She is named for William R. Higgins, a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, who was captured, tortured and murdered in 1988 by Hezbollah, during a UN peacekeeping mission to Lebanon.

[4] After a port visit in Hong Kong during her maiden deployment, Higgins was the first ship off the coast for the Hainan Island incident that occurred on 1 April 2001, when a United States Navy EP-3E ARIES II signals intelligence aircraft and a People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) J-8II interceptor fighter jet collided in mid-air, resulting in an international dispute between the United States and the People's Republic of China on her maiden deployment.

Upon returning to San Diego in April 2004, Higgins completed a safe and efficient ordnance offload and fuel transfer and headed into a nine-week Selected Restricted Availability.

In the three-week Composite Unit Exercise that followed, Higgins stood out in all mission areas and, along with the other ships in the Nimitz Strike Group, was now certified "surge ready" to deploy.

Once the ship was outfitted with her deployment load of ammunition, Higgins was once again underway with the Nimitz Strike Group in March for a Joint Task Force Exercise.

[5] In the second half of January 2006, Higgins conducted Mobility-Navigation and Seamanship (MOB-N and MOB-S) training while transiting to Puerto Vallarta for a three-day port visit.

[5] In August 2006, Higgins returned to Naval Station San Diego from the shipyard and kicked off the pre-deployment "workups", which included various inport scenarios involving Damage Control, Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS), Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), Undersea Warfare (USW), and Strike Warfare (STW).

[5] The ship performed logistical support for United States Coast Guard helicopters undergoing relief operations for the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

[6] On 14 April 2018, she fired 23 Tomahawk missiles from a position in the north Persian Gulf as part of a bombing campaign in retaliation for the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons against people in Douma.

[7] On 27 May 2018, she, alongside the guided missile cruiser USS Antietam patrolled the 12-nautical-mile (22 km; 14 mi) zone surrounding the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, which Vietnam has claimed as its territory, in an act to ensure freedom of navigation.

The traditional Navy colors were chosen for the shield because dark blue, white and gold respectively represent the sea, integrity and excellence.