USS Iwo Jima (LPH 2)

USS IWO JIMA, the first ship to be designed and built from the keel up as an amphibious assault ship, was the lead ship of the Navy's IWO JIMA - class of amphibious assault ships (helicopter) and also the first ship in the Navy to bear the name.

Decommissioned on July 14, 1993, and stricken from the Navy list on September 24, 1993, the IWO JIMA was sold for scrapping on December 18, 1995. The ship has been scrapped at Brownsville, TX.

Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS IWO JIMA. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

Date	Where	Events
May 21, 1966	San Diego, Ca.	USS CORAL SEA (CV 43) and USS IWO JIMA briefly bump each other in San Diego, Ca., causing slight damage.
March 3, 1975	1,000 miles southwest of the Azores	USS IWO JIMA and USS NASHVILLE (LPD 13) are severely damaged when the IWO JIMA loses steering control and crashes into the NASHVILLE during highline transfer.
February 13, 1976	Caribbean	USS IWO JIMA suffers a boiler casualty while exercising in the Caribbean. The accident limits the ship's speed to 15 knots and half power. IWO JIMA got underway for New Orleans for repairs.
July 3, 1979	Norfolk Naval Shipyard	USS IWO JIMA suffer a fire in two berthing spaces injuring five. A sailor is arrested on arson 3 days later.
November 17, 1985		A CH-46 helicopter embarked aboard USS SAN DIEGO (AFS 6) crashes into a parked USMC helicopter aboard the USS IWO JIMA during a night replenishment, killing one and injuring five personnel.
October 11, 1989	80 miles southeast of Norfolk, Va.	USS EL PASO (LKA 177) accidentally hits the USS IWO JIMA with rounds from its Phalanx CIWS during gunnery practice. One sailor aboard IWO JIMA is killed and another is injured. Damage is slight.
October 30, 1990	Manama, Bahrain	USS IWO JIMA experiences a boiler casualty while getting underway from Manama, Bahrain. A leaking boiler valve blows causing large amounts of steam to be dumped into the boiler room. There are 11 casualties reported as a result of the explosion.

Date

Where

Events

May 21, 1966

San Diego, Ca.

USS CORAL SEA (CV 43) and USS IWO JIMA briefly bump each other in San Diego, Ca., causing slight damage.

March 3, 1975

1,000 miles southwest
of the Azores

USS IWO JIMA and USS NASHVILLE (LPD 13) are severely damaged when the IWO JIMA loses steering control and crashes into the NASHVILLE during highline transfer.

February 13, 1976

Caribbean

USS IWO JIMA suffers a boiler casualty while exercising in the Caribbean. The accident limits the ship's speed to 15 knots and half power. IWO JIMA got underway for New Orleans for repairs.

July 3, 1979

Norfolk Naval
Shipyard

USS IWO JIMA suffer a fire in two berthing spaces injuring five. A sailor is arrested on arson 3 days later.

November 17, 1985

A CH-46 helicopter embarked aboard USS SAN DIEGO (AFS 6) crashes into a parked USMC helicopter aboard the USS IWO JIMA during a night replenishment, killing one and injuring five personnel.

October 11, 1989

80 miles southeast
of Norfolk, Va.

USS EL PASO (LKA 177) accidentally hits the USS IWO JIMA with rounds from its Phalanx CIWS during gunnery practice. One sailor aboard IWO JIMA is killed and another is injured. Damage is slight.

October 30, 1990

Manama, Bahrain

USS IWO JIMA experiences a boiler casualty while getting underway from Manama, Bahrain. A leaking boiler valve blows causing large amounts of steam to be dumped into the boiler room. There are 11 casualties reported as a result of the explosion.

About the Ship's Name:

USS IWO JIMA is named for the epic battle of February 1945, in which three divisions of the United States Marine Corps took control of the tiny island of Iwo Jima from 22,000 determined Japanese defenders.

The United States had recovered from the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor, to the point where routine air attacks on Japanese cities could be made by heavy bombers launched from the Marianas. The successful outcome of the war seemed inevitable, but victory over the Japanese would come only at a high price. The Japanese considered Iwo Jima a part of mainland Japan, and an invader had not set foot on Japanese soil for 4,000 years.

