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USS Tripoli (LPH 10)

USS TRIPOLI was the fifth IWO JIMA - class amphibious assault ship (helicopter). The USS TRIPOLI was the second ship in the Navy named after the famous amphibious operation that inspired the words in the Marine Hymn - ''...to the shore of Tripoli.'' This land assault was the decisive battle in the Tripolitan War (1801-1805), a war that humbled the piratical Barbs state of Tripoli.

Decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on September 15, 1995, TRIPOLI spent the following years laid up at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Ca. In December 2006, she was towed to Pearl Harbor, Hi., to serve as a launch platform with the ballistic missile defense program. To launch the small ballistic missiles, the TRIPOLI was towed some 100 miles off shore before taken back to Pearl Harbor. The first test series were completed in October 2007 and a second series followed in 2008.

USS TRIPOLI has earned the following awards: Combat Action Ribbon (3 awards), Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Navy Unit Commendation (4 awards), Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, Navy "E" Ribbon (2 awards), National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (3 awards), Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation for Gallantry, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal.

In May 2018, the TRIPOLI arrived at Brownsville, Tx., for scrapping.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS TRIPOLI. 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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• Click here to see which USS TRIPOLI memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS TRIPOLI Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1967
• WestPac Cruise Book 1968-69
• WestPac Cruise Book 1974-75
• WestPac Cruise Book 1981-82
• WestPac Cruise Book 1992-93
• WestPac Cruise Book 1994

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USS TRIPOLI History:

USS TRIPOLI was an IWO JIMA-class amphibious assault ship built to embark a Marine battalion landing team with its helicopters and to project that force from the sea during the Cold War emphasis on expeditionary warfare. Her keel was laid on June 15, 1964, at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and she was launched on July 31, 1965, sponsored by Jane Cates, wife of former Marine Corps commandant General Clifton B. Cates. After fitting out and sea trials she was commissioned at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on August 6, 1966, with Captain Henry Suerstedt Jr. in command.

Following about three months of post-commissioning work at Philadelphia, TRIPOLI put to sea on November 6, 1966, for her transfer to the Pacific Fleet. She crossed the Atlantic, passed through the Panama Canal in mid-November, and reached her new home port of San Diego, California, on November 22, 1966. Through late 1966 and the first months of 1967, she completed final acceptance trials, shakedown training and a post-shakedown availability at Long Beach, working up as a helicopter assault carrier and integrating with the Marine aviation and landing units that would operate from her. On May 1, 1967, she embarked Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron HMH-463, elements of Marine Observation Squadron VMO-6, and staff personnel from Amphibious Squadron 8 and departed San Diego for her first western Pacific and Vietnam deployment.

TRIPOLI reached the combat zone off South Vietnam on May 22, 1967. Over the following two days, she disembarked HMH-463 and VMO-6 at Danang, then joined Task Group 76.5 just as it was finishing the amphibious landing Operation Belt Tight in I Corps, close to the demilitarized zone. On May 25, she left for Subic Bay in the Philippines, arriving there on May 27 and relieving USS PRINCETON (LPH 5) as flagship of Amphibious Ready Group "Bravo". Now hosting the task group staff, the staff of Special Landing Force "Bravo", the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-164 and associated support units, TRIPOLI departed Subic on June 8 for sustained operations off the I Corps coastline.

Between June and November 1967, TRIPOLI took part in eight amphibious operations along the northern coast of South Vietnam. The first, Operation Beacon Torch, began on June 18 when helicopters lifted Special Landing Force Bravo ashore near Hoi An. From June 18 to July 2, the Marines operated inland against Viet Cong forces, while TRIPOLI remained offshore providing helicopter launch facilities, medical support and logistics. On July 2, she recovered the landing force and immediately proceeded north to Quang Tri Province to support Marine units around Con Thien that were under heavy People's Army of Vietnam bombardment. There, TRIPOLI embarked the Marines again for Operation Beaver Track, while USS OKINAWA (LPH 3) landed Special Landing Force "Alfa" in the parallel Operation Bear Claw. Both battalion landing teams and III Marine Amphibious Force elements ashore fought the same enemy formations in a coordinated, twelve-day effort that was credited with inflicting a substantial share of the approximately 1,100 PAVN casualties reported.

