Mayport sees second decommissioning inside one month

For the second time in less than one month, a ship at Naval Station Mayport will be decommissioned.

The USS Klakring ends nearly 30 years of service Friday, more than ten of those were served at Mayport. She served several purposes, but most recently counter-narco terrorism operations, according to Mayport Spokesman Chief William Townsend.

The guided-missile frigate has a crew of 17 officers and 198 enlisted men who, Townsend says, will likely be sad to see the ship go.

“They paint it, they clean it, they live on it- it’s like your car. A young guy in school gets a Mustang and, you know, that’s his baby, he takes care of it. So that’s the way these sailors feel about this ship,” he says.

He tells me the vast majority of the crew will be staying right here in Northeast Florida, however, so the spirit of the USS Klakring will hang around.

Earlier this month the USS Underwood was also decommissioned from Mayport. Both were scheduled decommissionings due to the age of the ships.  Nonetheless, it puts Mayport at one of the lowest levels it’s seen regarding number of homeported ships.  That is expected to change within this year, however, as the first of three ships in an Amphibious Readiness Group switches homeports to Mayport.