The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was launched on 29 September 1984, by her sponsor Julia Vadala Taft, wife of Deputy Secretary of Defense William H. Taft IV.
During the 1986 RIMPAC naval exercise, she acted as the plane guard for the aircraft carrier .
She saw action during Desert Storm in the USS Ranger battle group and served as the overall Anti-Air warfare commander for the gulf (Bravo Zulu AAWC).
In March 2003, Valley Forge was assigned to Destroyer Squadron 21.[1]
The ship was decommissioned on 31 August 2004, at San Diego Naval Station, the first ship with the Aegis combat system withdrawn from service. Valley Forge was sunk on 2 November 2006, as part of a target practice on a test range near Kauai, Hawaii.[2]