USS Princeton returns to San Diego

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton is scheduled
to dock at its San Diego home port Tuesday following a seven-month deployment,
according to the Navy.

After leaving on April 3, the 567-foot ship and her crew of more than
325 sailors conducted operations with the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in
the Western Pacific and Middle East, where they were stationed in position to
help in case U.S. military action was ordered in civil war-torn Syria.

“Throughout this extended deployment, Princeton's crew has performed
superbly, maintaining an incredible work ethic, total commitment to our mission
and pride in our ship,” said Capt. Charles Good, the commanding officer.
“We're all glad to be safe at home and are looking forward to rejoining the
San Diego waterfront and once again being part of this great community.”

Good assumed command from Capt. John Clausen while at sea in August.

During their time at sea, the Princeton's crew took part in a futile
search effort for two crew members of a Coronado-based helicopter that crashed
in the Red Sea last month and also aided five Yemeni fishermen stranded at sea
with no food or water in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

The Princeton, the sixth Navy vessel to carry the name, honors battles
in and around the city of Princeton, N.J., in 1777 as part of the Revolutionary
War.

The original Princeton was a sloop launched in 1843 as the first Navy
vessel to be powered by a steam-driven screw. The second was a transport ship
and the third a gunboat.

The fourth vessel to carry the name was an aircraft carrier sunk in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II. The fifth was another flattop
commissioned just after that conflict, but it served in the Korean and Vietnam
wars and recovered Apollo 10.

The current Princeton was commissioned in 1989.