Iwo Jima was a thorn in the side of the US heavy bomber crews. Air attacks on the Marianas bomber bases, and bombers enroute to and from Japan, were launched from Iwo Jima. An assault on the island was necessary to eliminate these air attacks and to provide a haven for damaged American aircraft returning from Japan.

Amphibious forces of the US Pacific Fleet attacked the fortress of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, with a formidable force, totaling 495 ships, including 17 aircraft carriers, 1170 planes, and 110,308 troops. Before the amphibious assault, elements of the Air Force and Army Air Corps pounded the island in the longest sustained aerial offensive of the war. Incredibly, this ferocious bombardment had little effect. Hardly any of the Japanese underground fortresses were touched.

The Japanese defenders devised a unique and deadly strategy to defend Iwo Jima from an American assault. Instead of building a barrier to stop the Americans at the beach, they fortified the interior of the island, creating a defense that could not be breached in a day.

On February 19, 1945, the first wave of Marines were launched after an hour-long bombardment by the Navy’s “big guns". The Americans planned to capture, isolate and fortify Mt. Suribachi. The success of the entire assault depended upon the early capture of the mountain.

After an hour of calm, the Japanese defenders, hiding in their network of caves and underground bunkers, unleashed a hail of gunfire. Mortars, machine guns and heavy artillery rained down from scores of machine gun nests atop Suribachi. After the first day of fighting, 566 American men were killed and 1,755 more were wounded. For the next several days, some of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific were fought on the isle of Iwo Jima.

It was a battle of attrition on terrain that had no front lines; where the attackers were exposed and the defenders fortified.

The battle for Iwo Jima was fought desperately until March 26, when the island was finally secured by US forces. In the struggle, nearly 7,000 Americans and more than 20,000 Japanese were killed. It was one of the most savage and costly battles in the history of the Marine Corps. As Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz observed, “Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

USS IWO JIMA History:

USS IWO JIMA was launched by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash., on 17 September 1960; sponsored by Mrs. Harry Schmidt; and commissioned on 26 August 1961, Capt. T. D. Harris in command.

The first ship to be designed and built from the keel up as an amphibious assault ship, IWO JIMA carried helicopters and a detachment of embarked marines for use in the Navy's newest "vertical envelopment" concept of amphibious operations. Following shakedown training, she spent the rest of 1961 off the California coast in amphibious exercises. In April 1962, the ship joined Joint Task Force 8 in the Johnston Island-Hawaii area for an important series of nuclear tests. IWO JIMA evacuated several islands and took part in the test evaluation. She sailed for Pearl Harbor, Hi., on 26 July from the test area, and continued to San Diego, where she arrived on 10 August 1962.

In September the ship took part in full-scale amphibious exercises in California, departing on 17 October from San Diego for her first deployment to the western Pacific. As a crisis flared on 19 October over the introduction of offensive missiles into Cuba, however, IWO JIMA returned to San Diego, embarked Marines from 22 to 27 October, and sailed quickly for the Caribbean. As part of America's powerful and mobile force afloat, she cruised in a "ready" status until December brought an easing of the Cuban situation. She arrived at San Diego on 13 December, having played a major role in preserving American and Latin American security.

IWO JIMA operated out of her home port during the first half of 1963, carrying out amphibious exercises and training. She departed on 30 August on her long-delayed cruise to the western Pacific. Joining the Seventh Fleet, she ranged from Hawaii to the Philippines and Taiwan.

On 31 October 1963, IWO JIMA departed Philippine waters for special operations along the coast of South Vietnam, standing by to protect American nationals during a period of increased strife. She returned to Subic Bay in the Philippines on 12 November. The following months she sailed with Special Landing Forces of marines for rigorous amphibious assault and landing raids practice off the coasts of Taiwan and Okinawa. After unloading ammunition at Sasebo, Japan, she stood out to sea on 13 April 1965 for return to San Diego, arriving on 28 April. Following amphibious training with Marines along the California seaboard, she overhauled in Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Calif. This work was completed by 7 December 1965 when IWO JIMA began amphibious refresher training ranging to the Hawaiian Islands. On 13 March 1965, she departed Pearl Harbor for San Diego, arriving six days later.

