USS Sampson (DDG-102)
2006 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
USS Sampson (DDG-102) is an Arleigh Burke-class (Flight IIA) Aegis guided missile destroyer in the United States Navy. Funding for the Flight IIA (5"/62, one 20mm CIWS variant) ship was authorized in 2002 and her keel was laid on 20 March 2005. She is the fourth US Navy ship named to honor Rear Admiral William T. Sampson.
She was built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. At her christening on 16 September 2006, the principal address was delivered by Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and the vessel was christened by Clara Parsons, great-granddaughter of Rear Admiral Sampson and daughter of William Sterling Parsons, as the ship's sponsor.
History
She was commissioned in Boston, Massachusetts on 3 November 2007 and home ported in San Diego. Her maiden deployment was from August 2009 to March 2010 to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf as part of the Nimitz carrier strike group (CSG).
After Sampson returned from an 8-month maiden deployment, she was back underway from May to August with port visits to the 103rd Portland Rose Festival and Esquimalt, British Columbia to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy. She then participated in Exercise RIMPAC off the coast of Hawaii. Sampson's crew was awarded two Sea Service Ribbons in 12 months.
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