Эсминец USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974)

USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974), named in honor of Admiral Francois-Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse (1722–1788), stood as a Spruance-class destroyer crafted by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She commenced construction on April 4, 1975, was launched on March 26, 1976, and officially entered service on August 5, 1978. The christening ceremony occurred on May 21, 1976, with sponsor Madame Anne-Aymone Sauvage de Brantes, the wife of then-French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

Following her commissioning in August 1978, Comte de Grasse set sail for her homeport in Norfolk, Virginia. Her initial deployment to the Caribbean involved training in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. She made a port call in Nassau, Bahamas, during this period. However, a fire in the Number 1 engine room caused damage in Norfolk on August 2, 1979, resulting in minor injuries to five sailors and significant damage to the waste heat boiler and electrical gear. Later that year, in the fall of 1979, she joined NATO Exercises in Northern Europe, visiting ports in France, Germany, and England.

In early spring 1980, Comte de Grasse visited New York City, the hometown of Captain Frank J. Lugo. She engaged in Exercise Safepass-80 in late February to early March. Subsequently, in April 1980, she embarked on her inaugural Mediterranean deployment, returning home in December, thereafter deploying there six more times.

Throughout the following years, Comte de Grasse participated in a myriad of exercises and deployments, including exercises in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and Red Sea, demonstrating her prowess in gunnery, air targeting, and interception operations.

In 1998, Comte de Grasse was decommissioned and subsequently held at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility (NISMF) as a parts hulk. Finally, on June 7, 2006, she was towed about 275 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina and sunk during naval training exercises, reaching a depth of 12,000 feet in the ocean.