USNS Bob Hope (T-AKR 300)

- stricken -
- later MV BOB HOPE (T-AKR 300) -

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USNS BOB HOPE was the first ship in the Navy's first class of large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships (LMSR) specially planned and built as such. The BOB HOPE was the first ship in the Navy to honor Bob Hope. The legendary entertainer was even able to witness the ship being christened in his honor.

USNS BOB HOPE was inactivated, taken out of service, and stricken on December 19, 2022. She was subsequently disposed of via interagency transfer to the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force. As part of the transfer, she lost her "USNS" designation and became MV BOB HOPE (T-AKR 300). In that posture, the ship's role is one of maintained readiness for contingency activation rather than routine Military Sealift Command tasking.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: September 2, 1993
	Keel laid: May 29, 1995
	Launched: March 27, 1997
	Delivered: November 18, 1998
	Stricken from Navy list: December 19, 2022
	Builder: Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans, LA
	Propulsion system: 4 Colt Pielstick 10 PC4.2 V diesels
	Propellers: two
	Length: 951.4 feet (290 meters)
	Beam: 106 feet (32.3 meters)
	Draft: 34.8 feet (10.6 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 62,070 tons full load
	Speed: 24 knots
	Aircraft: helicopter landing area only
	Armament: none
	Capacity: 380,000 sq. ft.
	Crew: 26 civilian crew (up to 45); up to 50 active duty
	Homeport: Portland, OR.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS BOB HOPE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

Click here to view the list.

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About the Ship's Name:

When Secretary of the Navy John Dalton made the announcement that the new class of ships would be named for Bob Hope, he called Mr. Hope a "Military Hero" and said, "We can never repay him for his contributions to the men and women in uniform, but we can show our appreciation with a class of ships named in his honor. This is our way of saying, Thanks for the Memories."

For nearly six decades, during war or at peace, Bob, with a band of super-stars, has traveled the globe to entertain the servicemen and women. The media dubbed him "America's No. 1 Soldier in Greasepaint." To the G.I.s, he was "G.I. Bob" and their clown hero.

His unwavering commitment to American servicemen and women began in May, 1941 when Bob Hope with a group of Hollywood performers, went to March Field, California, to do a radio show for airmen stationed there. Bob's first trip into a combat area was during World War II in 1943, when he and his small USO troupe -- Frances Langford, Tony Romano and Jack Pepper -- visited U.S. military facilities in England, Africa, Sicily, and Iceland. With the world at peace, following World War II, Bob did not forget G.I. audiences. He continued to make frequent visits to military bases and hospitals. Bob began what was to become a Christmas custom in 1948. He went to Germany at the request of then Secretary of the Air Force, Stuart Symington, to entertain the troops involved in the Berlin Airlift. With the end of the Vietnam conflict in sight, Hope hailed his 1972 trip as his "last Christmas show." But each Christmas that followed, he was somewhere in the country doing a show at a military base or veterans hospital. In 1983 the call came from Beirut and Hope was "on the road again."

In 1987, Hope flew around the world to entertain servicemen and women in the Pacific. Atlantic and Indian Oceans and in the Persian Gulf. He embarked on a goodwill tour in May, 1990, to entertain military personnel stationed in England, Russia, and Germany. At Christmas that year, he was in Saudi Arabia entertaining the men and women of "Operation Desert Storm."

Bob has been honored and befriended by Presidents of the United States since Roosevelt. Hope's golfing buddies have been Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton. He has been hailed as "America's most prized ambassador of goodwill throughout the world."

His distinguished honors include:

Congressional Gold Medal from President Kennedy
President Johnson honored Bob with the Medal of Freedom
President and Mrs. Carter hosted a White House reception in celebration of his 75th birthday.
Harry Truman played the piano for him
President Bill Clinton bestowed on him a Medal of the Arts.
In July 1976, by order of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Bob was made an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to British troops around the world during World War II.
Cited by the Guinness Book of Records as most honored entertainer in the world, Hope has more than two thousand awards and citations for humanitarian and professional efforts, including 54 honorary doctorates.

Bob Hope and his wife Dolores had four children: Linda, Anthony, Nora, and Kelly; and four grandchildren.

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USNS BOB HOPE History:

The U.S. Navy's strategic sealift recapitalization effort after the Cold War produced a new generation of Large, Medium-Speed Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) ships designed to move heavy Army equipment rapidly and in large volume. The lead ship of that program, USNS BOB HOPE (T-AKR 300), was ordered as new construction at Avondale Industries in Bridge City, Louisiana, under U.S. Navy sponsorship. Her keel was laid on May 29, 1995. She was christened on March 15, 1997, with entertainer Bob Hope's wife, Dolores Hope, serving as sponsor, and she was launched on March 27, 1997. After completion and trials, the ship was delivered to the U.S. Navy on November 18, 1998, entered service the same day, and operated as a non-combatant U.S. Naval Ship under Military Sealift Command with a civilian mariner crew. From the outset her role was tied to strategic mobility: the class was built to carry tanks, trucks, and other wheeled vehicles and sustainment stocks associated with Army brigade-level sets, enabling rapid reinforcement and follow-on sustainment without relying exclusively on chartered commercial lift.

