On the evening of May 17, 1987, USS Stark (FFG-31) was patrolling the Persian Gulf on a routine mission when an Iraqi Mirage F1 aircraft fired two Exocet anti-ship missiles at her. Both missiles struck. The first tore through the ship's port side; the second followed seconds later, detonating inside the hull and igniting a catastrophic fire. Thirty-seven American sailors died. The attack was declared accidental by Iraq, and the United States accepted that explanation — but the damage to Stark, and to the Navy's assumptions about missile threats in the Gulf, was permanent.
The Ship
USS Stark (FFG-31) is an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate, commissioned on October 23, 1982, and homeported at Mayport, Florida. The Perry class was designed for convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic, built to be capable and affordable — the workhorse frigate of the Reagan-era fleet. Stark was a capable ship, but she was operating in an environment for which the Perry class had not been specifically designed: the confined, threat-dense waters of the Persian Gulf, where the Iran-Iraq War had been raging since 1980 and where both sides had attacked neutral shipping with missiles, mines, and aircraft.
The Gulf Patrol
By 1987, the United States had significant naval forces in the Persian Gulf, monitoring the conflict and protecting shipping lanes. The tanker war — the campaign by both Iran and Iraq to attack each other's oil exports and the neutral shipping that carried them — had created one of the most dangerous maritime environments in the world. U.S. ships were present both as a deterrent and as a sign of American interest in keeping the Gulf open. Stark was operating about 85 miles northeast of Bahrain when the attack came.
The Strike
The Iraqi Mirage F1 was tracked by U.S. radar as it flew south over Iraqi territory — not an unusual event in an area where military aircraft regularly flew patrols. The aircraft then turned toward Stark, but there was no warning of hostile intent. The first Exocet struck the ship's port side at the waterline. The second, fired seconds earlier but arriving just after, penetrated deeper and detonated. The resulting fire burned for hours, concentrated in crew berthing areas where many sailors were asleep.
The damage control fight that followed lasted hours. Stark's crew, like Roberts's crew after the mine strike, worked against flooding and fire to save their ship. They succeeded — Stark did not sink — but the cost was thirty-seven lives and a ship so severely damaged she required extensive repairs and refitting before returning to service.
The Aftermath
Iraq apologized for the attack and paid reparations to the families of the dead. The Navy conducted an investigation and found that Stark's crew had failed to respond quickly enough to the approaching aircraft — a finding that led to changes in rules of engagement and threat assessment procedures throughout the fleet. The harder lesson was about assumptions: the assumption that a military aircraft would not fire on a clearly marked U.S. warship without warning was wrong, and the Navy had to update its operating procedures to reflect that reality.
If you're looking to honor the men who served in the Persian Gulf during the tanker war, browse The Ship's Store — we carry collections for many of the frigates, cruisers, and destroyers that held the watch in those waters.
Legacy
Stark was repaired and returned to service, eventually decommissioning in 1999. The thirty-seven men who died on May 17, 1987, are remembered on the ship's memorial, which now stands at Naval Station Mayport. Their deaths, in a war that wasn't America's war, in an attack that was called an accident, are a reminder of the cost of the Navy's presence in dangerous waters — a cost that the men and women of the surface fleet accept every time they deploy.