After Beaver Track/Bear Claw ended in mid-July, TRIPOLI's embarked Marines carried out another combined waterborne and helicopter assault against the seaward flank of the Viet Cong 806th Battalion near Quang Tri City. The opposing force withdrew inland and encountered South Vietnamese units, while TRIPOLI continued to furnish aviation, evacuation and supply support. On July 27, the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines re-embarked for a brief pause before Operation Kangaroo Kick, which opened on August 1 with new landings in Quang Tri Province north of Hue. Though resistance was limited and the operation ended after three days, the Marines remained ashore under III MAF control, while TRIPOLI and the rest of Task Group 76.5 withdrew to Subic Bay for upkeep.

TRIPOLI returned to Vietnamese waters later in August, recovered Special Landing Force Bravo near Hue and supported Operation Belt Drive, which began with helicopter and landing craft assaults in Quang Tri Province on August 27. Following a three-day sweep of the Hai Lang Forest with only light opposition, the Marines re-embarked on September 5. That same day, TRIPOLI assisted the destroyer USS DUPONT (DD 941) after she was hit by enemy coastal artillery near Cape Lay, North Vietnam, evacuating twelve wounded by helicopter. On September 17, after the grounding of the ship's CH-46 helicopter contingent, TRIPOLI executed what is recorded as the first all-boat landing from an LPH, launching Marines for Operation Fortress Sentry in difficult sea and weather conditions near the Cua Viet River just south of the DMZ. That operation ended on September 25, when the landing force re-embarked and the task group again returned to Subic Bay.

Early in October 1967, TRIPOLI called again at Danang to embark 39 defective CH-46 helicopters for transport to Okinawa. Shortly after clearing the Vietnamese coast on October 7, one of her helicopters rescued the pilot of a U.S. Air Force F-105 that crashed ahead of the ship, and supported the recovery of a second aviator rescued by an Air Force helicopter. After delivering the damaged helicopters in the Ryukyus, TRIPOLI returned to Vietnamese waters by mid-October. On October 17, her CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters inserted a battalion landing team about 10 miles south of Phu Bai Combat Base to begin a search-and-destroy sweep along Route 1 under III MAF control, while the ship provided offshore support. She left the combat zone on November 1 to deliver more damaged CH-46s to Okinawa, then returned via Subic Bay to Danang on November 10. There, she re-embarked Special Landing Force Bravo for her final operation of the deployment, Operation Badger Hunt, beginning November 14 with helicopter lifts to the area near An Hoa Combat Base in Quang Nam Province. The Marines completed that operation on November 27 and re-embarked. On November 29, the ship entered Danang to transfer the landing force to USS VALLEY FORGE (LPH 8), which relieved TRIPOLI as task group flagship. TRIPOLI then sailed via Okinawa and Yokosuka for San Diego, arriving home on December 23, 1967, and remained in post-deployment stand-down through year's end.

From late January through March 1968, TRIPOLI underwent a restricted availability at Long Beach. She spent early April in individual ship exercises and late April in amphibious training, then ran refresher training from May 6 to May 17 before preparing for a second western Pacific deployment. Departing San Diego on June 12, 1968, she stopped at Pearl Harbor and Okinawa and reached Subic Bay on July 1. Between July 2 and July 5 she embarked the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-265, Detachment Bravo of Tactical Air Control Squadron 13 and other Special Landing Force Bravo elements. Leaving Subic on July 6, she arrived in the combat zone off Vietnam the next day.

TRIPOLI's second Vietnam tour, lasting into early 1969, again combined coastal patrol with repeated amphibious operations. The day after arriving on station, she launched Operation Eager Yankee with a combined helicopter and surface assault about 10 miles east of Phu Bai. After advancing north toward a suspected Viet Cong enclave and encountering only limited contact, the Marines linked up on July 16 with forces ashore for Operation Houston IV. That phase ended on July 22, when the battalion landing team re-embarked. Within 17 hours TRIPOLI had repositioned and redeployed the landing force for Operation Swift Play, a helicopter assault into the interior southwest of An Hoa in Quang Nam Province. When that operation concluded, the battalion was turned over to III MAF to counter a major enemy threat toward Danang, and the Marines remained ashore under 1st Marine Division control through August, September and October while TRIPOLI stayed offshore as a logistics and medical support ship, pausing only for repairs at Subic Bay in mid-August and a brief liberty visit to Kaohsiung, Taiwan in early October.

