Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 98104:  USS Bainbridge underway at sea, 20 September 1962

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25, later CGN-25), 1962-1997

USS Bainbridge, a 7800-ton nuclear-powered guided missile frigate, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned in October 1962, she shook down off the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean area until February 1963, when she began her first Mediterranean deployment. This included demonstrations of her long-range high speed dash capabilities and operations with the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Enterprise (CVAN-65). Bainbridge returned to the Mediterranean in May 1964, this time joining Enterprise and the guided missile cruiser Long Beach (CGN-9) to form the all-nuclear-powered Task Force 1. At the end of July the three ships began Operation "Sea Orbit", a two-month unrefueled cruise around the World.

In October 1965 Bainbridge again rounded the Cape of Good Hope, en route to the Western Pacific for the first of eleven Seventh Fleet cruises. Operating for much of this deployment off strife-torn Vietnam, she screened aircraft carriers, served as a radar-picket ship, and performed search and rescue missions. In June the frigate crossed the Pacific to her new home port, Long Beach, California. Her next five Far Eastern tours, in 1966-67, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972-73, also involved Vietnam War combat operations, as well as voyages to Australia and, beginning in 1970, the Indian Ocean. In 1967-68 Bainbridge underwent shipyard overhaul and her first nuclear refueling. The ship's seventh trip to the Far East, beginning in November 1973, included a lengthy visit to the Arabian Sea, a locale that would become very familiar in the coming decades.

Bainbridge received an extensive modernization and refueling between June 1974 and September 1976, with post-overhaul work lasting until April 1977. While in the shipyard, at the end of June 1975, she was reclassified from frigate to cruiser, receiving the new designation CGN-25. Her next Seventh Fleet deployment ran from January to August 1978 and included visits throughout the region, from Japan and Korea to Thailand and Singapore, with her homeward-bound voyage taking her to Australia and through the South Pacific. Bainbridge made three more WestPac tours, in 1979-80, 1981 and 1982-83. Each of them involved extensive operations in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

After receiving her final nuclear refueling overhaul in 1983-85, Bainbridge left the Pacific after two decades, transited the Panama Canal and rejoined the Atlantic Fleet. Her operations thereafter included counter-drug smuggling patrols in the Caribbean, several deployments to northern European waters and four Mediterranean cruises (1986-87, 1988-89 -- including combat operations off Libya, 1991-92 -- with a Red Sea and Persian Gulf tour, and 1994 as Flagship of the Standing Naval Forces, Atlantic). Inactivated in October 1995, USS Bainbridge decommissioned in September 1996. She was towed to the Bremerton, Washington, in mid-1997 and in October of that year entered dry dock to begin "recycling", the process by which nuclear-powered warships are scrapped.

USS Bainbridge was named in honor of Commodore William Bainbridge (1774-1833), one of the leading figures of the early 19th Century U.S. Navy.

This page features selected views of USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25, later CGN-25) and provides links to other images related to her.

For more pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25, later CGN-25) -- Activities and Construction.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 98103

    USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25)


    Underway during her sea trials, 2-3 September 1962.
    Photographed by Areostatico.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98104

    USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25)


    Underway at sea, 20 September 1962.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 129KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98105

    USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25)


    Underway in January 1963.
    Photographed by PH1 B.L. Bennett.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: USN 1147515

    USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25)


    Underway in the Pacific Ocean, 23 March 1971.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1147515.

     
    Photo #: NH 98106

    USS Bainbridge (CGN-25)


    Underway during post-modernization acceptance trials, April 1977.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 128KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: USN 1170202

    USS Bainbridge (CGN-25)


    Running post-modernization acceptance trials, April 1977.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 595 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1170202.

     
    Photo #: USN 1174727

    USS Bainbridge (CGN-25)


    Makes a high speed turn while operating in the Pacific, March 1979.
    Note that she has been fitted with quadruple Harpoon guided missile canisters by her after superstructure. The starboard canisters point aft.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 135KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1174727.

     
    Photo #: USN 1174728

    USS Bainbridge (CGN-25)


    Underway in the Pacific Ocean, off San Diego, California, April 1979.
    Note that she has been fitted with quadruple Harpoon guided missile canisters by her after superstructure. The port side canisters point forward.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

    Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 600 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1174728.

     
    Photo #: NH 98107-KN (color)

    USS Bainbridge (CGN-25)

    Underway in the Suez Canal on 27 February 1992, while en route to the Mediterranean Sea with the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) battle group.
    Photographed by CWO2 A.A. Alleyne, USN.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 67153-KN (Color)

    USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25)

    Jacket patch of the ship's insignia, as adopted in 1961-1962. The emblem was primarily designed by EMC Douglas A. Hale, USN. It combines symbolism of the new Bainbridge's nuclear powerplant with the figure of a sailing frigate of Commodore William Bainbridge's time.

    Courtesy of Captain G.F. Swainson, USN, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 166KB; 650 x 675 pixels

     

    For more pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25, later CGN-25) -- Activities and Construction.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 19 October 2002
    New Image added 12 January 2002