The U.S. Navy has selected the destroyer USS McFaul as the vessel that will dock in Mobile for Mardi Gras 2025, keeping alive a Carnival-season tradition for the Port City.

The McFaul, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, is expected to transit Mobile Bay the morning of Friday, Feb. 28, and to arrive around 10 a.m. at the Alabama Port Authority’s Pier 2, just north of the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. The public is invited to attend arrival festivities starting at 11 a.m. According to an announcement from the city, the occasion will feature “representatives from the U.S. Navy, the Navy League, elected officials, local JROTC students, and iconic Mobile ambassadors like the USS Alabama Shipmates, the Azalea Trail Maids and the Excelsior Band.”

The McFaul has served in this role at least once before, visiting Mobile for Mardi Gras 2020.

According to information provided by the city, the ship will be open for public tours from Saturday, March 1, through Monday, March 3. Tours are free and no reservations are required. Tours will be conducted from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily.

“The Alabama Port Authority (APA) is proud to welcome the USS McFaul to the Port of Mobile for Mardi Gras 2025,” Alabama Port Authority Director and CEO John Driscoll said in the announcement. “A longtime partnership between the Port, the City, the Navy, and the Mobile Council of the Navy League, the arrival of this vessel is a great tradition for the City of Mobile’s revelers to enjoy.”

According to the Navy’s official website for the ship, it was constructed at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula and commissioned in 1998. It is named for Chief Petty Officer Donald L. McFaul, who became a member of SEAL Team One after training in 1978, left active duty for the reserves in the mid-‘80s, then returned to active duty and became a member of SEAL Team Four in 1988.

The site says that McFaul later deployed to the Republic of Panama with Naval Special Warfare Unit Eight. “On December 20, 1989, during Operation JUST CAUSE at Paitilla Airfield in Panama, Chief McFaul’s platoon was patrolling toward their objective when they were engaged by heavy small arms fire. Realizing that most of the first squad ahead of him had been wounded, he left the relative safety of his position to assist the wounded lying helplessly exposed. He began carrying a wounded member to safety and was nearing his own force’s perimeter when he was mortally wounded. His ultimate sacrifice inspired other heroic acts and mission accomplishment. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross and Purple Heart for his actions.”

According to the Navy, the McFaul returned home in early 2024 from an eight-month deployment. During that time the ship “served as an independently deployed ship in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations and an air defense unit in the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group off the coast of Israel. McFaul completed 34 Strait of Hormuz transits to ensure freedom of navigation for commercial traffic in a highly transited and politically sensitive area of the world. McFaul also conducted 17 close escorts for maritime allies and assets, in support of U.S. maritime security objectives in the Middle East and Europe.”

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