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.
History Her keel was laid down on 19 November 1960 at Brooklyn, New York by the New York Naval Shipyard. She was launched on 15 September 1962 sponsored by Mrs. Stuart Symington, and commissioned on 11 May 1963.
After completing builder's trials at New York City and shakedown training out of Norfolk, Virginia, the amphibious transport dock ship departed the latter port on 14 August and laid a course for the west coast. She transited the Panama Canal on 20 August and after making a side trip to Acapulco, Mexico, to assist a disabled fishing vessel arrived in San Diego, her permanent home port, on 31 August.
Late in September and early in October, Vancouver made the traditional visit to her namesake city, Vancouver, Washington, and then returned to San Diego for seven weeks of training. Underway training occupied the first four weeks while amphibious training took up the last three. In mid-December, she welcomed on board the newly appointed Secretary of the Navy, Paul H. Nitze, and the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, Admiral U.S. Grant Sharp, Jr., as well as several other high ranking United States Navy and United States Marine Corps officers, and treated them to a display of her multifaceted amphibious capabilities.
In mid-February 1964, the ship moved from San Diego to Long Beach, California, where she entered the naval shipyard for post-shakedown availability. She finished repairs on 21 May, completed final acceptance trials early in June, and then returned to San Diego. Late in June, the amphibious transport dock ship made another voyage north to Canada for a visit to another namesake city, Vancouver, British Columbia, in time to participate in that city's annual maritime festival. On the way back home, she stopped in San Francisco, for the Independence Day weekend and then reentered San Diego on 7 July. At that point, she began her operational schedule. She participated in three amphibious warfare exercises between July and October and then began preparations for her first deployment to the Far East.
1964 Her first tour of duty with the Seventh Fleet coincided with the beginning of the rapid acceleration of American involvement in South Vietnam heralded by the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964—generally accepted as the beginning of the Vietnam War. She departed San Diego on 16 November, loaded marines at Port Hueneme, and set out across the Pacific on 18 November. Vancouver arrived in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on 6 December, and unloaded her passengers. Embarking another Marine battalion at Okinawa on 21 December she moved to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where she traded her second load of marines for a third which she transported to Okinawa in January 1965.
During the 1964 Christmas Holidays in Subic Bay, Vancouver had the honor of welcoming aboard the USO tour group consisting of Bob Hope, Jerry Calona, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Jill St. John and Ann Sidney (Miss World 1964).
1965 to 1966 After off-loading the Marines, Vancouver departed Buckner Bay, Okinawa on 15 January 1965 bound for Hong Kong for R&R. After a paint job by , she left Hong Kong on 21 January, bound for Subic Bay, arriving on 23 January. She departed Subic Bay fully loaded with Marines and all their gear on 27 January for Da Nang, South Vietnam. She twice returned to Subic Bay twice without off-loading the Marines.
In February, the ship still loaded with elements of the Ninth Marine Expeditionary Brigade departed Subic Bay and took up station off Da Nang South Vietnam. She remained on station for the next 40 days. After 2 false starts she anchored in Da Nang harbor and, on 8 March in company with and , landed the first U.S. combat troops at Red Beach, Da Nang, South Vietnam. The Marines were to protect the perimeter of the Danang Air Base and free South Vietnamese troops for other combat duties.
She left Da Nang on 12 March, stopped over in Okinawa, departed there on 16 March and arrived in Numazu, Japan, then Yokosuka, Japan on 18 March. She spent almost 3 weeks in Yokosuka. She departed Yokosuka on 8 April, bound for Okinawa. She arrived at Okinawa on 11 April, then headed to Da Nang, South Vietnam arriving on 14 April. She moved to Huế, South Vietnam and off-loaded Marines there. On 19 April, Vancouver departed Huế for Subic Bay, arriving 20 April. She departed Subic Bay after a 2-hour stop, bound for Sydney, Australia to participate in the Battle of the Coral Sea celebration.
Vancouver crossed the equator for the first time on 24 April 1965 arriving in Sydney on 1 May. She participated in the Coral Sea celebration with open house tours of the ship. On 10 May, Vancouver departed Sydney for Melbourne, Australia arriving on 12 May. On 19 May, she left Melbourne, bound for Pago Pago, American Samoa. While in Pago Pago, three of the crew were lost in a swimming mishap caused by severe rip currents in one of the lagoons. She departed Pago Pago on 28 May and arrived in San Diego on 8 June. During her first deployment, from 18 November 1964 to 8 June 1966, Vancouver steamed 35,442 miles.
However, less than two months after her return, she embarked Marines for a special troop lift to the widening Vietnam War. She departed the west coast on 5 August 1965 and did not return until 5 October 1965. At that point, she began the normal schedule of upkeep and training exercises at San Diego and other points along the California coast.
