USS Anchorage (LSD 36)

USS ANCHORAGE was the lead ship of the ANCHORAGE - class of Dock Landing Ships and the first ship in the Navy named after the largest city of Alaska. The ANCHORAGE was last homeported in San Diego, Calif., and was the last ship in her class to be decommissioned.

The ship completed 19 Western Pacific deployments and was the most decorated dock landing ship on the West Coast. The ANCHORAGE returned home in July 2003 from a surge deployment as part of Task Force 51, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). During that six-month deployment, ANCHORAGE disembarked Marines and supplies from Landing Force West during the opening stages of OIF. Later, the ship provided logistic support to U.S. forces stationed on captured offshore gas and oil platforms near the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. ANCHORAGE also conducted a "desert tortoise" mission during OIF. This task involved loading up 100,000 lbs. of mail, 232 pallets of cargo and 71 Sailors from Bahrain and delivering them to the other amphibious ships in the task force patrolling the Persian Gulf.

The ANCHORAGE has served notable roles in military operations and humanitarian efforts since it was commissioned March 15, 1969, at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va. During the end of the Vietnam War, the ship carried Marines back to the United States as part of Operation "Keystone Bluejay," a planned withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.

In 1991 during Operation Desert Storm, ANCHORAGE controlled the largest offload of landing craft in support of combat operations. These actions earned the ship the Navy Unit Citation and the South West Asia Service Medal (2 stars).

ANCHORAGE was called upon in 2000 to provide support for the crew of USS COLE (DDG 67) after a small boat laden with explosives blew up alongside the destroyer as it refueled in Aden, Yemen, tearing a hole in its side and killing 17 Sailors.

The ANCHORAGE was sunk as a target during exercise RIMPAC 2010 off the coast of Kauai, Hi., on July 17, 2010.

General Characteristics: Awarded: June 29, 1965
Keel laid: March 13, 1967
Launched: May 5, 1968
Commissioned: March 15, 1969
Decommissioned: October 1, 2003
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Miss.
Propulsion system: two 600 psi boilers
Propellers: two
Length: 553 feet (168.6 meters)
Beam: 85 feet (25.9 meters)
Draft: 18 feet (5.5 meters)
Displacement: approx. 14,000 tons full load
Speed: 22 knots
Well deck capacity: three LCAC
Aircraft: none, but helicopter platform
Crew: Ship: 18 officers, 340 enlisted
Marine Detachment: 330 Marines
Armament: two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two Mk-38 Machine Guns, four .50 Machine Guns

http://www.navysite.de/ships/lsd36.htm