hawaii and is part of Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific and U.S. 3rd Fleet.

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Press release, Image: US Navy