USS Higgins

USS Higgins (DDG-76) is a United States Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer (flight II). She is named for USMC Colonel William R. Higgins, who was captured, tortured and murdered in 1988, during a UN peacekeeping mission to Lebanon. In 1992 he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, and two years later it was announced that a ship would be named in his honor. Higgins, is the 26th ship of her class, the 15th of the class to be built by Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine. Construction began on 14 November 1996 and she was launched and christened on 4 October 1997. She was commissioned at a ceremony in Port Everglades, Florida on 24 April 1999.
Name: USS Higgins
Namesake: William R. Higgins
Ordered: 19 January 1993
Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Laid down: 14 November 1996
Launched: 4 October 1997
Acquired: 14 January 1999
Commissioned: 24 April 1999
Homeport: Naval Base San Diego
Motto: First to Fight
Status: in active service