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USS Pharris (FF 1094)

USS PHARRIS was the 43^rd KNOX-class frigate and the first ship in the Navy named after Lieutenant Commander Jackson C. Pharris. Homeported in Norfolk, Va., PHARRIS was decommissioned on April 15, 1992, and sold to Mexico where she was recommissioned as GUADALUPE VICTORIA.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS PHARRIS. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

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• Click here to see which USS PHARRIS memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS PHARRIS Cruise Books:

• Middle East Cruise Book 1976-77

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About the Ship's Namesake:

Lieutenant Commander Jackson Charles Pharris was a U.S. Navy officer and Medal of Honor recipient for his actions during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was born on June 26, 1912, in Columbus, Georgia, and joined the Navy in April 1933. After service in USS MISSISSIPPI (BB 41), he was assigned to USS CALIFORNIA (BB 44), where he served as a gunner by early 1941.

On December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Pharris was in charge of an ordnance repair party aboard USS CALIFORNIA when a torpedo exploded beneath his station. Although severely injured, he organized a manual ammunition supply line for the ship's antiaircraft guns, ordered counterflooding to help correct the ship's list, and repeatedly entered flooding, oil-filled compartments to rescue unconscious shipmates. He was credited with helping save many men and with keeping CALIFORNIA in action during the attack.

Pharris later returned to duty, was commissioned as an officer, and served again during the war, including aboard USS SAINT PAUL (CA 73) near the end of the Pacific campaign. Because of his Pearl Harbor injuries, he was medically retired in 1948 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. President Harry S. Truman presented him the Medal of Honor at the White House on June 25, 1948. Pharris died on October 17, 1966, in California and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. USS PHARRIS (DE/FF 1094) was the first US Navy ship named in his honor.

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USS PHARRIS History:

USS PHARRIS (DE 1094), later USS PHARRIS (FF 1094), was the forty-third KNOX-class frigate and the first United States Navy ship named for Lieutenant Commander Jackson C. Pharris, a Medal of Honor recipient for his actions aboard USS CALIFORNIA (BB 44) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The ship was ordered as part of the Navy's large Cold War ocean-escort program, a program intended to provide the Atlantic and Pacific fleets with long-range antisubmarine escorts capable of operating with carrier task groups, underway replenishment forces, amphibious groups, and independent convoy formations. The contract for her construction was awarded to Avondale Shipyards on August 25, 1966. The ship was laid down at Avondale Shipyards in the New Orleans area on February 11, 1972. She was launched and christened on December 16, 1972, sponsored by Mrs. Jackson C. Pharris, the widow of the ship's namesake. USS PHARRIS was commissioned on January 26, 1974, at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, with Commander George E. O'Brien in command, and was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 2 at Norfolk, Virginia. At commissioning she was still classified as an ocean escort, DE 1094. Her first year in commission was spent completing acceptance work, post-commissioning training, shakedown-related activity, and integration into the Atlantic Fleet's destroyer-escort force at Norfolk.

On June 30, 1975, USS PHARRIS was reclassified from destroyer escort DE 1094 to frigate FF 1094 during the Navy-wide 1975 ship-designation change. On September 23, 1975, Commander Bruce A. Friedsam relieved Commander O'Brien as commanding officer. During 1975 and 1976, USS PHARRIS deployed to the Mediterranean. This placed her in the U.S. Sixth Fleet operating area at a time when NATO's southern flank, Soviet naval activity in the Mediterranean, the aftermath of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and instability in the eastern Mediterranean all shaped U.S. naval presence. A major emergency occurred on November 22, 1975, when USS BELKNAP (CG 26) collided with USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) in the Ionian Sea. USS PHARRIS was among the ships involved in the immediate naval response. She was ordered to stand by USS JOHN F. KENNEDY and assist as needed.

After that Mediterranean period, USS PHARRIS made a Middle East deployment from September 1976 to March 1977. A cruise book exists for this Middle East cruise and identifies it as a distinct deployment. This was before the Iranian Revolution but after the 1973 oil crisis, and U.S. naval presence in the region was increasingly tied to the protection of maritime access, reassurance of regional partners, and monitoring of Soviet influence in the Indian Ocean. On February 9, 1977, during this general period of early operational service, Commander Charles P. Metzler Jr. relieved Commander Friedsam as commanding officer.

