Description
Dedicated to the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B Roberts (FFG-58), this stunning coin is as skillfully created as her adept crew, which has hammered impossible odds into triumphs.
She takes her name from a courageous Navy coxswain. In WWII, Roberts sacrificed himself as a decoy during a rescue mission to extract a company of Marines under savage Japanese fire. All the Marines were successfully evacuated, but the enemy bombarded Robert’s hogging ship, mortally wounding him.
As the third ship to bear his name, the FFG-58’s motto emerged from the first Samuel B Roberts’ (DE-413) Commanding Officer, Admiral Copeland. After the Battle of Samar, his crew executed a suicidal torpedo run against Japanese forces in 1942, ultimately sinking the ship and losing 89 crew members. Of the battle Copeland declared, “… the men zealously manned their stations wherever they might be, and fought and worked with such calmness, courage, and efficiency that no higher honor could be conceived than to command such a group of men.”
Commissioned in 1986, The USS Samuel Roberts (FFG-58) continues to exemplify the courage and fearlessness of her predecessors. In April 1988, the ship survived an Iranian mine blast thanks only to the calm, relentless, and expertly prepared crew.
When her brave men and women set out to fight for freedom and country across the globe, they are armed for victory with deadly anti-ship, anti-air, and anti-sub capabilities, in addition to two combat-ready helicopters. Wherever the USS Samuel B Roberts sails, her crew is primed and loaded to defeat adversaries.
Minted from special deep-relief coining dies, struck from solid bronze, and hand-finished with an antique patina for exceptional quality and detail, this challenge coin pays tribute to the USS Samuel B Roberts (FFG-58) and her intrepid crew . The obverse displays an impressively detailed depiction of the ship slicing through the sea, flanked by a likeness of her namesake, along with the crew’s motto, “No Honor Higher.” The reverse bears the ship’s official seal.
Each coin measures 1.75 inches (44mm) in diameter.
This is a surplus NWTM item.
™ Department of the Navy. Officially Licensed by the Department of the Navy.
