USS Sides (FFG-14) is an Oliver Hazard Perry class

Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate

The Oliver Hazard Perry class is a class of frigates named after the American Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the naval Battle of Lake Erie...

 guided-missile frigate of the US Navy.

The eighth ship in the class, it was named for Admiral John H. Sides

John H. Sides

Admiral John Harold Sides was a four-star admiral in the United States Navy who served as commander in chief of the United States Pacific Fleet from 1960 to 1963 and was known as the father of the Navy's guided-missile program....

 (died 1978). Ordered from Todd Shipyards, San Pedro, California, on 27 February 1976 as part of the FY76 program, Sides was laid down on 7 August 1978, launched on 19 May 1979, and commissioned on 30 May 1981. Sides escorted tankers through the Straits of Hormuz during the Tanker War and participated in Operation Praying Mantis

Operation Praying Mantis

Operation Praying Mantis was an attack on April 18, 1988, by U.S. naval forces within Iranian territorial waters in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf during the Iran Iraq war and the subsequent damage to an American warship....

, the retaliation for Iranian mining operations.http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/ffg-14.htm The Sides was also part of the Surface Action Group under when Iran Air 655 was shot down.