STEPHEN W GROVES FFG 29

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Oliver Hazard Perry Class Guided Missile Frigate Keel Laid 16 September 1980 - Launched 4 April 1981 USS STEPHEN W. GROVES FFG-29 Commissioned 17 April 1982 Assigned to Naval Reserve Force at Pascagoula MS 1 April 1997 Decommissioned 24 February 2012

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USS Stephen W. Groves FFG-29 Covers Page 1    (2002)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type FDC 2-1(n) (A,D2,USN,USS)

1982-04-17

Commissioning

 

Locy Type 2-1(n) (A,D2,USN,USS)

1984-02-13

Cacheted

 

Locy Type 9-1(nu) (A,USN,USS)

1982-07-04

Ships cachet. Port Visit on Independence Day. From the Bob Govern collection.

 

Locy Type 9-1(n+u) (B,USS,USN)

2002-05-15

Note:

 

Locy Type F USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. CD-10

2008-08-14

Ships cachet, collectors request by Thad Kaczkowski

 

Locy Type LDC 2-2 (USS, FPO AA 34091-1485)

2012-02-24

Decommissioning, cachet by the Stephen Decatur Chapter No. 4, USCS

 

Other Information

USS STEPHEN W. GROVES earned the Joint Meritorious Unit Award Ribbon, the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon, the Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon w/ CG "O", the Navy Battle "E" Ribbon, the Navy Expeditionary Medal, the National Defense Service Medal w/ 1 star, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal w/ 4 stars, the Southwest Asia Service Medal, the Global War On Terror Service Medal, the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Navy Sea Service Deployment Ribbon w/ 8 stars, the Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon and the NATO Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - Named in Honor of Ensign Stephen W. Groves USN (29 January 1917 – 4 June 1942)
Groves was a naval aviator during World War II. During The Battle of Midway, Ensign Groves took off nine times from his carrier USS HORNET CV-8, one of six American planes that fought off a vastly superior Japanese force that was trying to finish off the damaged carrier USS YORKTOWN CV-5. The small group was credited with shooting down 14 enemy planes and causing six others to retreat. Ensign Groves was downed and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism in the Battle of Midway.

Two ships of the US Navy were named in his honor - USS Groves DE-543 (Cancelled before launched) and USS Stephen W. Groves FFG-29.

 

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