USS Merrill (DD 976)

USS MERRILL was the 14th SPRUANCE class destroyer and the first ship of her class decommissioned. USS MERRILL served as the Navy's test platform for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile program.

The destroyer was homeported in San Diego, Calif. Decommissioned on March 26, 1998, MERRILL was stricken from the Navy list the same day. During the following years, the ship was berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Pearl Harbor, HI. On August 1, 2003, the MERRILL was finally disposed of as a target northwest of Hawaii. The exact location was 022° 43' 53.0" North, 160° 29' 23.0" West.