In San Diego, IWO JIMA received tons of supplies and scores of Army helicopters, tanker trucks, and vehicles in her hangar and flight deck spaces. Nearly a thousand troops were embarked for her western transit that began on 12 April. She touched Pearl Harbor a few hours on 17 April to off-load 50 Marines and their equipment, then steamed off St. Jacques, South Vietnam, from 1 to 2 May, flying off 77 Army helicopters, loaded with troops and combat cargo. From there, she proceeded to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where troops and equipment were received for amphibious landing at Chu Lai, Vietnam, on 11 May 1965.

IWO JIMA remained off Chu Lai for a month, protecting Marines and Seabees establishing an air field on the sandy shore. Besides helicopter support ashore, including defense perimeter patrol, she was a support center for laundry, showers, fresh provisions, and store and mail service. She also supervised the continual off-load of ships over the beach for the entire month, then on 7 June 1965, landed squadron personnel and helicopters ashore at Hue-Phu Bai, some 30 miles north of Da Nang. After a few days rest in Subic Bay she was routed to Sasebo, thence to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, where she embarked Marines and equipment. On 26 June 1965, she completed loading and sailed for Quinohn, South Vietnam, in company with attack transport TALLADEGA (APA 208) and dock landing ship POINT DEFIANCE (LSD 31). These ships comprised Task Group 76.5, that part of the Seventh Fleet that carried the Marine Special Landing Force. On 30 June she arrived at Quinohn, about 100 miles south of Chu Lai. The following day, marines landed ashore to take up defensive positions for the protection of Army engineers and communications units.

IWO JIMA remained off Quinohn for defensive support until 20 July 1965, then steamed for Pratas Reef about 240 miles southwest of Taiwan. Arriving the morning of 22 July, her helicopters were immediately pressed into service to aid the salvage radar picket destroyer FRANK KNOX (DDR 742). The close approach of typhoon "Gilda" pounded the grounded destroyer so badly that it was impossible for small boats to get alongside her. Extra men were heli-lifted off the destroyer while surf rose 12 feet high to break completely over the stern of FRANK KNOX. Support given by IWO JIMA included such items as hot food, clothes, water, pumps, hose, gasoline, air compressors, welding machines, damage control equipment and technicians. Feed water was heli-lifted in special tanks constructed by destroyer tender PRAIRIE (AD 15) who had faint hope of keeping the destroyer's boiler alive. Detached from this duty on 1 August 1965, IWO JIMA made a brief call at Hong Kong, then proceeded to the Philippines.

On 17 August 1965, IWO JIMA steamed out of Subic Bay for Vung Tau, Republic of Vietnam, to join in Operation Starlight, a five-day search-and-destroy operation that eradicated some 600 Viet Cong. The successful Navy-Marine Corps amphibious operation backed by gunfire support from guided missile light cruiser GALVESTON (CLG 3) and two destroyers, came to a close late on 24 August. IWO JIMA's evecuation and surgical teams kept the American casualties down to a very low percentage. During transit back to Subic Bay, she learned FRANK KNOX had been refloated, good news for IWO JIMA's crewmen who had put in so many hard and long hours at Pratas Reef. She landed her Marine Special Landing Force at Chu Lai on 1 and 2 September, embarked 800 marines of a rotation draft, and sailed for Buckner Bay.

IWO JIMA landed the rotation troops at Okinawa, then came off Quinohn on 10 September 1965, to cover the landing of the Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division. She had supported three amphibious assault search-and-destroy raids along the coast by 1 October when she steamed to southern waters, remaining in stand-by status for possible evacuation of U.S. nationals in revolt-torn Indonesia. Eight days later, she sailed for Danang for a helicopter squadron exchange, thence to Subic Bay where VALLEY FORGE (LPH 8) relieved her. Following a visit to Yokosuka, she steamed on 1 November for return to San Diego, arriving on 17 November 1965. Several months later she again joined the Seventh Fleet Amphibious Ready Group, a fast moving assault force which had completed more than 20 search-and-destroy operations along the South Vietnamese coast between March 1965 and September 1966. One of these missions hit only three miles south of the demilitarized zone to search out and decimate a regiment of the North Vietnam Army's 342B Division which had infiltrated South Vietnam through the neutral zone.

