USS Dubuque (LPD-8)

The 2007 Dubuque under the Coronado Bay Bridge
Overview
Order	January 25, 1963
Keel laying	January 25, 1965
Launch	August 6, 1966
1. Period of service
Commissioning	September 1, 1967
Decommissioning	June 30, 2011
Technical specifications
displacement	fully loaded 16,914  ts
length	173.7 meters
width	25.2 meters
Draft	7.0 meters
crew	24 officers, 396 men, up to 900 Marines
drive	Two boilers, two turbines; on 2 propellers, 24,000  shaft horsepower
speed	21 knots
Armament	2 machine cannons, 8 machine guns, 2 Phalanx CIWS

The USS Dubuque (LPD-8) is an amphibious transport dock for the United States Navy . It belongs to the Austin class and was named after the city of Dubuque , Iowa .

history

LPD-8 was commissioned in 1963 and laid down two years later at Ingalls Shipbuilding . In 1966 the ship was launched, in 1967 it was put into service in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard . The first home port was San Diego. Between 1968 and 1975 the Dubuque moved from there to the Pacific five times, including the waters of the Vietnam War . Among other things, she was involved in the 1975 evacuation of Saigon .

In 1985 the ship was withdrawn from San Diego and permanently stationed as a forward unit in Sasebo , Japan. From there, the Dubuque took part in 1988, among other things, in Operation Earnest Will in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. In August 1990 she returned to the Gulf and transported war material for the Second Gulf War to the region in the Amphibious Ready Group Bravo .

In 1999 the Dubuque was again stationed in San Diego, from where it moved several times as part of the war on terrorism . In 2009 she was scheduled to take part in Pacific Partnership , a humanitarian aid trip to the people of Kiribati , the Marshall Islands , Samoa , the Solomon Islands and Tonga . Before this voyage, however, at least 28 seafarers on the ship were infected with the H1N1 subtype of the influenza virus, known as "swine flu", whereupon this voyage had to be canceled. Around as many again showed symptoms of the disease.

In 2010 the Dubuque moved alongside the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) in the Persian Gulf. In August 2010, the group anchored off Karachi to bring relief supplies to the regions affected by the flood disaster in Pakistan with their helicopters . After the group was relieved, US Marines took off from the Dubuque on September 9 and took back the German freighter Magellan Star , which had been taken over by pirates the day before. The freighter crew had barricaded themselves in shelters, the soldiers arrested all nine pirates, there were no wounded.

The Dubuque was decommissioned on June 30, 2011 and incorporated into the reserve fleet .

Web links

Commons : USS Dubuque  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Entry in the Naval Vessel Register (Engl.)
• Official Homepage (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Navy Times: Navy confirms 47 'swine flu' cases  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (engl.)