place in August 1990. As part of a reorganization announced in July 1995 of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's surface combatant ships into six core battle groups, nine destroyer squadrons, and a new Western Hemisphere Group, John Hancock was reassigned to Destroyer Squadron 24 (DESRON 24). The reorganization was to be phased in over the summer and take effect 31 August 1995, with homeport shifts occurring through 1998. As a precautionary measure against oncoming Hurricane Fran, John Hancock was one of 13 Navy ships sent to sea in September 1996. The hurricane was heading, at the time, for the southeast coast of Florida with winds gusting up to 120 mph. In 1996, John Hancock, along with , , , and , were selected to serve as test platforms for the P2 afloat program, after studies at Navy installations indicated that a large quantity of a naval base's toxic material and hazardous waste originated from ships floating material they had accumulated and stored during deployment. The P2 Afloat Program aims to reduce hazardous material procurement costs for ships, improve safety and health aboard ship, improve quality of life, and reduce operation and support costs. On 29 April 1997, John Hancock departed for a six-month overseas deployment as part of the carrier battle group (CVBG). Also departing was the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG). The CVBG was to relieve the CVBG, which had been operating in the Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf since the previous November. The John F. Kennedy CVBG and Kearsarge ARG completed a Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) the month prior, the culmination of about six months of pre-deployment training and work-ups. The joint service exercise included surveillance, rescue, humanitarian assistance, maritime interdiction, embassy support and non-combatant evacuation operations, all of which had been recently performed by Navy and United States Marine Corps units deployed overseas. In August 1997, John Hancock deployed to the coast of Tunisia to participate in Exercise NADOR 97-3. John Hancock was also there in March for NADOR 97-2. For NADOR 97-3, the crew of John Hancock operated with two Tunisian combatant patrol boats and increased the level of difficulty. They conducted air and high speed surface gunnery exercises, air tracking and engagement simulations, and free-play "encounter" exercises. John Hancock also performed a maritime interdiction demonstration on board the two patrol boats. Simulating merchant vessels, the patrol boats were queried using the bridge-to-bridge