USS Fox, a 5340-ton Belknap class guided missile frigate built at San Pedro, California, was commissioned in May 1966. Following a year of outfitting, evaluation work on her advanced weapons systems and training for her crew, in June 1967 she began the first of well over a dozen overseas deployments. For nearly the rest of that year she served in the Western Pacific, mainly taking part in Vietnam War operations. Among her activities were control of air traffic, including guiding U.S. fighter airplanes in successful combat with enemy MiGs, and search and rescue efforts by a helicopter based on her deck. Fox also helped USS Forrestal when that big aircraft carrier was ravaged by fire on 29 July 1967.
During the remainder of the Vietnam War era Fox made four more WestPac cruises (October 1968-March 1969, June-October 1970, August 1971-January 1972 and January-July 1973, performing much the same tasks as during her first. Her 1970-1971 tour also took her into the Sea of Okhotsk, an area of increasing interest as the Soviet Union expanded its naval power at the height of the Cold War. More than two years in the U.S. West Coast region followed during which, at the end of June 1975, Fox was reclassified as a guided missile cruiser, with the new designation CG-33.
Fox steamed westwards again late in 1975 for a deployment that was mainly spent in the Indian Ocean. She exercised with the Australian and Iranian navies, kept an eye on Soviet naval activities and called on several nations before returning home in mid-1976. For the rest of her career, the cruiser was a frequent visitor to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. Her cruise there in January-June 1978 included operations in the Red Sea and another passage through the Sea of Okhotsk, while that in September 1980-April 1981 featured a spell as flagship in the Persian Gulf during a severe crisis in U.S. relations with revolutionary Iran.
Between those tours Fox was modernized, receiving Harpoon surface-to-surface guided missiles in place of her three-inch guns, plus other upgrades to her combat capabilities. Further WestPac/IO deployments took place in 1982 (during which she helped rescue more than a hundred Vietnamese refugees), 1985-1986, 1987 (including protecting Persian Gulf shipping during heavy fighting between Iran and Iraq), 1988-1989, 1991-1992 and 1993. Fox concluded her last overseas cruise near the end of 1993 and immediately began inactivation preparations. Decommissioned in mid-April 1994, she was sold for scrapping in 1995. However, the troubled state of the U.S. shipbreaking industry in the 1990s caused her to be repossessed, and kept her intact in Navy custody into the 21st Century.
USS Fox was named in honor of Gustavus V. Fox (1821-1883), who served as a U.S. Navy Officer from 1838 until 1856 and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1861-1866.
This page features virtually all the views we have of USS Fox (DLG-33, later CG-33) plus selected views related to her construction.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 21 April 2003