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USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)

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Career USN Jack
Ordered: 31 Dec 1964
Laid down: 27 Feb 1967
Launched: 04 Jan 1969
Commissioned: 14 Nov 1970
Fate:
Homeport: Yokosuka, Japan
General Characteristics
Displacement: 19,609 tons
Length: 636,5 ft (194 m)
Beam: 108 ft (32.9 m)
Draught: 26,9 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion: Two boilers, one geared turbine
Speed: 23 knots
Range:
Complement: Crew: 52 Officer, 790 Enlisted; With Command Staff: 268 Officers, 1173 Enlisted
Armament: Two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, 50 cal machine guns, 25mm guns
Aircraft: UH-3H Sea King Helicopter
Motto: Finest in the Fleet


The second USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the lead ship of the Blue Ridge class of command ships of the United States Navy, named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a series of ranges in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern US.

The ship was commissioned on November 14, 1970, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as a command and control platform for the Navy. With accommodations for more than 200 officers and 1200 enlisted, the ship provides all the services of a small town.

From 1971 until 1979, Blue Ridge operated from San Diego, California, where she deployed to the Western Pacific, earning the Meritorious Unit and Navy Unit Commendations for the evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam in 1975.

Since October 1979, Blue Ridge has been forward deployed from Yokosuka, Japan as the flagship of Commander Seventh Fleet. Blue Ridge participates routinely in U.S. and allied training exercise each year with countries throughout the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. She performed a nine-and-one-half month deployment as flagship for Commander United States Naval Forces Central Command during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from August 1990 through May 1991, for which the ship earned another Navy Unit Commendation.

Blue Ridge frequently makes port calls throughout the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean including Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia. She made her historic port visit to Shanghai, People's Republic of China in 1989 and again in 2004. It also visited Vladivostok, Russia in 1996 and 2003. The ship has also been cited for rescues of refugees and merchant vessels.

See USS Blue Ridge for other ships of this name.


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Last updated: 05-21-2005 03:04:28