USS Samuel B. Roberts (DD 823)
Cmdr. Paul Rinn, the first commanding officer of the third USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58), believed in the power of naval heritage to inspire a crew, and insisted that his sailors know about previous U.S. Navy warships to bear the name.
The second one was USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE 823), a Gearing-class destroyer. Commissioned in 1946, DE 823 was nicknamed the "Steaming Sammy B" by its hard-working crew. Like a naval Forrest Gump, the second Roberts participated in many of the Navy's big events in the decades that followed World War II: the Cuban missile blockade, the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, President Eisenhower's 1955 European summit, the first air strikes from a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the investigation into the sinking of the attack sub USS Thresher, the freedom-of-navigation sorties into the Black Sea, and more.
DE 823 served the nation for nearly 35 years. The ship was decommissioned in 1970 and sunk the following year as a training target in deep water off Puerto Rico. U.S. Navy photo
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About The Book
No Higher Honor is the first book to detail the extraordinary tale of the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) and the crew's heroic efforts to save the ship after it hit an Iranian mine in 1988. Drawing on years of research and scores of interviews, Bradley Peniston chronicles the origins of the Perry-class frigate; the crew's training; its operations in the Persian Gulf; the U.S. retaliation against Iran, which became the biggest surface battle since World War II; and the complex repairs that returned the ship to duty.
Published by Naval Institute Press, the 275-page book contains 20 photos, several diagrams of the damage, and a muster list of the shipmates aboard the Roberts during its fight for survival.
