USS Fort Fisher

History
United States
Name	USS Fort Fisher
Namesake	Fort Fisher in North Carolina
Awarded	2 May 1967
Builder	General Dynamics, Quincy, Massachusetts
Laid down	15 July 1970
Launched	22 April 1972
Acquired	8 November 1972
Commissioned	9 December 1972
Decommissioned	27 February 1998
Stricken	27 February 1998
Motto	"Support from sea to shore"
Fate	Sold for scrapping, 30 September 2009
General characteristics
Class and type	Anchorage-class dock landing ship
Tonnage	5,440 DWT
Displacement	8,762 long tons (8,903 t) light 14,202 long tons (14,430 t) full
Length	553 ft (169 m) o/a 540 ft (160 m) w/l
Beam	84 ft (26 m)
Draft	20 ft (6.1 m) (max navigational draft)
Propulsion	Steam turbines, two propellers
Speed	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried	3 × LCAC
Troops	330 Marines
Complement	18 officers, 340 enlisted
Armament	2 × 20mm Phalanx CIWS 2 × Mk.38 machine guns 4 × 0.5 in (12.7 mm) guns
Aviation facilities	Helipad
Notes	Steel hull, steel superstructure.

USS Fort Fisher (LSD-40) was an Anchorage-class dock landing ship in service with the United States Navy from 1972 to 1998. She was scrapped in 2010.

Service history

Fort Fisher was laid down on 15 July 1970 at General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division and launched on 22 April 1972. She was commissioned on 9 December 1972.^[1]

Fort Fisher was first homeported at Long Beach, California, before moving to San Diego in August 1973. The ship made her first overseas deployment as part of Amphibious Forces, United States Seventh Fleet, in the first half of 1974, the first of ten deployments to the Western Pacific, as well as three to the Persian Gulf. Fort Fisher was refitted between September 1986 and May 1987, in order to operate the Navy's new Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). In September 1994, Fort Fisher was sent to Somalia as part of the multinational Unified Task Force bringing humanitarian aid in Operation Restore Hope. She returned there on 8 February 1995, and took part in Operation United Shield, the withdrawal of troops and equipment. On her final deployment in 1997 Fort Fisher took part in joint exercises with Persian Gulf nations.^[2]

Fort Fisher was decommissioned on 27 February 1998 and struck from the Naval Vessel Registry on the same day.^[1] On 30 September 2009, a contract to dismantle Fort Fisher was issued to International Shipbreaking Ltd. of Brownsville, Texas. Fort Fisher departed the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet on 5 January 2010 under tow to Brownsville.^[3] Fort Fisher completed her dismantling on 14 January 2011.

References

1. "Fort Fisher (LSD 40)". Naval Vessel Register. 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
2. "USS Fort Fisher (LSD 40) Decommissioning Pamphlet - Ship's History". united-states-navy.com. 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
3. "National Defense Reserve Fleet Inventory: For the month ending January 31, 2010" (PDF). United States Maritime Administration. 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2013.

 This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

External links

• "USS Fort Fisher (LSD-40)". navysite.de.