USS Tarawa (LHA-1)

The second USS Tarawa (LHA-1), nicknamed "Eagle of the Sea", is a United States Navy amphibious assault ship, the lead ship of her class.

She was laid down in November 1972 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation[?], launched on 1 December 1973, sponsored by Audrey B. Cushman[?], the wife of General Thomas J. Cushman[?], former Commandant of the Marine Corps; and commissioned on 29 May 1976, Capt. James H. Morris[?] in command.

Tarawa is the first of five ships in a new class of general-purpose amphibious assault ships and combines in one ship type the functions previously performed by four different types: the amphibious assault ship (LPH), the amphibious transport dock (LPD), the amphibious cargo ship[?] (LKA), and the dock landing ship[?] (LSD). She is capable of landing elements of a Marine Corps battalion landing team and their supporting equipment by landing craft, by helicopters, or by a combination of both.

The ship departed Pascagoula on 7 July 1976 and set a course for the Panama Canal. She transited the canal on 16 July and, after a stop at Acapulco, Mexico, arrived at San Diego, California on 6 August. During the remainder of 1976, the amphibious assault ship conducted trials, tests, and shakedown in the southern California operating area.

During the first half of 1977, Tarawa was engaged in training exercises off the California coast. On 13 August, she entered Long Beach Naval Shipyard[?] for post shakedown availability which was completed on 15 July 1978. Following four and one half months of intensive individual ship and amphibious refresher training with embarked marines, Tarawa ended 1978 in her home port of San Diego on Christmas standdown.

Her first deployment came in 1979, where she successfully experimented with AV-8 Harrier jets and later rescued 400 Vietnamese refugees adrift in the South China Sea.

After a second deployment in 1980, and in 1983, during her third deployment, Tarawa went to the Mediterranean to support the UN peacekeepers[?] in Beirut, Lebanon. Several additional cruises followed.

In December 1990, Tarawa was the flagship of a thirteen-ship amphibious task force in support of Operation Desert Storm. She participated in the Sea Soldier IV landing exercise in January that was a deception maneuver suggesting an amphibious assault in Kuwait, and then on 24 February landed Marines in Saudi Arabia just south of the Kuwaiti border.

In May of 1991, Tarawa went to Bangladesh for humanitarian assistance to victims of a typhoon, delivering rice and water purification equipment.

External Links

• USS Tarawa (LHA-1) homepage (http://www.tarawa.navy.mil)
• USS Tarawa Veterans' Association homepage (http://www.usstarawavets.org)

See USS Tarawa for other Navy ships of the same name.

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.