Watching my old ship, the ‘USS Ford,’ decommission
A port bow view of the guided missile frigate USS Ford (FFG-54) There are beginnings and there are endings; sometimes beginnings and endings have personal resonance. I recently had such an experience. June 29, 1985, the USS Ford (FFG-54) commissioned at Naval Station Long Beach, Calif. She was a Perry-class guided missile fast frigate, abbreviated…