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USS Scout (MCM 8)

USS SCOUT was the eighth AVENGER class Mine Countermeasures Ship and the fourth ship in the Navy to bear the name. Ordered on August 20, 1986, the ship was delivered to the Navy on November 27, 1990. From 2007 to 2013, SCOUT was forward-deployed to Manama, Bahrain. USS SCOUT held a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on August 19, 2020, and was officially decommissioned on August 26, 2020. In September 2023, Marine Group Boat Works of San Diego, Calif., was awarded a $9,351,700 firm-fixed-price contract for the dismantling of SCOUT along with her two decommissioned sisterships CHAMPION (MCM 4) and ARDENT (MCM 12).

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS SCOUT. 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 SCOUT memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS SCOUT Cruise Books:

• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1999 (Part of the USS INCHON (MCS 12) Task Group Cruise Book 1999)

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USS SCOUT History:

USS SCOUT was laid down on June 8, 1987, at Peterson Builders Inc. in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, launched on May 20, 1989, delivered to the U.S. Navy on November 27, 1990, and commissioned on December 15, 1990. On June 25, 1992, USS SCOUT became the first ship to arrive at the newly established Naval Station Ingleside, Texas, which at the time was being built up as the Navy's center for mine warfare operations. In 1993, USS SCOUT took part in the first-ever integrated mine warfare exercise in the Gulf of Mexico; in that same year, USS SCOUT and three sister ships deployed for "Blue Harrier", described later by the Navy as the first time the mine countermeasures ships supported a major six-month deployment - an early marker of how the class was being integrated into broader fleet tasking rather than remaining purely local training assets. In 1999, during a five-month Mediterranean deployment shaped by the late-1990s Balkan crises and NATO operations in the region, USS SCOUT assisted in the evacuation of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, reflecting the frequent overlap at the time between naval presence missions, contingency response, and humanitarian support.

In early 2003, with the Iraq War beginning in March and U.S. and coalition naval forces operating across the Mediterranean and onward into the Middle East, USS SCOUT conducted a five-month surge deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She returned to Naval Station Ingleside on June 13, 2003. On April 1, 2005, USS SCOUT departed Naval Station Ingleside for a five-month deployment alongside USS DEVASTATOR (MCM 6) that took the ships through the Panama Canal into the Pacific and to the U.S. West Coast, a shift that fit the period's broader redistribution of mine warfare capability toward the Pacific and expeditionary tasking. During this deployment cycle, they were scheduled to participate in exercises including "Lead Shield", framed around reopening a port after a fictional terrorist mining scenario - typical of the post-9/11 emphasis on homeland defense, port security, and expeditionary logistics under asymmetric threat models.

Later that year, after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in late August 2005, mine warfare ships were employed in a very different but strategically urgent mission: on September 10, 2005, USS SCOUT, USS DEFENDER (MCM 2), USS GLADIATOR (MCM 11), and USS FALCON (MHC 59) worked off Louisiana with the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to help clear and survey waterways - using their sonar and specialized skillsets to identify underwater hazards and obstructions so that diver teams could recover them and restore safe navigation.

A major turning point in USS SCOUT's service came with her forward deployment to the U.S. Fifth Fleet area: on February 18, 2007, the Military Sealift Command-chartered heavy-lift ship M/V CONDOCK III delivered USS SCOUT to Manama, Bahrain, after a roughly month-and-a-half transit. From that point, her day-to-day operational environment was defined by the strategic geography of the Arabian Gulf - narrow sea lanes, energy infrastructure, and the persistent mine threat that has long shaped contingency planning there.

On April 9, 2007, USS SCOUT participated in a mine countermeasures exercise in the Arabian Gulf with U.S., British, and Kuwaiti forces. Units associated with the event included USS ARDENT (MCM 12), USS DEXTROUS (MCM 13), USS GLADIATOR, and Royal Navy ships such as HMS BLYTH and HMS RAMSEY, underscoring the routine coalition character of Gulf mine warfare training. In August 2007, USS SCOUT also took part in a mine countermeasures exercise with British forces that employed air, surface, and subsurface capabilities in combined operations.

