USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) was commissioned in March 1994 and became one of the Navy's premier forward-deployed destroyers, serving with the 7th Fleet out of Yokosuka, Japan. Named for Curtis D. Wilbur — Secretary of the Navy under President Coolidge and a former Chief Justice of California — she exemplified the Arleigh Burke class: a destroyer built for sustained combat at sea. Her years of forward presence in the Western Pacific represent the kind of continuous, unglamorous strategic commitment that keeps the peace.