14-02-2025
WAVY's Navy Ship Salute: U.S.S. Gravely
WAVY's Navy Ship Salute is a feature on WAVY News 10 Today. Each month, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, WAVY-TV 10 will profile a different ship based at the world's largest Navy base: Naval Station Norfolk. The series aims to better introduce our viewers to some of the largest floating taxpayer assets there are, as well as life aboard a U.S. Navy ship.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Back from its deployment in the Red Sea, we are featuring U.S.S. Gravely for the monthly WAVY Navy Ship Salute. Commissioned in 2010, she is an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer. Her crew returned to port in July of 2024 from Operation Poseidon Archer in the Red Sea.
Welcoming us in the cold rain with signs in hand, spirits were high on U.S.S. Gravely that Thursday morning. With several victory marks to prove it, they spent a few years supporting maritime shipping at the Red Sea — even encountering Houthi rebels.
'We took out or eliminated two small boats, eight anti-ship cruise ballistic missiles, nine one way attack waves and launched 28 Tomahawks in support of merchant shipping in the area,' U.S.S. Gravely Commanding Officer Greg Piorun said.
Commanding officer Greg Piorun said the crew strives to operate with perfection 100% of the time. Embodying the motto, 'First to Conquer,' they carry the namesake of the late Samuel L. Gravely Jr.
'The first African-American to be commissioned through a reserve officer Training Corps to command a warship, to command a warship under combat conditions, to command a major warship, to rise to the rank of vice admiral and to command a fleet,' Piorun. 'So a man of many firsts, he was first to conquer, and we truly are first to conquer.'
Below deck, near the mess hall, Gravely has its own ship store, bringing familiar goods from home to deployment.
'So what we do is that because there's no stores out in the ocean, we're the last resort for that,' RS2 Cody Parrish said. 'We don't mind helping out those who really wants to be filled up with all types of energy, all types of food help the watch standers stay awake…'
We were brought inside the combat information center where they had us take part in a defense exercise. You can see it all play out on camera in our WAVY Navy Ship Salute segment.
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