USS Bunker Hill (CG-52)

USS Bunker Hill (CG-52): First Tomahawks of Desert Storm

Commissioned on 20 September 1986, USS Bunker Hill earned a distinction that no other warship in history can claim: on 17 January 1991, at 2:38 AM Gulf time, she fired the first Tomahawk cruise missiles of Operation Desert Storm, opening the most intensive air campaign since World War II with a salvo of land-attack missiles aimed at strategic targets in Iraq. Before a single coalition aircraft crossed into Iraqi airspace, Bunker Hill's Tomahawks were already in flight.

Named for the Battle of Bunker Hill on 17 June 1775 , the bloodiest engagement of the Revolution's opening campaign, where colonial militia held fortified positions above Boston Harbor against two British assaults before withdrawing under the third , she carried a name rooted in the American tradition of fighting from a position of strength and yielding only what had to be yielded.

The Tomahawk launches that opened Desert Storm were a demonstration of exactly what the Ticonderoga-class had been built for: long-range precision strike from surface combatants, independent of carrier aviation, capable of reaching deep into defended territory through integrated battle space. Bunker Hill and the cruisers that fired alongside her proved that the surface navy had a strategic strike mission, not just a defensive carrier escort role.

Over the course of Desert Storm, coalition surface ships and submarines fired more than 200 Tomahawks at Iraqi targets. Bunker Hill's salvo opened the account. She continued her operational service through multiple subsequent deployments, accumulating the combat record of a ship whose most significant moment came in the first two minutes of a war.

Tactically Acquired's USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) collection honors the crew that fired the opening shots of Desert Storm and put the surface Navy's strategic strike capability on the map permanently.