USS Halsey (CG-23)

USS Halsey (CG-23): Bull Halsey's Ship in the Cold War

Commissioned on 20 July 1963, USS Halsey was a Leahy-class guided missile cruiser named for Fleet Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey, one of the most famous and controversial American naval commanders of World War II. Halsey commanded the South Pacific theater during the Guadalcanal campaign and led Third Fleet through the final drives against Japan. Aggressive, profane, inspirational, and occasionally reckless, he understood one thing clearly: naval power had to be used offensively to be effective. Naming a ship for Halsey meant naming it for a fighter.

Halsey CG-23 earned eight battle stars for Vietnam service and one for the Gulf War, nine total, among the highest combined totals in the Leahy class. Eight Vietnam battle stars represent sustained, repeated deployments to the Gulf of Tonkin through the war's most contested years, serving as part of the carrier task forces that were America's primary naval instrument in Southeast Asia. Through the escalations of 1965 to 1968, the drawdown of 1969 to 1972, and the final operations of 1972 and 1973, Halsey's crews maintained the carrier escort mission that Fleet Admiral Halsey himself had helped define in the Pacific War.

Her Gulf War battle star came nearly three decades after commissioning, a testament to the durability of the Leahy-class design and the continued relevance of ships built for one strategic era but adaptable enough to serve in the next. She was decommissioned on 15 January 1994.

Tactically Acquired's USS Halsey (CG-23) collection honors Fleet Admiral Halsey's legacy and every sailor who kept his ship at sea through three decades of American naval history.