Caron is named in honor of HM3 Wayne M. Caron of Middleboro, MA. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry during combat operations in Vietnam. Courageously and with unbelievable determination, he continued to provide medical assistance to wounded marines after he was wounded twice and continued until he was killed by an enemy rocket.
During Caron's more than 20 years of service, she has been involved in every conflict that the U.S. has been involved in since her commissioning. Caron has been in Grenada, the Gulf of Sidra, the Black Sea and the Gulf War. Caron was the first warship ever to fire Tomahawk missiles in two separate engagements when she fired twelve missiles on 17 January 1993, destroying a nuclear weapons development facility outside Baghdad.
The USS Caron was decommissioned on October 10, 2001. She was sunk off the coast of Puerto Rico during explosive testing in 2002.