By mid-1999, as NATO transitioned from Operation Allied Force to the Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission and the alliance surged logistics into the Balkans, BOB HOPE is specifically documented supporting the movement of equipment into Southeastern Europe. She departed Bremerhaven, Germany, on June 23, 1999, arrived at Thessaloniki, Greece, on June 29, 1999, began discharging cargo on June 30, 1999, and completed discharge on July 1, 1999, as U.S. Army units worked to funnel rolling stock and containers onward into the theater. In the same logistics flow, the converted LMSR USNS SODERMAN (T-AKR 299) reached Thessaloniki on July 3, 1999, and a contract RO/RO, OSPREY, is documented earlier in the KFOR build-up (including routing via Durres, Albania, on May 2, 1999) as the U.S. and NATO sought multiple discharge ports and inland corridors to support the operation. A later publicly released photograph places BOB HOPE underway on February 3, 2000, identified as her first deployment, underscoring that the ship was cycling through operational tasking soon after delivery even when complete movement logs are not publicly enumerated.

The post-September 11 operational era brought sustained demand for heavy-lift sealift into U.S. Central Command theaters. BOB HOPE is documented transporting equipment and materiel during the first four months of 2003 in support of the 101st Airborne Division and the 3rd Infantry Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom, reflecting the immense surge of rolling stock and sustainment required for the opening campaign. In the same year, she is also documented operating in the Red Sea area of operations during Operation Enduring Freedom with escort by the German frigate MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN (F 218), a reminder that even MSC surge sealift movements could be integrated into coalition maritime security postures in contested regions. On January 20, 2004, BOB HOPE is recorded at anchorage in Souda Harbor (Souda Bay), Crete, Greece, during a brief port visit - an established logistical way-point in the Eastern Mediterranean for ships transiting between the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Suez routes. Later point-in-time location records place the ship at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California, on March 10, 2008, and at Naval Base San Diego on September 29, 2011, consistent with the maintenance, readiness, and activation cycles typical of surge sealift vessels.

As U.S. forces placed renewed emphasis on "seabasing" and ship-to-ship transfer concepts, BOB HOPE also appears in documented capability demonstrations with the mobile landing platform. On October 8, 2014, USNS MONTFORD POINT (T-MLP 1) conducted skin-to-skin operations alongside BOB HOPE, demonstrating vehicle transfer and the ability to support LCAC launch and recovery while paired. That relationship continued into MONTFORD POINT's post-delivery testing, and on January 29, 2015, imagery documents MONTFORD POINT's vehicle transfer ramp being raised and fitted to BOB HOPE's ramp to enable vehicle transfers between the ships - an example of how LMSR stern-ramp geometry could be leveraged in expeditionary logistics concepts.

In the Pacific Northwest disaster-response context, the multi-state Cascadia Rising exercise ran from June 7, 2016, through June 10, 2016, and BOB HOPE is specifically cited as a participating asset. On June 9, 2016, she is documented conducting a medical evacuation exercise at Naval Magazine Indian Island, Washington, aligning the ship's surge sealift role with domestic contingency and logistics planning. A December 29, 2016 public notice discussing berthing arrangements for the ship further described her reduced-operational-status posture, noting operations by civilian mariners under MSC contract and a readiness model intended to make the ship operationally ready within four days. On May 15, 2018, BOB HOPE is documented at Naval Base Everett, Washington, conducting a ship-to-ship transfer operation with USNS CARL BRASHEAR (T-AKE 7) in support of preparations for RIMPAC 2018, illustrating how surge sealift hulls can integrate into larger logistics architectures that include combat logistics force and station-ship support.

In the build-up to DEFENDER-Europe 21 - an Army-led, multinational exercise series intended to stress strategic deployment and theater opening - BOB HOPE conducted a well-documented trans-Atlantic logistics run built around joint logistics over-the-shore (JLOTS) operations. She arrived at the Port of Jacksonville, Florida, on March 24, 2021, marking her role as the first ship to load in support of the exercise, and the port evolution included multiple days of roll-on/roll-off loading tied to equipment bound for linked activities such as Immediate Response. After Jacksonville, BOB HOPE proceeded to Portsmouth, Virginia, where she is documented on April 3, 2021, supporting JLOTS-related training and loading (including Army watercraft and logistics elements). She then crossed the Atlantic to the Adriatic: on April 26, 2021, she is documented anchored off Durres, Albania, for the theater opening portion of DEFENDER-Europe 21, and on May 4, 2021, she is documented operating with the floating platforms used in JLOTS off Durres, demonstrating the ability to move equipment ashore even when fixed port infrastructure is constrained or when planners deliberately choose an over-the-shore delivery method. In a later MSC recap covering fiscal year 2022 (October 1, 2021-September 30, 2022), BOB HOPE is specifically cited as having activated in support of the deployment of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, to South Korea, reflecting continued use of LMSR capacity for major rotational movements in the Indo-Pacific security environment.

After decades of service in surge sealift and prepositioning support, BOB HOPE's administrative status changed as the Navy shifted portions of the surge sealift fleet to the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force. She was inactivated, taken out of service, and stricken on December 19, 2022, and is documented as disposed of via interagency transfer to MARAD with location listed at Portland, Oregon. As part of the transfer, she lost her "USNS" designation and became MV BOB HOPE (T-AKR 300). MARAD's public inventory reporting around that transition shows BOB HOPE at Terminal 2, Portland, Oregon, with transfer to MARAD dated December 19, 2022, aligning with her move from MSC operational control into the Ready Reserve framework. In that posture, the ship's role becomes one of maintained readiness for contingency activation rather than routine MSC tasking, preserving the core strategic sealift capacity the LMSR program was built to provide.

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USNS BOB HOPE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Stefan Karpinski and show the BOB HOPE being escorted through the Red Sea area of operations by the German frigate MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN (F 218) during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003.

The photo below was taken by me and shows the BOB HOPE at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, Calif., on March 10, 2008.

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOB HOPE at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on September 29, 2011.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOB HOPE at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 2, 2015.

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