US Navy/Mass Comm Specialist 2nd Class Jonathan Clay
Sailors on Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham pose for a command photo, December 2, 2018.
- The destroyer USS Jason Dunham is one the Navy's newest warships, commissioned at the end of 2010.
- It's also one of the Navy's most versatile ships, capable of defending against airplanes, ships and submarines.
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During the final days of June, US Navy destroyer USS Jason Dunham sailed into the Straits of Florida, where it kept an eye on one of Russia's most advanced warships, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov.
The Caribbean is one of many regions the versatile Dunham has visited over the past year.
Deployed during the final seven months of 2018, the destroyer sailed over 40,000 nautical miles through the 5th Fleet and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility - including 16 trips through Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern end of the Red Sea and two trips each through the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco and the Straits of Hormuz in the Middle East.
This year, sailing out of its homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, the Dunham ventured up and down the East Coast, including a stop in New York City in May for Fleet Week 2019.
Though it often escorts amphibious ships and aircraft carriers, the Dunham spent much of its 2018 deployment as "an independent asset," Ens. Sarah Ellis said while the Dunham was docked in Staten Island.
"So we deployed independently - by ourselves," Ellis said. "We're alone and unafraid, as we call it."
Below, you can see where the Dunham's crew live and work while on the high seas.