On November 5, 1968, after more than three months of continuous duty ashore, the landing force re-embarked. Five days later TRIPOLI's helicopters and landing craft put them ashore again for Operation Daring Endeavor, in which they destroyed enemy fortifications and captured substantial rice stores before re-embarking on November 17. Three days later, the ship launched Operation Swift Move, another combined helicopter and boat landing south of Danang in Quang Nam Province. Here, resistance was minimal, and the Marines soon passed under 1st Marine Division control for continued land operations. TRIPOLI remained offshore in support until December 3, when she offloaded remaining equipment at Danang, then took a five-day liberty call in Hong Kong followed by a two-week availability at Subic Bay. On December 27, she returned to Danang, and on January 1, 1969, she embarked the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines and HMM-164 to reconstitute Special Landing Force Bravo.

The remainder of this second tour brought two large-scale operations. Operation Bold Mariner, described at the time as the largest amphibious maneuver since the Second World War, sought to seal off and comb the Batangan Peninsula of Quang Ngai Province, where the population was viewed as largely hostile and several hundred Viet Cong were believed to operate. Both special landing forces, together with South Vietnamese units and soldiers of the U.S. Army's Americal Division, formed a cordon after an initial feint near Mo Duc. Landings began on January 13, 1969, with helicopter assaults and landing craft delivering Marines to the eastern beaches. TRIPOLI remained offshore throughout, sustaining the operation until the peninsula had been thoroughly searched by early February. BLT 3/26 re-embarked by February 9. The ship then immediately began her final operation of the deployment, Operation Defiant Measure, intended to replace South Vietnamese troops withdrawn from Operation Taylor Common near An Hoa ahead of the expected Tet 1969 offensive. Landings opened on February 10 and offloading continued for several days. TRIPOLI remained in support until February 16, when Defiant Measure concluded and the Marines stayed ashore to continue Taylor Common. The helicopter squadron disembarked, and TRIPOLI departed Vietnamese waters on February 16, calling at Subic Bay on February 18, then proceeding to Yokosuka for repairs before returning to San Diego on March 19, 1969, for another stand-down.

After leave, upkeep and a shipyard period at National Steel in San Diego that lasted until August 11, 1969, TRIPOLI completed refresher training in September and amphibious drills in October. She sailed again for the western Pacific on November 1, 1969, stopping at Guam on November 15 for fuel and arriving at Danang on November 20. Her third deployment to the region differed from the first two: as U.S. policy shifted toward "Vietnamization", she focused on amphibious training and redeployment of Marine units. Beginning November 20, 1969, she supported Operation Keystone Cardinal, carrying the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines from Vietnam to Okinawa. There, between November 24 and December 2, she disembarked that unit and embarked the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, HMM-165 and supporting units to form Special Landing Force "Alfa". After upkeep at Subic Bay from December 5 to December 12, she conducted amphibious exercises at Zambales on December 13 and 14, then returned briefly to Vietnamese waters before resuming training and regional movements.

In late 1971 and early 1972, TRIPOLI's fourth WestPac deployment expanded into the Indian Ocean. Following local training in mid-1971, she left San Diego on October 1 for the Far East, calling at Pearl Harbor and Okinawa before reaching Subic Bay on October 28. She completed amphibious training in Philippine waters and visited ports including Keelung and Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Sasebo, Japan. While returning to Subic from Sasebo, she received orders to join Task Force 74 in the Indian Ocean as a contingency force centered on USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65) in response to the Indo-Pakistani War of December 1971. TRIPOLI remained with that force in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal through the conflict and its immediate aftermath. The fighting ended on December 15, 1971, and Pakistan formally accepted the loss of its eastern territories to the new state of Bangladesh two days later. She stayed on station until early 1972, then returned to Subic Bay on January 14.

