USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51)

USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51): Named for the Builder of Modern Defense

Commissioned on 22 August 1987, USS Thomas S. Gates was named for Thomas Sovereign Gates Jr., who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1957 to 1959 and Secretary of Defense from 1959 to 1961 under President Eisenhower. Gates presided over the Navy during the transition from the wartime fleet to the nuclear age, managing the shift to ballistic missile submarines, nuclear-powered carriers, and guided missile surface combatants that would define American naval power through the Cold War. He was, in short, the civilian architect of the Navy that USS Thomas S. Gates herself represented.

Gates deployed to the Persian Gulf during Desert Storm in 1991, operating as part of the Aegis air defense network providing coverage for coalition forces during the air campaign and ground war. The Aegis system that Gates herself carried was part of the naval architecture that Gates the man had helped build three decades earlier , a circle of history from civilian defense policy to steel and missiles in the Gulf.

Beyond Desert Storm, Thomas S. Gates served through the standard deployment rotations of a Cold War and post-Cold War Aegis cruiser: Mediterranean and Persian Gulf deployments with Sixth and Fifth Fleets, carrier strike group screening missions, and the sustained forward presence that characterized American naval strategy through the 1990s.

She was decommissioned on 21 June 2005. Named for a Secretary who shaped the Navy's nuclear future, serving in the fleet that future produced.

Tactically Acquired's USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51) collection honors the ship and the man whose strategic vision built the Navy she represented.