Members of the U.S. 7th Fleet band perform for the USS Antietam as it departs Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Jan. 26, 2024. The guided-missile cruiser is shifting its homeport to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (Askia Collins/U.S. Navy)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The USS Antietam steamed out of Tokyo Bay on Friday, concluding 11 years of service at the homeport of the U.S. 7th Fleet.
Sailors manned the rails in their dress blue uniforms as the guided-missile cruiser left Yokosuka, bound for its new home in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the fleet said in a news release Friday.
“For more than a decade, USS Antietam enjoyed being part of the Yokosuka community,” the cruiser’s skipper, Capt. Victor Garza, said in the release. “Antietam was at the forefront of our nation’s efforts to protect peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific.”
The guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam, which is shifting its homeport to Hawaii, departs Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, Jan. 26, 2024. (Askia Collins/U.S. Navy)
The ship is moving to Hawaii as part of a “planned rotation of forces,” 7th Fleet said. Taking its place will be the guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell, previously homeported in Everett, Wash., according to Task Force 70 spokesman Seth Koenig.
Koenig declined to comment on when the McCampbell would arrive, citing operational security concerns.
“We have no additional departures or arrivals to announce as part of the planned rotation of forces at this time,” he said in an email Friday.
The McCampbell left Yokosuka in July 2020 for a scheduled midlife modernization in Oregon before joining the 3rd Fleet.
The Antietam arrived in Yokosuka in February 2013 and swapped crews with its sister ship the USS Cowpens.
In the years that followed, the Antietam regularly deployed with the USS George Washington and USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier strike groups; it also participated in freedom-of-navigation operations and transits of the Taiwan Strait.
One deployment included a monthlong relief mission to the Philippines following the widespread devastation dealt by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013.
In January 2017, the Antietam ran aground on shoals in Tokyo Bay just outside Yokosuka. It was anchored near the base’s ammunition storage area when it drifted into nearby rocks.
Approximately 1,100 gallons of hydraulic fluid leaked into the bay; the Navy ultimately relieved the ship’s commander at the time, Capt. Joseph Carrigan, due to a loss of confidence in his abilities.
Months later, the Antietam incident was largely overshadowed by two separate collisions involving the guided-missile destroyers USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain, which resulted in a combined death toll of 17 sailors.
Prior to the Antietam’s departure, the crew of the Japanese guided-missile destroyer JS Kirishima presented the U.S. crew with a plaque commemorating the warship’s time in Japan, 7th Fleet said.
“On behalf of the crew, I want to express my appreciation for our Japanese hosts, who have become our colleagues, friends and family,” Garza said in the fleet’s release. “We’re proud of the relationships we built with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and with like-minded nations and navies throughout the region.”
