NORFOLK, Va. – The USS Gravely returned to Naval Station Norfolk Tuesday after an eight-month deployment to the Navy’s 6th Fleet areas of operation.
The USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer homeported in Norfolk, served as the flagship of NATO’s Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG-1).
The ship is named after Samuel Lee Gravely, a Richmond native who became the first African-American commissioned from the Navy Reserve Officer Training Course. He would go on to become the first African-American to command a U.S. Navy warship (Theodore E. Chandler), command an American warship under combat conditions (Taussig) and command a major naval warship (Jouett).
Gravely also became the first African American admiral, the first African American to rise to the rank of Vice Admiral, and the first African-American to command a U.S. Fleet (Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet).