From February 26, 2008 to March 6, 2008, she participated in another mine countermeasures exercise in the northern Arabian Gulf with British and Kuwaiti forces. During that event USS SCOUT executed a personnel exchange with HMS BLYTH, an interoperability measure aimed at harmonizing procedures and improving coalition effectiveness in the highly procedural, safety-critical mine warfare domain. By March 1, 2008, she was again described as actively participating in mine countermeasures training involving American, British, and Kuwaiti naval forces in the Gulf.

The Iraq War's maritime logistics and the security of approaches to Iraqi ports remained a persistent backdrop. On June 30, 2009, USS SCOUT pulled into Umm Qasr, Iraq, for a "historic" port visit described as the first U.S. ship visit there since the port's transition to Iraqi control - an event that connected mine warfare capability directly to sovereignty transfer and the reopening/normalization of key maritime infrastructure. On April 6, 2010, USS SCOUT was documented conducting mine sweeping and mine hunting operations in the central Arabian Gulf, reflecting ongoing operational tasking beyond exercises alone.

After years in Bahrain, USS SCOUT transitioned back to the U.S. West Coast. Following preparation in Bahrain, she departed Khalifa Bin Salman Port after being loaded aboard the heavy-lift ship M/V EIDE TRANSPORTER on October 30, 2013, getting underway as a transported load on November 3, 2013, bound for her new homeport of San Diego, California - part of the broader U.S. Navy pattern of using heavy-lift transport to reposition mine warfare ships efficiently while preserving hull life.

In 2014, based from San Diego, USS SCOUT reoriented into Pacific training and multinational exercise rhythms: on July 17, 2014, she was participating in a multinational mine countermeasures exercise off southern California in connection with Rim of the Pacific 2014 activities. Maintenance and modernization also became visible in the record: on August 22, 2014, BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair received a $7.8 million contract modification for USS SCOUT's Selected Restricted Availability, with completion projected by March 2015.

In the mid-to-late 2010s, publicly visible reporting becomes much more granular again for USS SCOUT's local operations cycle around southern California. In October 2016, Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Brown assumed command. After a five-day underway for sea trials, USS SCOUT moored at North Mole Pier, Naval Base San Diego, on December 19, 2016. She departed on March 2, 2017 to conduct sea trials in the southern California operating area, but on March 7, 2017, she suffered an engineering casualty after getting underway at 0800 local time and was forced to emergency anchor at A-213 off Red Buoy 20 in North San Diego Bay. She was subsequently moved "dead-stick" back to Mole Pier by 1100.

Later that month, on March 30, 2017, USS SCOUT returned to Naval Base San Diego after conducting minesweeping evolutions off southern California for the first time in five years - an operational milestone indicating a return to core mission execution after an extended period in which such evolutions had not been logged in that way. She went underway again April 18-20, 2017, and later got underway en route to Los Angeles on August 28, 2017, mooring at Berth 93B, World Cruise Terminal, Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) on August 29, 2017, for a week-long visit tied to the annual Los Angeles Fleet Week. Afterward, she made a brief stop at Bravo Pier, Naval Air Station North Island, on September 6, 2017, to offload ammunition, then shifted to the Magnetic Silencing Facility at Naval Base Point Loma. She also made a brief stop at the Navy Fuel Farm before getting underway again on September 11, 2017, and returning home on September 13, 2017. In December 2017, Lt. Cmdr. Eric J. Blomberg relieved Lt. Cmdr. Brown as commanding officer.