During the first three months of 1966, IWO JIMA remained at San Diego for upkeep and improvement changes. From April through June extensive refresher training occupied all hands as IWO JIMA prepared for her forthcoming Western Pacific deployment. On 24 July, steaming with a task group, she passed the volcanic island whose costly conquest by stouthearted sailors and marines had inspired her name. On board was one of the marine groups that had landed on the island of Iwo Jima over two decades earlier. After operations in the Vietnam area, she sailed for Japan. The day before New Year's Eve once again found IWO JIMA, on the line and underway for special operations in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam in a Navy-ready group with a two pronged punch. Early in January 1967 the commanding officer, Capt. Nils W. Boe, was relieved by Capt. F. X. Timmes. Upon his departure, Boe said of his crew in a family-gram to mothers and wives, "I want to thank each of you for letting me borrow these magnificent young men for a little while. They have made me feel ten feet tall."

On 1 July 1967, IWO JIMA was formally reassigned from Amphibious Squadron 1 to Amphibious Squadron 3, remaining within the Pacific Fleet at a time when United States amphibious forces were heavily committed to the Vietnam War. In the months following this administrative change, IWO JIMA continued to serve with the 7th Fleet amphibious ready group, rotating between periods "on the line" off South Vietnam and short intervals in rear areas for logistics and maintenance. Her helicopters - UH-34 and UH-1 types - had already been adapted to dense-littoral operations in the Mekong Delta. Photographs from late 1967 and early 1968 show UH-1E "Huey" gunships and utility helicopters parked across her flight deck, underscoring her role as a floating helicopter base for riverine and coastal operations.

At this stage of the war, American strategy relied increasingly on highly mobile forces able to insert Marines rapidly into contested areas and then extract them again. IWO JIMA's combination of flight deck, hangar and troop spaces made her an important asset in this concept. By early 1968, during the period of the Tet Offensive and its aftermath, IWO JIMA remained part of the 7th Fleet's amphibious posture in the western Pacific, ready to land Marines along the I Corps and II Corps coasts or to support riverine operations in the southern corps areas. Publicly available sources do not provide a day-by-day record of the ship's movements in these months, but photographic evidence and Marine Corps histories place the ship repeatedly off the Vietnamese coast. One well-documented episode occurred on 12 March 1968, when 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines boarded HMM-363 UH-34 helicopters on IWO JIMA for an operation ashore, illustrating her routine function as the launch platform for battalion-sized helicopter assaults.

Throughout 1968 she shuttled between combat stations off Vietnam and logistic stops at forward bases in the western Pacific, conducting troop lifts, resupply flights and medical evacuation sorties in support of Marine and allied forces.

During 1969, IWO JIMA undertook another extended deployment to the western Pacific and Vietnam. Deployment data compiled from Navy records indicate that from roughly March 1969 to November 1969 she was again assigned to WestPac-Vietnam duty. Command histories from that year describe the ship supporting a series of amphibious and riverine operations tied to the broader shift toward "Vietnamization" and phased redeployment of U.S. Marine units. In the Mekong Delta region, she provided helicopter and command support to riverine forces and Marines engaged near Rach Gia and Rach Soi, and later in connection with the Sea Float and Solid Anchor base complexes at Nam Can, which were established to project government control into the remote Ca Mau peninsula. Her aircraft moved troops, supplies and liaison personnel between the floating and shore installations, while her medical department treated casualties and local civilians evacuated to the ship. The 1969 command history shows IWO JIMA completing a major phase of her Vietnam employment in mid-1969, after which she sailed eastward to the Philippines and then back across the Pacific to the United States, concluding another WestPac cruise.

Across her various Vietnam deployments, the ship supported enough campaigns to earn eight campaign stars on the Vietnam Service Medal, a cumulative indicator of repeated periods of direct war-zone service between 1965 and 1970.

