USS Cushing (DD-985), named after Commander William Barker Cushing, was the fifth ship of the United States Navy to bear the name. Cushing was a built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi. Cushing operated out of Yokosuka, Japan for the last several years of her career. Cushing was the last Spruance-class destroyer to remain in active service, until decommissioned on 21 September 2005.
History
Cushing was laid down 27 December 1976 by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 17 June 1978 and commissioned on 21 September 1979. Cushing was the last U.S. warship to transit the Panama Canal prior to control of the canal being handed over to Panama in 1979.
Prior to its formal commissioning, Cushing departed her builders in Mississippi in order to avoid the oncoming Hurricane Frederic. She remained in the Gulf of Mexico with a crew of U.S. Navy sailors and ship builder personnel. After the passage of the storm, she returned to her builders yard for final outfitting and was quickly commissioned with her crew in dungarees in the helo hangar and deck prior to departure for her first homeport of San Diego, California where she was formally commissioned on 21 September 1979 in its home port.
During the mid-to-late 1980s Cushing was a member of the Pacific Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Squadron--Destroyer Squadron 31. She was specially modified to support the DESRON staff operations and served as the primary flagship. She was also one of the few of the class that carried the AN/SQR-15 Towed Array Sonar System.
In the early 1990s Cushing served to demonstrate the effectiveness of rudder roll stabilization (RRS). Engineers from the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center installed the developmental RRS system and monitored its operations. The successful demonstration led to RRS being implemented in Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) destroyers. While home ported in Pearl Harbor HI, Cushing conducted cruises in the North Pacific in 1991 and 1992 with visits to the west coast and Canada. In 1992 Cushing deployed to Central and South America as the flagship for UNITAS 33, 92. Cushing passed through the Panama Canal from Pacific to Atlantic side in 1992 embarked the Admiral at Puerto Rico. Cushing circumnavigated South America and passed through the Panama Canal again from the Pacific to the Atlantic side in less than 6 months. After disembarking the Admiral in Puerto Rico the Cushing passed through the Panama Canal again on her return voyage to San Diego then home port Pearl Harbor HI in late 1992. 1993 was spent conducting short cruises at sea around HI and in 1994 Cushing entered dry dock at Pearl Harbor for, among other things, the addition of the VLS (vertical launch system) missile package.
As part of a 1995 reorganization of the Pacific Fleet's surface ships into six core battle groups and eight destroyer squadrons, with the reorganization scheduled to be completed by 1 October, and homeport changes to be completed within the following year, Cushing was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 5.
A prototype Remote Minehunting System (RMS) was installed onboard Cushing in time for the Fall 1996 deployment to provide the battle group with a mine reconnaissance capability. This was an upgrade of the system successfully used in 1995 with the additional capability for shipboard launch and recovery and direct interface to the shipboard system. In fiscal year 1997, the RMS concept was successfully demonstrated by employment of a prototype system from Cushing during a Persian Gulf exercise.
In early 1997, Cushing was conducting Maritime Interception Operations in the Persian Gulf.