Dorchester parade committee member Jimmy McCarron, center, presents a special plaque of Boston Police patches to USS Cape St. George Commanding Officer John Yoke, left, and Executive Officer Lt. Cmdr John Wade, right. The officers hosted a special Dorchester Day reception aboard the vessel on Saturday evening.

By Bill Forry

For the seventh consecutive year, a United States Navy vessel steamed into Boston Harbor last week to participate in a weekend of Dorchester Day events, including a place of honor in Sunday's big parade.

The USS Cape St. George, a missile cruiser that fired the first Tomahawk warheads into Iraq in March 2003, docked at the Black Falcon Cruise terminal in South Boston, but the officers and crew spent much of their four days in town in the company of Dorchesterites.

On Friday evening, several dozen crew members attended the annual Dorchester Parade Chief Marshal banquet at Phillips Old Colony House on Morrissey Boulevard. The following evening, the Cape St. George hosted members of the Dorchester Day Parade Committee for a traditional on-ship reception. The reception was held on the landing deck of the cruiser, typically reserved for helipcopters, but festooned instead with nautical flags and platters of baby shrimp and codcakes for hungry parade officials.

Commanding officer Jim Yoke, who took charge of the Cape St. George only two weeks ago, said that the reception his ship- and its approximately 400 occupants - received while in Boston took him by surprise. Yoke and executive officer John Wade paid special tribute onboard to the honorary grand marshal of this year's parade,Spencer Murray, a nine-year-old from Roslindale who suffers from a rare childhood illness. The Cape St. George's officers also signed a special banner that will be sent to Craig Crowley, an Army engineer stationed in Baghdad. Crowley is the 19-year-old son of longtime parade organizers Ed and Karen Crowley.

The 11-year-old Navy vessel has seen its share of action already in the waters off the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Named for a South Pacific battle in November 1943, the Cape St. George has been deployed to support US missions in Bosnia and made the largest narcotics siezure in maritime history, intercepting a vessel in the Caribbean carrying over 12.5 tons of cocaine.

The USS Cape St. George left Boston on Monday, destined for its home port of Norfolk, Virginia.