USS Vancouver (LPD-2) was a Raleigh-class amphibious transport dock, named after the city of Vancouver, Washington, which was in turn named after the famous north-west explorer George Vancouver. Vancouver's was commissioned 11 May 1963 and served during the Vietnam War and 1991 Gulf War. She was decommissioned 27 March 1992, placed in reserve and stricken 8 April 1997. Title was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration 29 November 2001. Vancouver was towed for scrapping in Brownsville, Texas, in April 2013.
USS Tripoli (LPH-10), an Iwo Jima-class amphibious assault ship, was laid down on 15 June 1964 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 31 July 1965; sponsored by Jane Cates, the wife of General Clifton B. Cates, former Commandant of the Marine Corps; and commissioned on 6 August 1966 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Tripoli was the second US Navy ship named for the Battle of Derna in 1805. It was the decisive victory of a mercenary army led by a detachment of US Marines and US Army soldiers against the forces of Tripoli during the First Barbary War and was the first recorded land battle of the United States fought overseas.
USS Talladega (APA/LPA-208) was a Haskell-class attack transport of the US Navy. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship design type. Talladega was named for Talladega County, Alabama.
USS Tortuga (LSD-26) was a Casa Grande-class dock landing ship in the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship to be named for the Dry Tortugas, a group of desert coral islets 60 miles west of Key West, Florida, which were discovered in 1513 by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon.
USS Monticello (LSD-35) was a Thomaston-class dock landing ship, the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.
USS Thomaston (LSD-28) was the lead ship of her class of dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was named for Thomaston, Maine, the home of General Henry Knox, the first Secretary of War to serve under the United States Constitution.
USS Whidbey Island (LSD-41) is a Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship (LSD) of the United States Navy. She was named for Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound, Washington, the location of NAS Whidbey Island; the name ultimately derives from the sailor, explorer and engineer Joseph Whidbey.
USS Rushmore (LSD-47) is a Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was the second navy ship to be named for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota. She is the seventh ship in her class of dock landing ships and the fourth ship in that class to serve in the United States Pacific Fleet.
USS Tulare (AKA-112/LKA-112) was a Tulare-class attack cargo ship in service with the United States Navy from 1956 to 1986. She was sold for scrap in 2011.
USS Pickaway (APA/LPA-222) was a Haskell-class attack transport that saw service with the US Navy in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship design type and named after Pickaway County, Ohio.
USS Taluga (AO-62) was a Cimarron-class fleet oiler acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served her country primarily in the Pacific Ocean Theatre of Operations, and provided petroleum products where needed to combat ships. For performing this dangerous task in combat areas, she was awarded four battle stars during World War II, four during the Korean War, and six campaign stars during the Vietnam War.
USS Epping Forest (LSD-4/MCS-7) was an Ashland-class dock landing ship acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II for duty in the Pacific Theater. Her task was to carry and land amphibious landing craft and other equipment and to recover and repair landing craft when possible. Named for an estate in Lancaster County, Virginia where Mary Ball Washington, mother of George Washington, was born, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
USS Navarro (APA/LPA-215) was a Haskell-class attack transport of the US Navy. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship design type that saw service in World War II and the Vietnam War. Navarro was named after Navarro County, Texas.
USS Okanogan (APA/LPA-220) was a Haskell-class attack transport that saw service with the US Navy in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship design type and named after Okanogan County, Washington.
USS Belle Grove (LSD-2) was an Ashland-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy, named in honor of Belle Grove Plantation, the birthplace of President James Madison (1751–1836) in Port Conway, Virginia.
USS Mount Vernon (LSD-39) was an Anchorage-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was the fifth ship of the U.S. Navy to bear the name. She was built in Massachusetts in 1972 and homeported in Southern California for 31 years until being decommissioned on 25 July 2003. Mount Vernon acted as the control ship for the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In 2005, she was intentionally destroyed off the coast of Hawaii as part of a training exercise. USS Mount Vernon also appeared in the Season 7 episode 19 of The Love Boat when they visited Hong Kong.
USS Comstock (LSD-19) was a Casa Grande-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was the first navy ship named in honor of the Comstock Lode in Nevada, discovered in 1859, which was one of the richest deposits of precious metals known in the world.
USS Whetstone (LSD-27) was a Casa Grande-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was named in honor of Whetstone Point, at end of peninsula between the old Basin of downtown Baltimore. The peninsula which also later contained the residential communities of South Baltimore, Federal Hill and Locust Point is bordered by the |Northwest Branch and the Middle and Ferry Branches on the Patapsco River, which is also Baltimore Harbor. Location of Revolutionary War fortifications of Fort Whetstone from the 1770s and the previous site of later Fort McHenry reconstructed beginning in 1798 was named for James McHenry, third Secretary of War under Presidents George Washington and John Adams. The star-shaped fort which defended Baltimore, Maryland from British assault with a two-day bombardment in 12–14 September 1814, during the War of 1812. The poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" when set to music inspired the national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner" written as a poem by Francis Scott Key from an off-shore truce ship downriver.
USS Fort Fisher (LSD-40) was an Anchorage-class dock landing ship in service with the United States Navy from 1972 to 1998. She was scrapped in 2010.
Expeditionary Strike Group SEVEN/Task Force 76 is a United States Navy task force. It is part of the United States Seventh Fleet and the USN's only permanently forward-deployed expeditionary strike group. It is based at the White Beach Naval Facility at the end of the Katsuren Peninsula in Uruma City, Okinawa, Japan.
United States