In early 1970, IWO JIMA's focus temporarily shifted from Southeast Asia to space operations. Designated the prime recovery ship for the APOLLO 13 mission, she embarked specialized communications and recovery facilities and joined Task Force 130 in the Pacific recovery zone south of American Samoa. On 17 April 1970, after the crippled spacecraft's re-entry and splashdown, her helicopters recovered the command module "Odyssey" and the three astronauts - James Lovell, Fred Haise and John Swigert - and brought them aboard IWO JIMA. The ship thus became the visible centerpiece of the post-flight recovery operation, hosting initial medical checks and public communications before returning the astronauts to shore. On 24 April 1970 the ship entered Pearl Harbor with the quarantined crew and the spacecraft still embarked, where the quarantine facilities and the capsule were off-loaded for onward movement to Hickam Air Force Base and Houston. From that point, the high-profile space-support task ended and USS IWO JIMA reverted to her primary role as an amphibious assault ship of the Pacific Fleet, homeported at San Diego.

Through the remainder of 1970, the ship's focus shifted back to the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia, where the Vietnam War and related crises in Cambodia and Laos continued to dominate U.S. naval planning. Veterans' records show that new crew reported aboard in the late summer of 1970 in preparation for another extended deployment, and that the ship crossed the equator in the Pacific on 15 October 1970, marked in shipboard tradition by a "Shellback" initiation. This crossing, recorded simply as taking place in the Pacific Ocean, indicates that even before the formal start of her next WestPac cruise USS IWO JIMA was already involved in long-range movements that took her south of the equator, most likely as part of pre-deployment training and positioning.

The next major phase began when USS IWO JIMA left San Diego on 2 November 1970 for a Western Pacific deployment. For this cruise she embarked a Special Landing Force known as Special Landing Force Alpha, built around Marine infantry and supporting units, together with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-165 as the primary aviation element and a detachment from heavy-lift squadron HMH-462. Operating CH-46 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters from her flight deck, the ship functioned as a helicopter assault carrier for the embarked Marines. The cruise book for this 1970-1971 deployment lists ports of call that included Subic Bay and Manila in the Philippines, Singapore, and a stop in Hawaii during the trans-Pacific legs of the voyage, reflecting the pattern of using those ports as logistic hubs and liberty ports while the ship operated under Seventh Fleet control.

While detailed day-by-day operational logs are not widely available in open sources, one specific tasking from this WestPac deployment is documented in the U.S. Naval Institute's "Naval and Maritime Events" chronology. On 18 January 1971, the U.S. command in Saigon announced that USS IWO JIMA and the amphibious transport dock USS CLEVELAND (LPD 7) had taken up stations off the Cambodian coast. This positioning reflected U.S. concern about the expansion of the conflict into Cambodia after the 1970 Cambodian campaign and the growing activity of North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces along the coastline. From their offshore stations the two ships provided a ready helicopter-borne evacuation and contingency capability while continuing routine flight operations and training for the embarked Marines, symbolising the way amphibious ships were used both as combat support units and as flexible political-military tools during the late Vietnam War.

The deployment involved repeated long-distance transits. Veteran deployment lists record Shellback initiation dates for USS IWO JIMA on 20 December 1970 and again on 1 May 1971, both noted as equator crossings in the Pacific Ocean. These line-crossing ceremonies mark at least two major north-south movements during the 1970-1971 cruise and fit the pattern of an amphibious assault ship shuttling between operating areas off South Vietnam, logistic ports such as Subic Bay and Singapore, and more southerly waters. After roughly seven months on deployment, the ship completed this WestPac tour: squadron records for her embarked aviation units give 7 June 1971 as the end date, indicating that on that day she concluded the cruise and returned to her home port at San Diego.

A major shift in the ship's service came in 1972, as the Navy redistributed amphibious assets away from Southeast Asia and toward the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres. In May 1972, USS IWO JIMA departed San Diego bound for a new home port at Norfolk, Virginia. Deployment records from both Navy and Marine aviation sources describe this move as taking place between May and June 1972 and specifically note a Panama Canal transit in that period, marking the physical and administrative transfer of the ship from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet. The timing coincided with the North Vietnamese "Easter Offensive" in South Vietnam and the corresponding U.S. decision to rely more heavily on air power and less on large amphibious formations, making it feasible to reassign a major helicopter carrier to meet NATO and Middle East–related commitments.

