The destroyer CECIL is named for Rear Admiral Charles P . CECIL, USN, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1893 and was a graduate the U. S. Naval Academy, class of 1916.
Rear Admiral CECIL was twice cited for extraordinary heroism during the Pacific campaigns of World War II, once as Commander of Destroyer Squadron FIVE during the engagement of Japanese Naval Forces off Santa Cruz Islands, and again as Commanding Officer of USS HELENA during the Kula Gulf action. Rear Admiral CECIL was awarded the Navy Cross with gold star in lieu of second award, and the Bronze Star Medal.
Rear Admiral CECIL survived the sinking of the HELENA during the Kula Gulf action and was subsequently killed in a airplane crash in the Pacific on 31 July 1944.
The USS CHARLES P. CECIL was built in Bath, Maine, in 1945, and spent her first four years of service with the Pacific Fleet. In 1949, CECIL was converted to a radar picket destroyer and transferred to the Atlantic Fleet with Newport, Rhode Island, as her home port. After her first deployment with the Sixth Fleet in 1949, CECIL made Norfolk, Virginia, her home port. In July, 1963, she entered the New York Naval Shipyard for an eleven month FRAM I conversion to an ASW destroyer. In May, 1964, her home port changed to Newport, Rhode Island.
To date, CECIL has participated in thirteen Mediterranean cruises, one Middle East Cruise, and one Vietnam cruise in addition to duties with the Western Atlantic SECOND Fleet and various NA TO operations. She was one of the first ships on the Cuban Quarantine Line in the fall of 1962, during which she was the principal unit that exhausted a Russian submarine and forced her to surface. CECIL also received the Engineering Efficiency Award for outstanding engineering practice during fiscal year 1965,1966 and 1967 and was selected as runner-up for Squadron Battle Efficiency 'E' , in that year.