From January through mid-1972, she resumed training from Subic, punctuated by visits to Singapore, Hong Kong and Kobe. At the beginning of April 1972 she returned to Vietnamese waters, operating from Yankee Station to provide search-and-rescue and medical evacuation services during intensified air and ground operations in the wake of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive. On June 29, helicopters assigned to TRIPOLI lifted some 1,400 Vietnamese Marines from Tam My to positions near Quang Tri City during the allied counter-offensive, as part of an operation codenamed Lam Son 72. On July 11, her helicopters inserted a reserve Vietnamese Marine battalion behind enemy lines north-northwest of Quang Tri City. Later in July, she was diverted to humanitarian work, leaving Vietnamese waters on July 20 and reaching Subic Bay on July 23 to support relief operations after heavy monsoon flooding on Luzon until August 4. TRIPOLI then returned to San Diego on August 20, 1972, and remained there for the rest of the year.

On March 6, 1973, TRIPOLI departed San Diego for a fifth western Pacific deployment focused on Operation End Sweep, the post-cease-fire clearance of American mines from North Vietnamese waters following the Paris Peace Accords. After a three-week repair stop at Pearl Harbor, she arrived at Subic Bay on April 17 and trained while engineers worked through recurring propulsion issues. Originally scheduled to sail for Haiphong on June 16, she was delayed by mechanical problems but got underway the next morning and arrived at Haiphong on June 19. The commander of Task Force 78, Rear Admiral Brian McCauley, embarked in TRIPOLI and used the ship as his flagship while negotiating procedures with North Vietnamese representatives. Once those issues were resolved, minesweeping began on June 28 with helicopters operating from TRIPOLI to tow sleds and provide logistics and transport. The ship remained in the area, periodically retiring to replenish and avoid typhoons, until departing North Vietnamese waters on July 18 in company with USS INCHON (LPH 12) and USS OGDEN (LPD 5), bound for Luzon. Four days after reaching Subic Bay, the End Sweep task force was dissolved, and by late July, TRIPOLI was back with a restructured amphibious ready group. She returned to San Diego later in 1973, closing out her direct involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

Between January 1974 and the end of 1976 TRIPOLI made two comparatively routine WestPac deployments as the Navy and Marine Corps shifted from combat to readiness operations. The first deployment, from late July 1974 until late January 1975, was based largely out of Subic Bay and concentrated on amphibious training in the Philippines. During this period, the Pacific Fleet introduced the AV-8A Harrier. TRIPOLI demonstrated she could handle vertical/short-takeoff and landing jet operations and became the first amphibious warfare ship to embark a full squadron of AV-8s during 1974, marking an early step toward the "small carrier" concept that would later inform larger assault ships.

Her second mid-1970s deployment began in mid-February 1976 and lasted until late October of that year. Again operating from Subic Bay, TRIPOLI conducted amphibious exercises in Philippine waters and joined two joint American-Korean exercises near Pohang in March and June. In May 1976, she was diverted to Guam to provide disaster relief after Super Typhoon Pamela, remaining on station with embarked Marines and helicopters until June 1 before resuming her routine. She returned to San Diego on October 25, 1976.

From January through June 1977, TRIPOLI underwent a planned restricted availability at Naval Station San Diego to improve propulsion reliability. On June 28, she completed that phase but had to be towed to Long Beach Naval Shipyard for reinstallation of her low-pressure turbine. After sea trials, completed on July 26, she returned to San Diego on July 28 and spent the following months in refresher and amphibious work-ups. She sailed on November 3, 1977, re-entered Seventh Fleet control on November 25, and spent about seven months deployed in the western Pacific before returning to San Diego on July 22, 1978. After post-deployment stand-down she underwent a Board of Inspection and Survey assessment in September, then began another three-month restricted availability on October 16, 1978, in preparation for renewed deployment.

In the later 1970s, TRIPOLI also became associated with the newly established 17th Marine Amphibious Unit. According to Marine sources, the 17th MAU embarked aboard TRIPOLI from July 30, 1979, to February 22, 1980, for a WestPac deployment in the Pacific that emphasized sustainment training, live-fire exercises and interoperability drills as part of the evolving rapid-deployment doctrine of the era.

During the early 1980s, TRIPOLI alternated between local operations and extended deployments. On November 12, 1981, she sailed from San Diego for a western Pacific and Indian Ocean cruise as flagship of Amphibious Ready Group Alpha and Amphibious Squadron One, operating in company with other amphibious ships including USS DULUTH (LPD 6) and USS MOUNT VERNON (LSD 39). During this deployment, she reached the Indian Ocean amid ongoing regional tensions that followed the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and in late January-early February 1982, she visited Perth and Fremantle in Western Australia for rest and recreation between January 28 and February 3 before returning to operational duties. She arrived back in San Diego on May 15, 1982. That same year, she served as a test platform for the Bell XV-15 experimental tilt-rotor aircraft - predecessor of the V-22 Osprey - during trials off southern California in early August, when the XV-15 conducted multiple takeoffs and landings from her flight deck to explore shipboard handling and envelope limits.