According to the ship's class association history, USS IWO JIMA remained only a short time in Norfolk before deploying again. Roughly six weeks after her arrival on the East Coast she sailed eastward across the Atlantic for her first Mediterranean tour as an Atlantic Fleet unit. From July 1972 to January 1973 she operated in the Mediterranean Sea with the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit embarked, and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-263 provided the aviation combat element with CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters flying from her deck. Within the U.S. Sixth Fleet framework this placed USS IWO JIMA at the core of an amphibious ready group, giving U.S. commanders a sea-based, helicopter-mobile Marine force able to conduct landings, exercises, and contingency operations around the Mediterranean littoral at a time when NATO obligations, ongoing Arab-Israeli tensions, and broader Cold War competition all shaped naval deployments. Contemporary Marine and local U.S. newspaper reports describe 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit personnel conducting training ashore and working with allied forces during this period while embarked in Mediterranean amphibious shipping, and HMM-263's unit history lists this July 1972-January 1973 IWO JIMA deployment as one of its major cruises after leaving Vietnam.

With the completion of that six-month Mediterranean cruise in early 1973, USS IWO JIMA returned to Norfolk. She then entered a period of maintenance, refresher training, and local operations in the western Atlantic and off the U.S. East Coast to consolidate the changes that had come with the shift from Pacific to Atlantic service. For the improvements demonstrated over this period, particularly following her home-port change and first Atlantic Fleet deployment, the ship was recognised in 1973 with the Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy as the most improved ship in the Atlantic Fleet, a fleet-wide award that reflected the extent of her progress in material condition and operational performance in the year after joining the Atlantic command.

On 6 October 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, starting what became known as the Yom Kippur War. The conflict rapidly drew in the superpowers diplomatically and prompted a large U.S. naval buildup in the Mediterranean. In this context, a U.S. Naval Institute chronology for the second half of 1973 records that the United States announced that USS IWO JIMA would depart for the Mediterranean "in the next few days", with the explicit purpose of doubling the size of the U.S. Marine force present there. In October 1973, the ship accordingly left Norfolk on short notice, embarking the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit once more together with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-261, whose CH-46F Sea Knights served as the air combat element for this crisis deployment.

By mid-month, USS IWO JIMA was already on station in the Mediterranean: photographs held in naval photo archives show the ship in those waters during the height of the crisis. Her task at this stage was to provide a ready, sea-based helicopter-borne Marine force capable of conducting non-combatant evacuations, showing presence, or supporting other contingency operations as directed, while U.S. and Soviet diplomacy worked to contain the war and negotiate cease-fire arrangements. At the same time, decisions were being taken to organise a mine-countermeasures force to clear the Suez Canal of mines and unexploded ordnance once a political settlement allowed it to be reopened. In reaction to the October 1973 crisis, the U.S. Navy selected USS IWO JIMA to act as flagship for this future effort. Planning for what would become Task Force 65 and the mine-clearance operations later known as NIMBUS STAR and NIMBUS MOON was already under way by the end of the month.

In the months after the ceasefire, she remained in the region and participated in Operation NIMBUS STAR. Mine countermeasures ships conducted the actual sweeping, while IWO JIMA provided command facilities, aviation support, and logistic backing in the confined eastern Mediterranean operating areas.

In 1974, IWO JIMA again embarked HMM-261 and spent extended periods with the 6th Fleet, operating in both the western and eastern Mediterranean and conducting amphibious training with NATO partners. In 1975 she carried HMM-264 and conducted additional amphibious exercises and port visits, while photographic records from 1974-1975 show her regularly off the Virginia Capes, underscoring the ongoing pattern of work-ups off the U.S. East Coast followed by 6th Fleet cruises.

In 1976, the ship's schedule intersected with domestic celebrations and renewed Lebanese turmoil. Early in the year, IWO JIMA visited New Orleans, where she hosted more than a thousand guests during the U.S. Bicentennial Mardi Gras, functioning as a public showpiece for the Navy and Marine Corps in a major American port. In June 1976, she departed on another Mediterranean deployment and soon became involved in the second major evacuation of civilians from Beirut, Lebanon, during a volatile phase of the Lebanese Civil War. Embarked Marines and helicopters supported the removal of American citizens and other foreign nationals from the city to offshore ships, with IWO JIMA serving as one of the principal platforms in this non-combatant evacuation operation.

