PEARL HARBOR - The Pearl Harbor-based guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) will visit Hilo April 10-12 to participate in the 52nd annual Merrie Monarch Festival.

U.S. Pacific Fleet Band will march and perform in the Merrie Monarch Parade. Capt. Mark Manfredi, Chief of Staff, Navy Region Hawaii, will also attend the festivities.

USS Chung-Hoon will greet the Merrie Monarch Royal Court during a pierside welcome ceremony at Hilo Harbor Pier 1 on Friday, April 10 at 11 a.m. USS Chung-Hoon Sailors, along with Capt. Manfredi, will attend the hula competitions and participate with Pacific Fleet Band in the Merrie Monarch Royal Parade on Saturday, April 11 at 10:30 a.m. along downtown Hilo.

Chung-Hoon is a guided-missile destroyer that is a multi-mission, anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare surface combatant.

Cmdr. Ryan Collins is the commanding officer and leads a crew of more than 270.

USS Chung-Hoon is named for Rear Admiral Gordon Pai`ea Chung-Hoon, the first native Hawaiian admiral in the U.S. Navy. Admiral Chung-Hoon was assigned to the USS Arizona on the morning of December 7, 1941; and nearly 70 years ago on April 14, 1945, the admiral received the Navy Cross during World War II after a kamikaze attack that killed several members of his crew and severely damaged his ship, USS Sigsbee.

USS Chung-Hoon is one of eleven surface ships homeported in Pearl Harbor.