By the early 1980s, TRIPOLI was also being used as an aviation platform for airborne mine countermeasures training. A 1983 WestPac deployment, running approximately from April 27 to October 23, 1983, saw RH-53D Sea Stallion mine-countermeasures helicopters of HM-14 embarked, and contemporary U.S. Naval Institute reporting notes that she operated as an airborne mine countermeasures platform during that year's western Pacific operations. In this period, she also supported large amphibious exercises such as the recurring Kernel Blitz series off southern California, which rehearsed large-scale landings involving surface ships, helicopters and landing craft.

Open sources give only fragmentary detail on her specific day-to-day movements between 1984 and 1986, but they document that the ship's performance in those years was strong enough to be noticed at fleet level. In particular, in 1985 TRIPOLI captured nine of eleven departmental excellence awards within her amphibious group, an indication that her engineering, operations, combat systems, aviation and support departments were all scoring well on inspections and competitive evaluations. These awards reflected the cumulative effect of repeated work-ups, amphibious exercises off southern California and deployments into the western Pacific and Indian Ocean that kept the ship, her helicopter detachments and embarked marine units current in assault landings, vertical replenishment, and command-and-control procedures, even if individual evolutions from these years are not fully documented in public sources.

By 1987, TRIPOLI was again forward deployed into the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, as confirmed by photographic and squadron records that show her operating in the region through at least early 1988. Contemporary imagery places the ship underway in the Gulf of Oman in October 1987, with earlier photographs from that year showing her at sea with a fully equipped air group, underscoring her role as a key component of the amphibious ready group presence maintained in the Arabian Sea at a time when tensions in the broader Persian Gulf remained high following the so-called "Tanker War" phase of the Iran-Iraq conflict.

During this deployment, TRIPOLI embarked composite marine aviation elements and supported the standard cycle of amphibious training, contingency planning and port visits associated with a WestPac/Indian Ocean cruise, though open sources do not provide a detailed port-by-port chronology. The ship's performance during the late 1980s is instead captured indirectly through her awards record: in 1988 she received the Chief of Naval Operations Safety Award and again won nine of eleven departmental excellence awards, the best record among amphibious ships that year, and in 1989 she translated that sustained performance into victory in the coveted Battle Efficiency Award ("Battle E") competition for the Pacific Fleet amphibious force.

In 1990, she added the Secretary of the Navy's Captain Edward F. Ney Memorial Award for outstanding food service, a seemingly mundane recognition that nevertheless illustrates the ship's consistently high standards across all aspects of operations, from combat readiness to habitability and crew support.

The outbreak of the Gulf crisis in 1990 pulled TRIPOLI from her pattern of training and peacetime deployments into sustained forward operations. In the autumn of 1990, she was in San Diego preparing for yet another western Pacific deployment when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, triggered a rapid U.S. buildup in the region under Operation Desert Shield. As part of that buildup, TRIPOLI deployed on December 1, 1990, for her fifteenth Western Pacific cruise, this time with the explicit task of supporting coalition operations in the Persian Gulf.

After transiting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, she entered the northern Persian Gulf and assumed a specialized role as flagship for the airborne mine countermeasures group, embarking the MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron HM-14 together with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773. Operating close to the Kuwaiti coast in confined, poorly charted waters that Iraqi forces had seeded with large numbers of contact and influence mines, TRIPOLI served as the command platform, helicopter base and logistic center for the U.S. Mine Countermeasures Group, which also included the mine countermeasures ship AVENGER (MCM 1), the minesweepers IMPERVIOUS (MSO 449) and LEADER (MSO 490), and other specialized units brought into theater aboard the heavy-lift ship SUPER SERVANT III.