After returning to Norfolk, IWO JIMA underwent a significant period in dry dock at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in October 1977, where she received hull, machinery and systems work to extend her service life. Once back at sea, she resumed the established cycle of Atlantic and Mediterranean employment. In 1979 she embarked HMM-263, with photographic evidence documenting the squadron's CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters crowding her flight deck during another Mediterranean or Atlantic deployment. These late-1970s cruises reflected the broader NATO focus on demonstrating amphibious capability along both the northern and southern flanks of Europe.

In September 1980, IWO JIMA participated in NATO Exercise TEAM WORK '80, a large-scale naval and amphibious exercise in the North Atlantic and off Norway intended to practise reinforcement of northern Europe in a crisis. Operating as part of a multinational amphibious task force, she embarked Marines and helicopters for cold-weather landings on Norwegian training beaches, working alongside other U.S. and allied amphibious ships and escorts. This exercise highlighted the ship's adaptability, moving from warmer Mediterranean climates to North Atlantic conditions and operating in complex multinational command arrangements.

The ship's most sustained and politically visible employment came during 1983, when she again went to the Mediterranean at a time of intense conflict in Lebanon. From 10 May 1983 to 8 December 1983, IWO JIMA served in the Mediterranean as part of Amphibious Ready Group MARG 2-83, with the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit embarked. Off the Lebanese coast she acted as flagship for Amphibious Squadron 8, commanded by Captain Morgan France, while the bulk of the 24th MAU came ashore on 29 May to relieve the 22nd MAU as the primary U.S. contingent in the Multinational Force in Lebanon. The Marines established positions in and around Beirut International Airport, and IWO JIMA's helicopters, boats and communications systems sustained the logistic and command link between the offshore amphibious group and the forces on the ground. On 23 October 1983, when a truck bomb destroyed the Marine barracks near the airport, killing 241 U.S. servicemen, IWO JIMA supported the emergency response and subsequent reinforcement and extraction efforts, remaining on station off Beirut for the remainder of the deployment.

After Lebanon, IWO JIMA continued to see intensive employment with Atlantic Fleet amphibious forces. In April 1984, she took part in Operation OCEAN VENTURE off Puerto Rico, a major U.S.-led joint and combined exercise in the Caribbean that tested amphibious operations, anti-air warfare and sea control in a crisis scenario. Photographs show the ship operating off Puerto Rico during this period, with CH-46 helicopters of HMM-365 embarked as part of the exercise air group.

In 1985, she moved once more to the eastern Mediterranean and Egyptian waters for Exercise BRIGHT STAR, a recurring U.S.-Egyptian exercise designed to practise rapid reinforcement of the Middle East. Photos identify IWO JIMA off Egypt in 1985 with HMM-261 and elements of the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit embarked, again in an amphibious assault and contingency role.

In February 1987 the ship appears repeatedly in photographic records operating in the western Atlantic with a Marine air combat element embarked, followed in May 1987 by her departure from Morehead City, North Carolina, for Exercise SOLID SHIELD, an annual large-scale amphibious and joint exercise along the U.S. East Coast. During SOLID SHIELD '87, IWO JIMA and her task group conducted landings on North Carolina beaches, practising the rapid embarkation and debarkation of Marines and equipment under simulated combat conditions and refining command-and-control procedures for larger amphibious task forces.

From February to August 1988, IWO JIMA completed another Mediterranean deployment, this time with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) and helicopter squadron HMM-365 embarked. Operating with the 6th Fleet, she supported amphibious exercises with allied navies, presence missions in the central and eastern Mediterranean, and contingency planning for evacuation or intervention missions in a region still affected by tensions in Lebanon and emerging instability in North Africa. Her SO-capable MEU provided specialized boarding, raid and reconnaissance capabilities that were increasingly emphasised in late-Cold-War amphibious doctrine.

A year later, IWO JIMA was again at sea with Marines. From October 1989 to April 1990 she served as amphibious assault ship for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit with HMM-365 embarked, conducting another Mediterranean deployment with the 6th Fleet. During this general period, on 11 October 1989, she was involved in a serious training accident off the U.S. East Coast. While the amphibious cargo ship USS EL PASO (LKA 117) conducted a live-fire Phalanx Close-In Weapon System exercise against a target drone, the system re-engaged the falling drone and inadvertently directed fire toward IWO JIMA. Rounds struck the LPH's bridge, killing one officer and wounding a petty officer.