In 1978, USS PHARRIS served with NATO's Standing Naval Force Atlantic, one of the most important routine NATO maritime formations of the Cold War. The force was designed to provide a visible multinational naval presence, improve allied interoperability, and maintain proficiency in antisubmarine, surface, air-defense, and replenishment procedures across the Atlantic and adjacent seas. USS PHARRIS is well documented during this deployment. On January 15, 1978, she was in the Atlantic approaching the harbor at Ireland Island, Bermuda. On January 16, 1978, she entered Hamilton, Bermuda, assisted by the tug POWERFUL. In March 1978, she was operating with Standing Naval Force Atlantic in the Caribbean Sea. On May 9, 1978, she was in the Atlantic during Operation Open Gate, and on May 25, 1978, she was at Portsmouth, England, with her towed-array sonar deployed from her stern, a detail that directly reflected her antisubmarine role. On June 10, 1978, while operating near Copenhagen, Denmark, in the Baltic Sea, USS PHARRIS encountered and escorted a Soviet GOLF II-class ballistic-missile submarine that was transiting the Baltic. That event was a concise example of her Cold War mission: allied presence, surveillance, and contact with Soviet naval units in a restricted and politically sensitive sea area. By August 1, 1978, USS PHARRIS was back at Naval Station Norfolk.

On July 12, 1979, Commander Robert J. Dougherty relieved Commander Metzler as commanding officer. USS PHARRIS' next major operational period was UNITAS XXI in 1980. USS PHARRIS deployed to South American waters and western Africa and participated in UNITAS XXI from June 28, 1980, to December 12, 1980. UNITAS was the long-running annual series of exercises between the United States Navy and South American navies, intended to maintain professional contacts, common procedures, antisubmarine and surface-warfare proficiency, and political-military ties throughout the Western Hemisphere. USS PHARRIS operated with USS KING (DDG 41) and USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD (DD 968) during this exercise series. She was photographed off the South American coast on September 1, 1980, and again on October 1, 1980. Another October 1, 1980, image shows the UNITAS XXI ships in port, with USS PHARRIS, USS KING, and USS ARTHUR W. RADFORD together.

On July 8, 1981, Commander Phillip R. Olson relieved Commander Dougherty. USS PHARRIS conducted a Persian Gulf deployment in 1981. The Iran-Iraq War had begun in September 1980, and the security of Gulf shipping and regional sea lanes had become a growing U.S. concern. USS PHARRIS's presence in the area therefore fits the broader pattern of U.S. naval deployments to maintain access, observe the conflict's maritime effects, and support American interests in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.

On December 11, 1982, Commander Robert J. Cepek relieved Commander Olson as commanding officer. In 1983, USS PHARRIS deployed to the Mediterranean. Her deployment coincided with the crisis in Lebanon, where the United States, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom were contributing to the Multinational Force in Beirut after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the withdrawal of Palestine Liberation Organization forces from Beirut. By 1983, the security environment had deteriorated sharply, and U.S. naval forces offshore provided presence, communications, logistics, aviation support, and potential naval gunfire support to U.S. and allied forces ashore. USS PHARRIS is linked in veteran and aviation-detachment accounts with operations off Beirut and was in the area around the period of the October 23, 1983, Beirut barracks bombing.

On November 16, 1984, Commander Joseph D. Clarke IV relieved Commander Cepek. During the mid-1980s, USS PHARRIS continued the pattern of Cold War frigate service: Norfolk-based operations, NATO exercises, antisubmarine training, and deployments tied to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and adjacent waters. In the fall of 1985, she operated in the Baltic region during BALTOPS 85. On October 1, 1985, during NATO Exercise BALTOPS 85 in the Baltic Sea, USS PHARRIS approached USS MERRIMACK (AO 179) while that oiler was replenishing HMS LIVERPOOL (D 92). USS MERRIMACK then refueled USS PHARRIS. In another image from the same date, USS PHARRIS is shown underway followed by USS HALYBURTON (FFG 40), with an unidentified NATO ship in the background. On November 1, 1985, USS PHARRIS was again photographed underway during BALTOPS 85. These images confirm that she was integrated into a NATO exercise environment involving allied surface ships and underway replenishment in the confined Baltic operating area, where NATO activity had direct Cold War significance because of proximity to Soviet and Warsaw Pact naval forces.

