USS Gary to be decommissioned after 31 years

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – The USS Gary, the last operating frigate on the West Coast, was scheduled to be decommissioned Thursday morning in a ceremony at Naval Base San Diego.

The Gary has been in San Diego since this past April, when it returned from its final deployment in Central America.

The decommissioning is the latest in the Navy's transition from a frigate fleet to more littoral combat ships, which are better suited for combat in coastal waters. The final frigate that be decommissioned is the Virginia-based USS Kaufman, which will take place later in the year.

The vessel is named for Medal of Honor recipient Donald Arthur Gray, who helped rescue hundreds of sailors when they became trapped below the deck of the USS Franklin in Japan in 1945. One of the survivors of the attack, William Albrecht, has been scheduled to deliver the principal address.