USS England (CG-22)

USS England (CG-22): Named for the Sub-Hunter

Commissioned on 7 December 1963, the 22nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, USS England was a Leahy-class guided missile cruiser named for USS England DE-635, a destroyer escort that in May 1944 sank six Japanese submarines in twelve days, the most individual submarine kills by any single American warship in World War II. Naming a missile cruiser for a submarine killer honored both the anti-submarine warfare mission and the original England's extraordinary record. The commissioning date on Pearl Harbor's anniversary was almost certainly deliberate.

CG-22 England served through the Vietnam War and Gulf War eras, earning six Vietnam battle stars and one Gulf War battle star across a career stretching from the Kennedy administration through the Bush administration. Her Vietnam deployments followed the Leahy-class pattern of Gulf of Tonkin operations as part of carrier task forces, providing air defense coverage for the carriers launching strikes against North Vietnamese targets.

Like her sister ships, England carried ASROC anti-submarine rockets, a capability that referenced her namesake's submarine-hunting mission and reflected the Leahy class's multi-mission design intent. The Cold War Soviet submarine force was a genuine and growing threat to American carrier operations, and England was expected to contribute to anti-submarine defense alongside her primary air defense role.

England was decommissioned on 30 March 1994 after more than 30 years of service. Seven battle stars and a name from one of the most remarkable anti-submarine feats in naval history. Tactically Acquired's USS England (CG-22) collection honors the sub-killer's legacy and the crew who carried it into the missile age.