In 1986, USS PHARRIS deployed to the Mediterranean with the USS AMERICA (CV 66) battle group during one of the most tense U.S.-Libyan confrontation periods of the Cold War. The deployment of USS AMERICA ran from March 10, 1986, to September 10, 1986. Operations associated with that deployment included Operation Attain Document, Operation Prairie Fire, and Operation El Dorado Canyon, all connected to the U.S.-Libyan crisis and the American challenge to Libyan claims in the Gulf of Sidra. Operation El Dorado Canyon, carried out on April 14-15, 1986, was the U.S. strike against Libya after escalating confrontation and U.S. accusations of Libyan involvement in terrorism. USS PHARRIS was photographed in the Mediterranean Sea on April 19, 1986, conducting vertical replenishment with a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter only days after the strike period.

On February 20, 1987, Commander William D. Busching relieved Commander Clarke. During 1987 and 1988, USS PHARRIS was associated with the Persian Gulf crisis period that produced Operation Earnest Will, the U.S. escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Tanker War phase of the Iran-Iraq War. Operation Earnest Will began in July 1987 and became one of the largest U.S. naval convoy operations since World War II. USS PHARRIS's awards and secondary summaries associate her with this operational period, and she is commonly linked to the movement of MIGHTY SERVANT 2, the heavy-lift ship that transported the damaged USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (FFG 58) after that frigate struck an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf on April 14, 1988.

In 1989, USS PHARRIS appeared in several well-documented public naval events. On April 28, 1989, she was photographed at sea accompanying USS FORRESTAL (CV 59) toward New York City for Fleet Week 1989. On April 29, 1989, she was again photographed as one of the ships accompanying USS FORRESTAL. On May 4, 1989, she was at the Manhattan Passenger Terminal in New York during Fleet Week, with USCGC HAMILTON (WHEC 715) in the foreground and USS W. S. SIMS (FF 1059) also visible nearby. These events reflected the Navy's public-affairs and fleet-presence activities at the end of the Cold War as well as USS PHARRIS's continued service in Atlantic Fleet task groups. Later that year, she took part in Navy Appreciation Week at Port Everglades, Florida. On October 6, 1989, she was photographed tied up at the pier during the event, decorated with bunting and a signal-flag display. On October 11, 1989, during the same Navy Appreciation Week, a change-of-command ceremony was held aboard USS PHARRIS at Port Everglades, and Commander Jeffrey J. Davidsson relieved Commander Busching as commanding officer.

A port visit at Den Helder, Netherlands, is documented for June 22-23, 1990, during Fleet Days Den Helder, with an SH-2F helicopter embarked. In 1991, USS PHARRIS again served with Standing Naval Force Atlantic. This deployment took place at a moment of overlapping transition: the Cold War was ending, Operation Desert Storm had just been fought in the Middle East, and NATO maritime forces were adapting from classic Soviet-submarine surveillance toward broader presence and crisis-response roles. A serious accident occurred at Funchal, Madeira, on February 8, 1991. USS PHARRIS and the Canadian destroyer escort HMCS MARGAREE were in port as part of the NATO force when two Canadian divers from HMCS MARGAREE, Sub-Lieutenant Corey Wells and Master Seaman William Hynes, drowned during a hull-search dive beneath USS PHARRIS after being drawn toward a seawater intake. Canadian parliamentary testimony and contemporary reporting identify the accident, the location, the two ships, and the NATO Standing Naval Force Atlantic context. The incident became a significant safety and procedural matter for the Canadian Navy and is one of the best-documented events in USS PHARRIS's final full year of U.S. service. On August 10, 1991, Commander Alan Y. Etter relieved Commander Davidsson and became the final commanding officer of USS PHARRIS in United States Navy service.

USS PHARRIS was decommissioned at Naval Station Norfolk on April 15, 1992, after slightly more than eighteen years of commissioned service. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on January 11, 1995. On June 15, 1999, the former USS PHARRIS was transferred to Mexico under a security-assistance arrangement. She entered Mexican Navy service on March 16, 2000, as ARM GUADALUPE VICTORIA (E-52), later redesignated F-213. In Mexican service she belonged to the ALLENDE-class, the Mexican Navy's group of former US KKNOX-class frigates. She was later also widely listed as ARM VICTORIA. She served Mexico until about 2016, after which she was decommissioned. By February 2024, Mexican reporting identified ARM VICTORIA among former frigate hulls to be donated for sinking in the Gulf of Mexico, together with ARM MINA and ARM ALLENDE, in a project connected to maritime and fisheries interests off Tamaulipas.

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This picture is from a T-shirt once sold aboard USS PHARRIS. I purchased it on ebay. You can click on the picture for a larger version.

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USS PHARRIS Image Gallery:

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