USS Elmer Montgomery (FF-1082)

USS Elmer Montgomery was a Knox-class escort ship that served in the United States Navy from 1971 until 1993. Commissioned originally as the destroyer escort USS Elmer Montgomery (DE-1082), she became USS Elmer Montgomery (FF-1082) when the Navy redesignated its remaining ocean escorts and destroyer escorts as frigates in 1975.

The ship was named for Sergeant Elmer Foster Montgomery, United States Marine Corps Reserve, who was killed on Iwo Jima on 11 March 1945. Montgomery served with Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. During fighting against a strongly defended Japanese position, he advanced against the position while his platoon withdrew from an exposed area. He was killed during the action and was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. His remains were not recovered, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to list him as unaccounted for from World War II. USS Elmer Montgomery was the first U.S. Navy ship named in his honor.

Construction and Commissioning

The Navy awarded the construction contract for DE-1082 to Avondale Shipyard Corporation on 25 August 1966. Her keel was laid at Avondale’s Westwego, Louisiana, yard on 23 January 1970. She was launched and christened on 21 November 1970. Contemporary and archival sources identify one of Sergeant Montgomery’s sisters as the ship’s sponsor.

The Navy acquired the ship on 14 October 1971. USS Elmer Montgomery was commissioned on 30 October 1971 at the Boston Naval Shipyard in Charlestown, Massachusetts, with Commander Leslie N. Palmer in command. She was initially assigned to Cruiser-Destroyer Flotilla Four and based at Norfolk, Virginia.

Following commissioning and fitting-out work at Boston, the ship moved south in early 1972. Photographic records document training and operations in the Caribbean and around Guantanamo Bay during her first months of active service.

Knox-class Design

The Knox class was designed primarily for anti-submarine warfare and long-range escort duty. USS Elmer Montgomery was approximately 438 feet long and was powered by two high-pressure boilers supplying a single Westinghouse geared steam turbine. The plant developed approximately 35,000 shaft horsepower through one propeller shaft, giving the class a maximum speed of roughly 27 knots.

Her principal surface weapon was a single 5-inch/54-caliber Mark 42 gun mounted forward. An eight-cell Mark 16 launcher located between the gun and the bridge was designed principally for ASROC anti-submarine weapons and was later capable of employing Harpoon anti-ship missiles on modified Knox-class ships. Torpedo tubes provided additional anti-submarine capability. Her sensor suite centered on the large bow-mounted AN/SQS-26 sonar, supplemented during the class’s service by variable-depth and towed-array sonar systems.

Like other ships of the class, Elmer Montgomery was modified during her career as Navy aviation and defensive systems changed. Knox-class ships eventually operated the SH-2 Seasprite under the Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System, or LAMPS I, concept. By the 1980s, USS Elmer Montgomery is documented as operating an SH-2F detachment. Close-in defensive systems on the class also evolved, with Sea Sparrow installations and, later on many ships, the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System.

Early Mediterranean Service

USS Elmer Montgomery spent portions of her early career with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. Naval History and Heritage Command photographs place her underway there by approximately 1973 and again in 1974–1975.

She was present in the Mediterranean during the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. An official Navy photograph shows Elmer Montgomery, USS Glennon (DD-840), and Sixth Fleet flagship USS Springfield (CLG-7) together at Naples during the conflict. Other surviving photographs show Elmer Montgomery operating with the Kennedy battle group in the eastern Mediterranean during the same period. These records establish her presence with Sixth Fleet forces during the crisis, although publicly available material does not support attributing a specific combat action to the ship during the war.

Redesignation as FF-1082

USS Elmer Montgomery entered service as DE-1082 under the Navy’s destroyer escort classification. As part of the Navy’s 1975 ship classification changes, surviving ships of her type were redesignated as frigates. Elmer Montgomery accordingly became FF-1082 on 30 June 1975. Some archival references use 1 July as the first date on which the new designation was in use, but 30 June 1975 is the commonly recorded official reclassification date.

The change in designation did not create a new ship or materially redefine her basic mission. FF-1082 remained principally an escort and anti-submarine warfare platform and continued normal Atlantic Fleet and overseas deployment cycles.

Persian Gulf Operations, 1988

One of the best documented periods in Elmer Montgomery‘s operational history occurred during her deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1988, when U.S. naval forces were protecting and monitoring merchant traffic during the Iran-Iraq War.

