You could imagine this in a sepia tone and easily see an old Connecticut-class predreadnought here rather than a modern DDG.
VILLEFRANCHE, France (Dec. 19, 2016) The guided-missile destroyer USS Nitze (DDG 94) is moored in the bay of Villefranche during a port call to France. Nitze, currently deployed as part of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. (U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Joshua Murray/Released)
Nitze is named for Paul Henry Nitze, who served first as LBJs SECNAV and later as his SECDEF, replacing Cyrus Vance. Before that he was on James Forrestal’s staff in the big one, served Truman in NSC positions, and had been appointed by JFK to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense. He would later be one of the main players behind the scenes in the SALT talks and Reagan’s chief negotiator of the INF Treaty in 1988.
As for the vessel, she was commissioned 5 March 2005 as the 43rd Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. A Flight IIA Burke with the super-length 5″/62 forward, she has been very active in the Gulf region in recent years to include hammering some Houthi radar sites involved in the recent missile launches threatening USS Mason and other vessels operating in international waters in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb via TLCMs.
