YOKOSUKA, Japan – The waves toss and turn under me. Pushing and pulling. Neither of us content to stay in one place, we rush together into the unknown. Just the waves, the wind, me and my friends and family.
I’ve been doing this for what feel like so long, but I have many sisters much older than me. Like them, I was raised in the ocean. Taught to withstand the cold nights, and the dangerous seas. We all have our own stories to tell, but our mission is the shared purpose that drives us forward.
My story is not the story of just my life, but one long before I was born with the life of a man named Col. William Higgins.
Higgins was born in 1945 in Danville, Kentucky, and commissioned into the Marine Corps at the age of 22 after graduating from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1965.
14 years later as a Major, Higgins penned an essay entitled “My Credo”, published in Sept. 1979.
“As an officer of Marines, I believe it is my charge to set the example,” wrote Higgins. “I must create a favorable impression in courage, appearance, and personal conduct. I must be mentally alert, morally straight, and physically strong. I must uphold the personal and professional credo of ‘doing what is right even when no one is looking.’ My integrity can never be challenged and my character must be unimpeachable. My physical courage must be such that I can face the danger of combat with calmness and firmness, and my moral courage must be equal to fear of criticism I will surely face.”
In July of 1987, Higgins was selected to serve with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, where he served until his abduction on Feb. 17, 1988. He was officially declared dead on July 6, 1990.
After his death, I was built, piece by piece. With each step I was molded, a living reminder of his memory. Now it falls to me to carry on his legacy. I hear his motto echo on the lips of my friends that brave the waves alongside me.
Duty. Honor. Country.
The words propel me forward. They push me towards new adventures, new challenges, new opportunities. I was made for this, the call of the open sea, the rush of wind. I was meant to be here.
I am not alone in my mission, I have many friends, old and young, some new and some I have known for my entire life.
One of these friends is Master Chief Gas Turbine Systems Technician Claude Martinez. He is my oldest friend that still travels with me. He hasn’t been with me for my entire life, but as many friends do, came back around to say hello, and travel with me again for a while.
“My first time onboard the Higgins was a blast,” he says to one of my new friends, the Sailor capturing my story. “I think it was the sense of belonging, of family, that stood out the most.”
Now back after 20 years apart he still recognizes that sense of family as the thing that hold me and my friends together.
“I have learned that the Sailors, the crew make all the difference,” says Martinez. “They are our greatest assets and our most lethal weapon system. Investing in Sailors, personally, pays dividends and benefits everyone, and attracts the right people into the Navy.”
I have made many friends over my last 25 years. My oldest friend though is Retired Lt. Col. Robin Higgins, my sponsor, and the wife of my namesake. She has come to visit many times over the years, and even though I haven’t seen her in a while, she will always be a part of me.
“Has it been 25 years?” Robin Higgins asks. “I remember watching the Higgins grow from a hull, to a mast-stepping, to breaking the champagne bottle and pounding the ways till she hit the water, to the commissioning.”
She has been there for my whole life.
I am the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76). Commissioned on April 24, 1999, I celebrated 25 years of service on April 24th, 2024.
My friends are the crew of 300 active-duty Navy Sailors that stand hand and hand with me to tame the force of the Pacific Ocean. Most of them will be with me only for a short time, but they carry with them the stories of my sister around the world. They take my stories with them, and bring theirs to me when they arrive.
My sisters are the U.S. Navy ships that sail the oceans of the world.
My story is the one beyond me. One that originated with a man, and carries on through the hundreds of Sailors that serve alongside me.
I think Robbin Higgins said it best when she said, “All the officers and crew I have met over many years have been stellar - dedicated, courageous, and competent. As far as I’m concerned, DDG 76 is the finest ship on the water. Thank you for your service, and for honoring my husband’s credo of duty, honor, country.”
Yes, thank you. Thank you to my friends, current and passed that explore the seas with me, and thank you to my namesake for exemplifying the values we all now strive to live up to.