USS SCOUT's 2018-2019 record shows a steady cadence of local training underways, ammunition evolutions, refueling stops, and port visits that mixed community engagement with operational practice. She moored at North Mole Pier after routine training on February 20, 2018, then went underway again February 26-March 1, 2018. She departed for routine training on May 22, 2018, made a brief stop at Bravo Pier, and returned May 23, then went underway again on May 29 and stopped at the Navy Fuel Farm on May 30 to refuel. From June 5-7, 2018, she visited Astoria, Oregon (Pier 1W), then on June 7, 2018, shifted to Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland for a four-day visit supporting the Rose Festival, returning to Astoria June 11-15, 2018. On June 20, 2018, she moored at Berth 2, Pier 1, Naval Base San Diego, then continued with additional underways including June 28-29, 2018 and August 7.

A series of movements followed: a brief stop at the Navy Fuel Farm on August 14, 2018, an underway period off southern California ending with a return on August 17, a brief underway on August 24, and another underway beginning August 27. On August 28, 2018, she again moored at the World Cruise Terminal in San Pedro for Los Angeles Fleet Week. On September 8, 2018, USS SCOUT pulled into Ensenada, Mexico, for a three-day port visit tied to Mexican Independence Day events, then later called at Cabo San Lucas September 17-20, 2018, before returning to San Diego and mooring at Berth 2, Pier 1 on September 25, 2018. Additional underways are recorded for November 1-2, 2018 and November 8-16, 2018.

In 2019, the ship prepared for and executed Mine Warfare Readiness Certification Inspection evolutions. USS SCOUT moored at Berth 2, Pier 1 on January 11, 2019, after a one-day underway in preparation for the inspection, then went underway January 23-February 1, 2019, conducted a day-long underway for assessment on February 6, 2019, and got underway again on February 11. That same day, USS SCOUT moored in Ensenada for a one-day port visit, then visited Mazatlan February 17-20, 2019, returning to San Diego on February 25, 2019.

On March 8, 2019, Lt. Cmdr. Shawn R. Callihan relieved Lt. Cmdr. Blomberg as commanding officer during a pierside ceremony at Naval Base San Diego. The ship shifted berths on March 15, 2019, conducted an ammunition onload stop at Bravo Pier, then went underway again on March 27 and returned March 29. On April 10, 2019, she moored at North Mole Pier after a brief underway, then went underway May 13-17, 2019, followed by a Friends and Family Day Cruise on May 20, 2019. On June 5, 2019, USS SCOUT departed for mine countermeasures operations off Newport Beach and Long Beach, visited Port Hueneme June 11-14, 2019, returned to San Diego June 25, 2019, and continued with additional underways including July 2-3, 2019, further mine countermeasures operations on August 18, 19, 25, and 26, 2019, and another Los Angeles Fleet Week visit beginning August 27, 2019 at Berth 92, World Cruise Terminal, San Pedro. From September 4-9, 2019, she again conducted mine countermeasures operations off Long Beach and Newport Beach, made a brief refueling stop at the Navy Fuel Farm, moored at Quay Wall 3 on September 10, 2019, went underway September 26-30, 2019, and conducted a brief underway off San Diego on November 20, 2019.

In 2020, USS SCOUT continued local operations before deactivation. She moored at Quay Wall 3 on January 14, 2020, after a one-day underway, then went underway again March 9-11, 2020, made a brief stop at Bravo Pier to onload ammunition before getting underway again on March 12, and returned to homeport on March 16, 2020. After nearly 30 years of service, USS SCOUT held a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Base San Diego on August 19, 2020. She was officially decommissioned and stricken on August 26, 2020.

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USS SCOUT Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SCOUT at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 2, 2015.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the SCOUT at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on April 18, 2016.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the SCOUT at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 11, 2017.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning on June 8, 2018, during an open ship event aboard USS SCOUT as part of the Rose Festival in Portland, Or.

			Click here for more Photos.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the SCOUT at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on September 28, 2018.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the SCOUT at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on March 2, 2019.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the decommissioned SCOUT laid up between her sisterships ex-CHAMPION (MCM 4, left) and ex-ARDENT (MCM 12, right) at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on December 28, 2021.

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