During January and February 1991, as Operation Desert Storm shifted from an air campaign into preparations for possible amphibious operations against the Kuwaiti coast, TRIPOLI's group worked to clear a safe lane through one of the densest minefields the U.S. Navy had faced since the Second World War. The mine group began by clearing a corridor 60 miles east of the Kuwaiti coastline, gradually pushing their swept track landward toward a battleship gunfire support box designated Point Foxtrot. Throughout this phase, TRIPOLI remained on station in the northern Gulf, operating within range of Iraqi Silkworm anti-ship missile batteries along the coast. On January 17-18, 1991, Iraqi fire-control radars briefly targeted the mine countermeasures formation, forcing it to maneuver out of missile range until coalition air and surface forces suppressed the threat, after which the group resumed its northward advance.

In the early hours of February 18, 1991, after the formation had been operating for roughly eleven hours within what was later recognized as an undetected portion of the enemy minefield near Faylaka Island, TRIPOLI struck a moored Iraqi contact mine. The explosion tore a hole approximately 16 by 20 feet in her starboard bow below the waterline, rupturing JP-5 aviation fuel tanks and flooding adjacent compartments. Damage control teams isolated the flooding and fires, shored bulkheads and restored key systems over the next several hours, stabilizing the ship sufficiently that she remained operational and continued to function as the mine warfare flagship for several days, even as the cruiser PRINCETON (CG 59), also operating in the area as anti-air warfare coordinator, hit an influence mine later that morning.

Minesweepers IMPERVIOUS, LEADER and AVENGER, together with the salvage tug BEAUFORT (ATS 2), cleared additional mines and assisted the damaged ships. Only after TRIPOLI was relieved as flagship by LA SALLE (AGF 3) and helicopter platform by NEW ORLEANS (LPH 11) did she proceed to Bahrain, where emergency repairs were carried out at the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard. Remarkably, she thus became, according to U.S. Navy historical accounts, the first U.S. naval vessel since the Civil War to suffer significant mine damage and yet remain on station long enough to complete her immediate operational tasking.

After approximately a month in dry dock, she returned to the northern Gulf and resumed work with the multinational mine-clearing force supporting post-war efforts to remove Iraqi minefields from the approaches to Kuwait. Following her return to San Diego on August 8, 1991, concluding a deployment that had lasted more than eight months, TRIPOLI underwent post-deployment maintenance and a stand-down period before beginning preparations for another forward deployment.

On October 16, 1992, she left San Diego once again, this time bound for the western Pacific and ultimately the Horn of Africa. After operating with her amphibious ready group in the Pacific and making a stop at Singapore, TRIPOLI, together with the dock landing ship RUSHMORE (LSD 47) and the amphibious transport dock JUNEAU (LPD 10), was redirected south-westward as the humanitarian crisis and civil war in Somalia worsened. The TRIPOLI amphibious ready group reached the waters off the southern Somali coast on December 3, 1992, carrying the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable). Naval special warfare teams from TRIPOLI conducted reconnaissance of possible landing beaches and harbor approaches while planners on board coordinated with joint and coalition headquarters for the opening phase of Operation Restore Hope, the U.S.-led effort to secure key nodes in Somalia so that relief supplies could move ashore.

In the early hours of December 9, 1992, TRIPOLI served as flagship and aviation hub for the initial amphibious assault into Mogadishu. Amphibious vehicles carrying most of the assault echelon splashed from JUNEAU, while small boats and helicopters moved other elements ashore, supported by reconnaissance and security teams that had already inserted from the ships. By 05:40 the initial landings were underway across the beaches near the port, and by late morning marines had secured both the seaport and the international airport, allowing the first Air Force C-130 and C-141 transports to begin landing.

TRIPOLI remained off Mogadishu as flagship of the amphibious task force, providing command facilities, logistic support and aviation operations as the coalition built up forces ashore, opened supply routes and began stabilizing the city and surrounding areas. According to the ship's own cruise book narrative and later summaries, the amphibious task force continued operations in support of Operation Restore Hope until February 3, 1993, when TRIPOLI and her consorts were redirected into the Arabian Gulf to support Operation Southern Watch, the enforcement of the post-war no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

For the remainder of that deployment, she operated in and around the Gulf, providing amphibious and aviation support as part of the continuing U.S. maritime presence that sought to deter renewed Iraqi aggression and to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions.

