Commissioned in 1984, the Rentz honors Commander George Rentz, a Navy chaplain who gave his lifejacket to a wounded sailor after USS Houston was sunk by the Japanese in the Java Sea in 1942—and then slipped beneath the waves himself. His Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously for an act of selfless sacrifice that epitomized the chaplain's role in the fleet. The Rentz served the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets before her decommissioning in 2009.