USS CLARK FFG-11 Patch – Sew On

4 inch embroidered patch of the USS CLARK FFG-11 Patch The second USS Clark (FFG-11), the fifth ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry class of guided-missile frigates, was named for Admiral Joseph James "Jocko" Clark (1893–1971). Ordered from Bath Iron Works on 27 February 1976 as part of the FY76 program, Clark was laid down on 17 July 1978, launched on 24 March 1979, and commissioned on 9 May 1980. The Ship sponsor was Mrs. Olga Clark, the widow of Admiral Clark. In July 1982, Clark recovered three sailors that were washed overboard from the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain.[2] A fourth sailor was not recovered and was lost at sea.[3] In December 1992, Clark was nearby when the crew of an F-14 was forced to eject during training operations off the coast of Virginia. Clark's helicopter rescued the radar intercept officer and a United States Coast Guard helicopter rescued the pilot.[4] In April 1994, Clark changed homeports from Newport, Rhode Island, to Norfolk, Virginia.[5] The ship had previously been homeported in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from the mid-1980s to 1992 and Mayport, Florida before that. Decommissioned and stricken on 15 March 2000, she was handed over to Poland that same day to become the Polish Navy's ORP Generał Kazimierz Pułaski, after Kazimierz Pułaski, a Pole who was appointed the rank of brigadier general in the Continental Army cavalry and fought in the American Revolutionary War.