USS Dale

The Dale, a Leahy-class guided-missile cruiser commissioned in 1963, was one of the original Cold War missile cruisers that helped define the era of American surface combatants. She served as a flagship for cruiser-destroyer forces across the Atlantic Fleet and Mediterranean, projecting American power through the most tense decades of the Cold War. Decommissioned in 1992, the Dale gave nearly three decades of steady, professional service. Her crew was as reliable as she was.