The Navy announced today that the guided-missile destroyers USS William P. Lawrence, based in San Diego, and USS Paul Hamilton, docked in Hawaii, will swap home ports later this year.
The William P. Lawrence currently is deployed, and will go straight to Pearl Harbor in the middle of this year, according to the Navy. The Paul Hamilton will come to San Diego for an overhaul.
The swap is part of an overall Navy strategy of placing its most advanced ships in, or closer to, Asia.
The Lawrence, named for a vice admiral who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam and later commander of the U.S. Naval Academy, left San Diego Jan. 20 to accompany the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis on deployment.
The Paul Hamilton is named for a secretary of the Navy from 1809 to 1812 who was instrumental in the creation of naval hospitals.