After further maintenance and training in San Diego, TRIPOLI began what would be her seventeenth and final western Pacific deployment on June 9, 1994. She sailed as flagship of an amphibious ready group that included, among other ships, the dock landing ship FORT McHENRY (LSD 43), embarking the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. A photograph held by the Naval History and Heritage Command shows TRIPOLI conducting a vertical replenishment on June 25, 1994, near Hawaii, illustrating her transit westward across the Pacific. During this deployment, she again operated off the coast of Somalia, this time in the context of the drawdown of U.S. forces and the extraction of remaining American citizens as the United Nations-led mission in the country evolved and ultimately contracted.

Later in the same deployment, when Iraqi president Saddam Hussein again massed forces near the Kuwaiti border in October 1994, TRIPOLI was ordered rapidly to the northern Persian Gulf. There, she became the first U.S. warship on station for Operation Vigilant Warrior, the U.S. response that combined the swift deployment of ground forces and carrier air power with the presence of amphibious ready groups in the region. As during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, TRIPOLI's presence contributed to the amphibious component of U.S. deterrence strategy, demonstrating the ability to project marines ashore if required while also serving as a visible symbol of U.S. commitment to Kuwait's defense. The show of force, combined with diplomatic pressure and United Nations action, led to the withdrawal of Iraqi units back from the border zone by late 1994.

With the conclusion of this final deployment, TRIPOLI returned to the United States and began preparations for inactivation. On September 15, 1995, she was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register at San Diego, closing nearly three decades of commissioned service.

After decommissioning at San Diego on September 15, 1995, ex-USS TRIPOLI was towed to the Suisun Bay reserve fleet and transferred to the Maritime Administration on September 21, 1995. In June 1997, she was withdrawn from lay-up and leased to the U.S. Army for missile-defense work, unofficially becoming "MLP 1". Moored mostly at Mare Island and later in the San Francisco Bay area, she was progressively modified as a mobile launch platform, with much of her original amphibious equipment removed and new telemetry, radar and launch-control installations added on her flight deck and island.

From 2006, she was towed to Pearl Harbor and then about 100 miles off Kauai to launch short-range ballistic targets for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and other missile-defense test programs at the Pacific Missile Range Facility. Across a series of events between 2006 and the late 2000s, ex-TRIPOLI (as MLP 1) fired "Scud-like" targets that were intercepted by THAAD, Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense and other systems, then returned between test series to lay-up berths in California. As these programs matured, her employment declined, and in April 2015 she was towed through the Panama Canal to the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Texas, where MARAD took title on July 1, 2015, and listed her in disposal status. In 2016, she was designated for scrapping. After award of a dismantling contract she was towed to Brownsville, Texas, arriving in 2018, and was subsequently broken up and recycled, bringing the extended post-service life of the former USS TRIPOLI to an end.

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Accidents aboard USS TRIPOLI:

Date	Where	Events
February 18, 1991	off Faylaka Island, Persian Gulf	While assigned to a MCM force sweeping toward the shore of Faylaka Island during the Gulf War on January 17, USS TRIPOLI and the other ships of the MCM force were targeted by Iraqi Silkworm anti-ship missile fire control radars. The MCM force moved out of the missiles' range and after coalition forces destroyed the missile site, the ships returned to the area on January 18, at 0240 local time. At 0345, after operating for 11 hours in an undetected Iraqi minefield, the USS TRIPOLI hit a moored Iraqi contact mine creating an explosion and ripping a 16 by 20 foot hole below the water line. As USS AVENGER (MCM 1) and USS LEADER attempted to assist the damaged warship, USS PRINCETON (CG 59), while unknowingly heading along a line of Manta mines, continued to provide air defense for the MCM Group but at 0715, also hit a Manta mine in 16 meters of water. As damage control teams overcame fires and flooding aboard USS TRIPOLI and USS PRINCETON, the minesweepers USS IMPERVIOUS, USS LEADER, and USS AVENGER searched for additional mines in the area. USS TRIPOLI was able to continue her mission for several days before being relieved by USS LA SALLE (AGF 3) and USS NEW ORLEANS (LPH 11). USS TRIPOLI then proceeded to Bahrain for repair where the photos below were taken.

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USS TRIPOLI Patch Gallery:

contributed by Ian Johnson

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USS TRIPOLI Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the decommissioned TRIPOLI at San Francisco, Calif., on March 19, 2012. The ship is serving as a mobile launch platform as part of the Ballistic Missile Defense Program. Note the "MLP 1" markings on the stern.

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