In August 1990, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, IWO JIMA departed Naval Station Norfolk for the Persian Gulf as part of the immediate U.S. naval response that became Operation DESERT SHIELD. Photos show her at anchor in Bahrain in October 1990, indicating that she was forward deployed with embarked Marines during the early stages of the crisis. In the Gulf she often operated in conjunction with the larger amphibious assault ship USS NASSAU (LHA 4) and other elements of the amphibious task force, providing helicopter lift, command facilities and troop berthing for the Marine forces assembled for potential landings along the Kuwaiti coast.

A catastrophic engineering accident interrupted this deployment. In late October 1990, while IWO JIMA lay in Manama, Bahrain, a contractor-repaired steam valve in one of her boiler rooms failed during the process of raising steam to return to sea. On 30 October 1990, the bonnet of the valve blew off, releasing high-pressure steam from two boilers into the space. Ten of the eleven sailors in the boiler room died from burns and inhalation injuries, with the last dying later that evening. Investigations determined that the immediate cause was the installation of incorrect brass fasteners rather than the required steel bolts, compounded by inadequate inspection of the repair work. The accident removed IWO JIMA from front-line service for a period while emergency repairs and subsequent overhauls were carried out.

Despite this setback, IWO JIMA returned to operational status in time to participate in later phases of the Gulf conflict and its aftermath. Photographs show her again at sea in 1991 during Operation DESERT STORM, with Marines embarked and helicopters spotted across her deck, and later returning to Morehead City, North Carolina, after Gulf service. Additional images depict the ship back at Norfolk in late 1991 and undergoing overhaul at Metro Machine Company's Imperial Docks in Norfolk in August that year, confirming that she combined post-accident repair with post-war maintenance before resuming the Atlantic Fleet deployment cycle.

In the final phase of her career, IWO JIMA continued to deploy with Marine expeditionary units to the Mediterranean and adjacent waters. Deployment data and imagery show that from May 1992 to November 1992 she sailed once more with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and HMM-365 embarked, operating not only in the Mediterranean but also in the Adriatic Sea. This deployment coincided with the early stages of the wars of Yugoslav succession, and IWO JIMA, like other amphibious ships of the 6th Fleet, maintained a visible presence and stood ready for potential non-combatant evacuations from the Balkans, though open sources do not record a major landing or evacuation conducted by the ship during this period. After her return from this cruise she spent the remainder of her active life in training, upkeep and preparation for decommissioning.

USS IWO JIMA was decommissioned on 14 July 1993 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 September 1993, ending more than three decades of service that had begun with Cold War amphibious experiments and encompassed intensive Vietnam War operations, space-capsule recovery, Middle Eastern crises, multinational exercises and Gulf War deployments. She was sold for scrapping on 18 December 1995. For a time, her island superstructure was preserved at the Museum of the American GI in College Station, Texas, but in the absence of funding for long-term maintenance it too was eventually scrapped, leaving photographs, cruise books and veterans’ accounts as the primary surviving record of the ship's continuous operational life from July 1967 through her final years in the early 1990s.

General Characteristics:	Awarded: January 30, 1958
	Keel laid: April 2, 1959
	Launched: September 17, 1960
	Commissioned: August 26, 1961
	Decommissioned: July 14, 1993
	Builder: Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA.
	Propulsion system: Two boilers, one geared steam turbines, one shaft, 22,000 total shaft horsepower
	Propellers: one
	Length: 603, 65 feet (184 meters)
	Beam: 104 feet (31.7 meters)
	Draft: 25,9 feet (7.9 meters)
	Aircraft elevators: two
	Displacement: approx. 19,500 tons full load
	Speed: 23 knots
	Aircraft: 20 UH-46D Sea Knight Helicopters, 10 MH-53E Sea Stallion Helicopters, 3 UH-1 Helicopters, 3 AH-1 Helicopters but the actual mix depends upon mission
	Armament: two Phalanx CIWS
	Crew: 80 officers, 638 enlisted, 1,750 Marine Detachment

	contributed by Bruce Gillikin