San Diego-based destroyer USS Mustin shifting its homeport to Japan – San Diego Union-Tribune

The destroyer USS Mustin has shifted its homeport from San Diego to Yokosuka, Japan. It will replace the cruiser USS Robert Smalls, which is moving to San Diego ahead of its expected decommissioning.

It’s common for the Navy to make such rotations for strategic and operational reasons. This shift also was influenced by the fact that the 37-year-old Smalls is near the end of its service life.

The Smalls had been named the Chancellorsville after the Battle of Chancellorsville, a Confederate Civil War victory. But due to sensitivities, the Navy in 2023 renamed the ship the USS Robert Smalls. Robert Smalls was a former slave and boat pilot who took control of a Confederate ship during the Civil War and sailed it into Union hands.

The Mustin is named after a family whose distinguished service to the Navy lasted nearly a century.