On 2 July 1988, Elmer Montgomery responded to a distress call from the Danish-flagged merchant vessel Karama Maersk, which was being approached or attacked by Iranian Revolutionary Guard small craft. The frigate fired warning shots, after which the Iranian boats broke off the attack. Official U.S. accounts described the action as assistance to merchant shipping in accordance with the expanded American naval mission in the Gulf.

The following morning, 3 July, Elmer Montgomery was patrolling the northern portion of the Strait of Hormuz operating area when she detected seven Iranian small boats approaching a Pakistani merchant vessel. She subsequently reported a total of thirteen boats operating in several groups. The boats were reported to be equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers.

USS Vincennes (CG-49) subsequently moved toward the area and took tactical control of Elmer Montgomery. After a helicopter from Vincennes reported receiving fire from Iranian small craft, the two U.S. ships closed the area. Several Iranian boats then maneuvered toward the American vessels. Permission was obtained to engage, and Vincennes and Elmer Montgomery exchanged fire with the Iranian craft. Navy award records credit Elmer Montgomery with participation in the 3 July 1988 surface engagement and list the ship for the Combat Action Ribbon for that date.

The surface engagement occurred immediately before and during the circumstances that led USS Vincennes to shoot down Iran Air Flight 655. Elmer Montgomery did not fire the missiles that destroyed the airliner. The aircraft was engaged by Vincennes. Because the two events occurred in the same operating area and within the same sequence of events, Elmer Montgomery appears extensively in the Navy’s formal investigation and subsequent historical accounts.

This distinction is important when describing the ship’s history: Elmer Montgomery participated in the surface action against Iranian small craft but was not the ship that engaged Iran Air Flight 655.

Operation Desert Shield

USS Elmer Montgomery returned to the Middle East during the 1990 buildup following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. She operated with U.S. naval forces enforcing United Nations sanctions against Iraq and became particularly involved in maritime interception operations.

Official Navy histories credit Elmer Montgomery with firing the first U.S. warning shots during a maritime interception in the Desert Shield period. She also became the first ship in the theater to conduct 100 boardings and diverted six merchant vessels carrying prohibited cargo. An embarked detachment from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (Light) 36 supported these operations.

On 15 October 1990, Elmer Montgomery conducted the multinational interception force’s 2,500th intercept since maritime enforcement operations had begun on 12 August. The vessel intercepted was the Indian-registered cargo ship Jay Gayatri in the northern Red Sea.

After extensive interception duty, the frigate was assigned to air-defense duties associated with the Suez Canal and Mediterranean approaches. Her crew returned to Mayport, Florida, on 28 March 1991 following the Desert Shield/Desert Storm deployment.

Awards

Published naval records associate USS Elmer Montgomery with a number of unit and campaign awards during her service. These include the Combat Action Ribbon for the 3 July 1988 Persian Gulf action, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Navy Unit Commendation, Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy Battle Efficiency Ribbon, Navy Expeditionary Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon, and the Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti Kuwait Liberation Medals.

The award list reflects service over several distinct periods and should not be read as indicating that every award resulted from a single deployment.

Decommissioning and Disposal

USS Elmer Montgomery remained in commission through the end of the Cold War and the 1991 Gulf War period. She was decommissioned at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, on 30 June 1993 after 21 years and eight months of commissioned service. She was also stricken from the Naval Vessel Register that day.

On 13 December 1993, the ship was transferred to Turkey through the Security Assistance Program under provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act. Naval records describe the transfer specifically as a parts hulk, meaning that she was provided to support other Turkish-operated ships rather than commissioned into Turkish service as an active frigate.

Ship’s Motto

USS Elmer Montgomery carried the motto:

“To the Front.”

The phrase was appropriate to the identity established for the ship and its namesake, but surviving public references provide considerably more evidence that the motto was used than they do regarding its exact origin or the date on which it was formally adopted. It is therefore best presented simply as the ship’s documented motto without assigning an unsupported story to its creation.

Summary

USS Elmer Montgomery served for more than two decades during a period that covered the later Cold War, repeated Sixth Fleet deployments, the Iran-Iraq War and Persian Gulf naval operations, Operation Desert Shield, and the 1991 Gulf War period.

Her documented operational history includes Mediterranean service during the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict, armed surface action against Iranian Revolutionary Guard small craft in July 1988, and sustained maritime interception operations during Desert Shield. She was decommissioned in 1993 and subsequently transferred to Turkey for use as a source of parts.

The ship’s name preserved the memory of Marine Sergeant Elmer Foster Montgomery, whose actions on Iwo Jima resulted in the posthumous award of the Navy Cross.