The Navy decommissioned the USS Fort Worth at a ceremony at Naval Base San Diego Wednesday.
The Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship, entered service in 2012. Early versions of the Freedom variant LSC, such as the Fort Worth, were plagued with reliability issues, according to the Navy.
A 2021 Navy report found 32 "key" issues among both LCS variants. The Navy said it was more cost efficient to decommission ships at less than half their expected service lives than to repair them.
The Fort Worth is the eighth littoral combat ship to be decommissioned.
Cmdr. Dana Canby is the ship's commanding officer and its final captain. He said the ship accomplished a lot in its short service life.
"We pioneered a lot of concepts," Canby said. "(It) was one of the first littoral combat ships to really open the Pacific; we were the first one that made port visits to Vietnam. We are the first ones to test overseas maintenance and repair practices in Japan and in Singapore."
It was also where the Navy experimented with crew rotations, he said.
"As the Navy really explored the multi-crew concept, we helped shape a lot of that doctrine..."
The ship last went to sea in 2021. It's been pier-side at Naval Base San Diego since.
During his speech at the decommissioning ceremony, Canby joked that sailors called the ship, hull number 3, 'Building 3' on the base.
He also said it didn't stop Fort Worth sailors from earning their qualifications and advancing their careers by deploying on other San Diego-based ships.
"You do not join the Navy to decommission ships," Canby said. "You join the Navy to take ships to sea."
Gordon England, who was Navy Secretary under President George W. Bush when the LCS program began, was among the dignitaries at the ceremony.
So were several Navy Reserve sailors brought in from their detachment in Fort Worth, Texas.
Petty Officer 1st Class Selina Dickinson said she's often in San Diego as part of her reserve duties — duties that also took her on board the Fort Worth.
"I've enjoyed working with them," she said. "I think it's a little sad they're being decommissioned … as part of the Fort Worth culture and community, it's bittersweet. But, you know, it comes with the territory."
The ship will be held in reserve as part of the Navy's mothball fleet in Bremerton, Washington, where it will live on as a source of spare parts for other Navy ships.
