Commissioned in 1999, the Higgins honors Lieutenant Colonel William R. 'Rich' Higgins, USMC, a military observer serving with the UN Truce Supervision Organization who was abducted by Hezbollah in Lebanon in February 1988 and later murdered in captivity. His death came after more than a year of captivity and became one of the defining atrocities of Hezbollah's campaign of hostage-taking in the 1980s. The Higgins serves the Pacific Fleet, carrying a name that represents the cost of service in dangerous places.