USS Lassen (DDG-82)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Lassen.

300px USS Lassen underway in the rough seas of the East China Sea, in 2003.
History
United States
Name:	USS Lassen
Namesake:	Clyde Everett Lassen
Ordered:	6 January 1995
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	24 August 1998
Launched:	16 October 1999
Commissioned:	21 April 2001
Homeport:	Yokosuka, Japan
Motto:	From Courage, Life
Status:	in active service, as of 2024
Badge:	120px
General characteristics
Class & type:	Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
Displacement:	9,200 tons
Length:	509 ft 6 in (155.30 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draft:	31 ft (9.4 m)
Propulsion:	4 × General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, 2 shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW)
Speed:	exceeds 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
Complement:	320 officers and enlisted
Armament:	1 × 32 cell, 1 × 64 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems, 96 × RIM-66 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc, missiles 1 × 5 in/62 (127 mm/62), 2 × 25 mm, 4 × 12.7 mm guns, 2 × Phalanx CIWS 2 × Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes
Aircraft carried:	2 × MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters

File:USS Lassen in drydock.jpg

USS Lassen in drydock in Yokosuka, with the sonar dome visible, January 2007

USS Lassen (DDG-82) is a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy.

She was homeported in San Diego until she shifted homeport to Yokosuka Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan in August 2005, where she remains as of October 2015.

Lassen is named for Clyde Everett Lassen, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courageous rescue of two downed aviators while commander of a search and rescue helicopter in Vietnam.

On 15 February 2009 at 12:25 pm, Lassen collided with a Japanese 14-ton pleasure boat in Yokosuka harbor. Four people fishing on the pleasure boat, which was at anchor, were reportedly uninjured. On 23 March 2009 the Japan Coast Guard filed a case against both the destroyer's and the fishing boat's captains with local prosecutors for professional negligence that endangered traffic.

On 1 July 2009, Fox News Channel reported that Lassen was tracking the North Korean ship Kang Nam 1, suspected of carrying contraband.

On 27 October, 2015 Lassen navigated within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, one of seven artificial islands built up by China in the Spratly Islands (commonly called the Great wall of sand) in the past year, the first in a series of "Freedom of Navigation Operation". This is the first time since 2012 that the US has directly challenged China's claims of the island's territorial limit. However, the patrol may have actually re-enforced China's claims as the patrol was conducted as an "innocent passage" with radars turned off and military operations, such as helicopter flights, suspended.

Commanding Officers

The commanding officer (CO) of USS Lassen, is the United States Navy officer who is the most senior officer on ship. The CO is the ultimate authority over operations of Lassen and her crew.

List of commanding officers

#	Name	Start of tenure	End of tenure
10	CDR Robert C. Francis	11 May 2015
9	CDR Michael Adam Smith	11 December 2013	11 May 2015
8	CDR Scott Christop McClelland	7 June 2012	11 December 2013
7	CDR Walter Clark Wrye IV	17 December 2010	7 June 2012
6	CDR Hung Ba Le	23 April 2009	17 December 2010
5	CDR Anthony Louis Simmons	29 November 2007	23 April 2009
4	CDR Marshall Brent Brown	31 May 2006	29 November 2007
3	CDR Kerry Spencer Gilpin	29 July 2004	31 May 2006
2	CDR Hugh Denny Wetherald	5 September 2002	29 July 2004
1	CDR Sean Eugene O'Connor	21 April 2001	5 September 2002

References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

External links

• USS Lassen Official Homepage
• Yokosuka Naval Base Community Website
• USS Lassen News