In 1992, the new Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Barry was commissioned. A powerful warship of over 9,000 tons, she is still in service and carries a formidable array of offensive and defensive weaponry. The commissioning motto, which the crew selected and was put on the ship鈥檚 crest, was 鈥淪trength and Diversity.鈥
James Stavridis
I was the second commanding officer of Barry, and without question that opportunity 鈥 to serve as captain of a marvelous crew and deploy to vital missions off the coasts of Haiti, the Balkans and the Persian Gulf 鈥 was central to my career.
Many years later, when I was supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2011, she again served under my command in combat operations off the coast of Libya, conducting an arms embargo under U.N. Security Council guidance. Barry is now homeported in Everett, Washington, after years assigned to Yokosuka, Japan. Even now, I still check in on the ship constantly.
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It was therefore a shock to see that on the website of Naval Surface Forces Pacific, the ship鈥檚 original motto had been changed, with the word 鈥淒iversity鈥 scrubbed out. While an image of the ship鈥檚 crest with the full motto does appear, the site鈥檚 explanatory text describes it as: 鈥淥n a scroll Azure, the motto 鈥楽TRENGTH鈥 in Gold letters.鈥 (An archived version of the page from last April shows 鈥渄iversity鈥 used in three places, now all wiped.) One has to assume the online erasing of history is part of the larger purge of all things associated with 鈥渄iversity, equity and inclusion鈥 (DEI) programs in the Department of Defense.
But here鈥檚 the irony: When the motto was selected, 鈥渄iversity鈥 was referring 鈥 quite correctly 鈥 to the wide-ranging combat power of the ship across all domains of warfare. Barry can conduct combat operations against land targets with her Tomahawk missiles. She can shoot down incoming cruise missiles with the formidable AEGIS air defense system. The ship can find and destroy submarines. It can attack enemy warships with guns and missiles. Barry can use powerful electronic warfare to jam the enemy.
Her lethality is incredibly diverse.
Changing the motto would be unfortunate in two ways. First, the ship has proudly served with both strength and diversity for decades, winning the Battenberg Cup as the top ship in the Atlantic Fleet three times, conducting combat operations around the globe, and serving as home to thousands of sailors over the years.
Second, when I was聽commanding officer in the mid-1990s, Barry was selected as one of the first destroyers to have a mixed-gender crew. Roughly 20% of the company 鈥 officers, chief petty officers and enlisted sailors 鈥 were female. With this crew, Barry won not only the Battenberg Cup in 1994, but also the Battle Effectiveness Award, the Golden Anchor for crew retention, and many other fleet-wide commendations. We demonstrated that gender diversity is a proven winner.
Barry will always be a ship that embodies both strength and diversity to me. I suspect the vast majority of my former shipmates feel the same way. Let鈥檚 hope the original motto can hold fast in this period of uncertainty at the Pentagon. I don鈥檛 plan to scratch any words off my ship鈥檚 plaque anytime soon.
Sail proud, USS Barry.