During the first week in July, Vancouver embarked LVT-5s and Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 1/26 (1st Battalion, 26th Marines) in preparation for her second Seventh Fleet assignment. On 9 July, she put to sea and after a two-day stop at Pearl Harbor from 14 to 16 July, arrived at Subic Bay on 28 July. There, she became a unit of the newly constituted Seventh Fleet Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), Task Group (TG) 76.5—a self-contained mobile amphibious assault team made up of a Special Landing Force (SLF), marines and support units, and the ships which served as their transportation and mobile bases. In a series of training exercises held in the Philippines, the Navy-Marine Corps teammates honed their skills for an almost instant response to any need for amphibious support or reinforcement in the Seventh Fleet's zone of operations.
Quite naturally, Vietnam constituted the area most in need of such a capability at that time. Accordingly, the ARG concluded its amphibious training on 12 August, reembarked the landing force, and sailed for the waters off South Vietnam. Between 16 and 29 August 1966, Vancouver participated in her first combat action during Operation Deckhouse III which consisted of two landings at a point some 60 miles (100 km) east of Saigon. The first phase, from 16 to 20 August, saw BLT 1/26 move ashore in both waterborne and airborne modes against minor opposition and later destroy a fortified Vietcong (VC)-held village. During the second set of landings, 22 to 29 August, the Marines sent ashore changed operational control from the ARG to the authorities ashore to assist in Operation Toledo a search-and-destroy mission to deprive the VC of caches of arms and supplies. At the conclusion of "Deckhouse III", Vancouver returned to Subic Bay for ten days of upkeep.
Departing the Philippines on 12 September, the ship began her second amphibious assault, Operation Deckhouse IV, on 15 September 1966 in the vicinity of the Cua Viet River in Quảng Trị Province just south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The landings constituted a seaward arm of the larger Operation Prairie being conducted by American and South Vietnamese forces ashore to destroy North Vietnamese Army fortifications, bunkers, and supply caches in the area and to stem intensified infiltration across the DMZ. During their ten days ashore, the Marines of the SLF encountered heavy resistance and accounted for 254 of the enemy killed before they reembarked on 25 September. At the conclusion of the operation, Vancouver disembarked her portion of BLT 1/26 troops at Da Nang and headed for Okinawa.
After she embarked BLT 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines there, she returned to Vietnamese waters on 6 October and steamed with the contingency force in the area off the DMZ for the next 22 days. On 28 October, she disembarked BLT 3/3 and, two days later, embarked BLT 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines for transportation to the Philippines. She departed Da Nang on 1 November and arrived in Subic Bay on 12 November. During December, she participated in an amphibious exercise, "Mudpuppy II", at Mindoro and conducted upkeep at Subic Bay. On 30 November, the amphibious transport dock ship got underway for Vietnamese waters and arrived near Vũng Tàu the following day.
1967 There, near the entrance to the Saigon River, she began another amphibious operation in the "Deckhouse" series, Operation Deckhouse V, on 4 January 1967. It lasted until 15 January and was a joint United States – South Vietnamese effort utilizing Marines of both nations. Vancouver embarked more than 500 South Vietnamese Marines at Vũng Tàu on 4 January and, after a two-day delay caused by bad weather, sent her binational force ashore on 6 January by both assault craft and helicopter. In spite of continued bad weather and her first experience with riverine operations, the ship and her boats remained in the area for ten days, providing the necessary logistics support for the SLF operating ashore. After reembarking the SLF and South Vietnamese Marines on 15 January and then disembarking the latter again at Vũng Tàu the following day, she departed Vietnam to return to the Philippines.
The ship arrived at Subic Bay on 19 January, but remained only two days before continuing on to Okinawa where she exchanged BLT 1/9 for BLT 1st Battalion, 4th Marines late in January. Following a visit to Keelung Taiwan where she couldn't get into the harbor due to an impending typhoon, she returned to the Philippines early in February and conducted an amphibious exercise, "Mudpuppy III", with the Marines of BLT 1/4. Another brief rest and relaxation period at Subic Bay at the end of the first week in February preceded her departure from the Philippines on 12 February. Vancouver resumed duty with the ARG on 14 February and, two days later, began her part in Operation Deckhouse VI, another two-phase amphibious assault in support of operations of wider scope being conducted ashore.
At the conclusion of Operation Deckhouse VI, the amphibious transport dock ship visited Subic Bay; Hong Kong; Okinawa, and Yokosuka, Japan, before departing the latter port on 24 March to return home to San Diego. After a three-day stop at Pearl Harbor at the end of the month, she arrived in San Diego on 8 April.
Following an unusually long period in port at San Diego, Vancouver resumed operations along the west coast in July. In addition to single-ship underway training, she revisited Vancouver, British Columbia, in July to participate in a Fleet Assembly as part of the Canadian Centennial Celebration. Late that month, the ship resumed local operations which included underway training and amphibious refresher training. That employment occupied her for the remainder of the year and the first month of 1968.
1968