USS Samuel Gompers

Commissioned in 1967, the Samuel Gompers is a destroyer tender named for the founder of the American Federation of Labor—a fitting name for a ship that kept other ships running. Destroyer tenders provided the repair and maintenance capabilities that allowed destroyer squadrons to remain forward-deployed without returning to port, an essential but unglamorous contribution to naval readiness throughout the Cold War. The Samuel Gompers was decommissioned in 1995.