The U.S. Navy warship that fired 30 Tomahawk missiles at suspected Syrian chemical weapons sites in 2018 received the USS Arizona Memorial Trophy this week at a ceremony in Norfolk.
The crew of the guided-missile cruiser Monterey was lauded for leading “coalition strike operations against chemical weapons research, production and storage sites in Syria in the absence of a carrier strike group” during the April 14, 2018 attack, according to a Navy release.
Named after the battleship Arizona that exploded and sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the trophy is awarded every two years to the best performing, combat-ready crew in the surface force.
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The Monterey was surge deployed and underway from October 2017 to May 2018 in the waters of U.S. 5th Fleet and U.S. 6th Fleet.
“This award is only made possible by those on the deckplates,” the Monterey’s commanding officer, Capt. Anthony Littmann, said in the Navy release.
“This will be placed on the mess decks where it belongs…it will be a reminder of what this crew has done right and will continue to do.”
Geoff is the managing editor of Military Times, but he still loves writing stories. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan extensively and was a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. He welcomes any and all kinds of tips at geoffz@militarytimes.com.
