USS Vella Gulf (CG-72)

USS Vella Gulf (CG-72): Where Destroyers Ended the Tokyo Express

Commissioned on 18 September 1993, USS Vella Gulf was named for the Battle of Vella Gulf on 6 to 7 August 1943, one of the cleanest American surface victories of the Solomons campaign. Commander Frederick Moosbrugger's six destroyers intercepted four Japanese destroyers on a resupply run through Vella Gulf at night. Using radar-directed torpedo attacks and withholding gunfire until the torpedoes had run, Moosbrugger's force sank three Japanese destroyers without taking a single hit. More than 900 Japanese sailors died. The American force was untouched.

Vella Gulf was a deliberate application of the lessons the Navy had been learning through a year of night surface actions in the Solomons, most of which had gone badly. Radar, torpedo discipline, formation tactics , every lesson paid for at Tassafaronga, Savo Island, and Kula Gulf was applied correctly at Vella Gulf. The result was a perfect engagement. The Japanese never successfully resupplied their forces at Kolombangara after Vella Gulf. The island was bypassed, and the Tokyo Express stopped running.

USS Vella Gulf served in the Atlantic Fleet and Middle East Force, deploying regularly to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea throughout the 2000s. She was among the later Ticonderoga-class ships, benefiting from the accumulated engineering and operational experience of a class that had been in continuous service for two decades by the time she commissioned.

Tactically Acquired's USS Vella Gulf (CG-72) collection honors Moosbrugger's perfect night action and the crew that carried the Solomons campaign's best fight into the modern Navy.