USS ''Pearl Harbor'' (LSD 52) is a dock landing ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. She was named for

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, where

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

began for the United States. ''Pearl Harbor'' was laid down on 27 January 1995, by the Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans, La.; launched on 24 February 1996; and commissioned on 30 May 1998. As of 6 September 2018, ''Pearl Harbor'' is homeported to NS San Diego,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and assigned to Commander Amphibious Squadron 1 (COMPHIBRON 1).

Overview

The mission of the Landing Ship Dock (LSD) is to transport and launch amphibious craft, vehicles, crews and embarked personnel in an

amphibious assault Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted ...

. An LSD can also render limited docking and repair service to small ships and craft, and act as the Primary Control Ship (PCS) during amphibious assaults. The well deck can hold two Landing Craft Air Cushions (LCAC) and a variety of

landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. Pr ...

and tracked amphibious assault vehicles. This provides

Marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

with added vehicle and cargo storage areas.

Service history

On 4 May 2008 the ship departed San Diego for assignment in the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...

as part of the Peleliu amphibious assault group. On 21 July 2008, ''Pearl Harbor'' was run aground on a shoal off of Kuwait without damage. Following the incident, Commander Xavier F. Valverde was relieved of command by Rear Admiral Kendall Card, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, and reassigned to shore staff duty in Bahrain. Captain Mike Slotsky, deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 9 in Everett, Washington, was assigned to oversee the ship temporarily. On 20 May 2010 the ship departed on a Western Pacific (WESTPAC) deployment as a part of the Peleliu Amphibious Readiness Group, where she participated in relief efforts following devastating floods in Pakistan in September 2010. Following her aid to Pakistani victims, she sailed south to Somalia where she conducted counter-piracy operations and lent aid to over 60 Somali refugees for over a month. She returned to her homeport of San Diego, California on 17 December 2010. On 14 November 2011 the ship departed on a WESTPAC deployment as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Readiness Group. She returned to San Diego on 22 June 2012. From May through August 2013, ''Pearl Harbor'' deployed independently in support of Pacific Partnership 2013, providing humanitarian aid to the island nations of Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and Solomon Islands. On 15 April 2014, the ship entered an Extended Docking Phased Maintenance Availability (EDPMA) to complete her midlife overhaul. After numerous extensions due to unplanned growth work, ''Pearl Harbor'' completed her extensive overhaul in May 2016. The ship participated in Southern California Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) in July 2016 where it supported amphibious operations in conjunction with Australian, Canadian, Japanese, and German coalition partners under command of CDR Judd Krier. In July 2017, ''Pearl Harbor'' departed on WESTPAC 17-2 as a part of the 15th MEU. Their main mission was the supporting of

Operation Inherent Resolve Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the U.S. military's operational name for the International military intervention against IS, including both a campaign in Iraq and a campaign in Syria, with a closely-related campaign in Libya. Throu ...

. ''Pearl Harbor'' decomposited stateside on 7 March 2018. In August of 2021, ''Pearl Harbor'' deployed with and her

amphibious readiness group An amphibious ready group (ARG) of the United States Navy consists of a naval element—a group of warships known as an Amphibious Task Force (ATF)—and a landing force (LF) of U.S. Marines (and occasionally U.S. Army soldiers), in total about ...

(ARG), along with the

11th Marine Expeditionary Unit The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (11th MEU) is one of seven Marine Expeditionary Units currently in existence in the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Expeditionary Unit is a Marine Air Ground Task Force with a strength of about 2,200 pe ...

, recon marines from Maritime Special Purpose Force,

Beachmaster Unit One {{Infobox military unit , unit_name = Beachmaster Unit One , image = , image_size = 200 , caption = BMU-1 Insignia , dates = July 13, ...

and

Assault Craft Unit 1 Assault Craft Unit ONE, (ACU-1) is a Pacific Ocean Maritime Prepositioning Force in the United States Navy operated under Naval Beach Group ONE out of Naval Amphibious Base (NAB) Coronado with a Forward Detachment in Sasebo, Japan. ACU-1's force ...

. The mission was in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and Operation Inherent Resolve for the Withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan (2020–2021).''Pearl Harbor'' participated in theater amphibious combat rehearsals in Kuwait, Bahrain, Pakistan, Djibouti, and Somalia. While also operating with joint maritime forces of allied countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. The ARG then headed to the 7th Fleet in January, where the group teamed up with the

Carrier Strike Group One Carrier Strike Group One (CSG-1 or CARSTRKGRU 1) is a U.S. Navy carrier strike group. is the strike group's current flagship, and other units currently assigned are the ship's Carrier Air Wing 2 and embarked Destroyer Squadron 1, deployed with ' ...

in the South China Sea for expeditionary strike force operations.

Planned decommissioning

The ship was originally planned to be decommissioned, and placed in the Reserve Fleet sometime in 2024. However, the ship's life is now being extended.

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships Amphibious warfare vessels of the United States Ships built in Bridge City, Louisiana 1996 ships