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About the Sinking of USS Okinawa

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USS Okinawa (LPH 3)

USS OKINAWA was the second IWO JIMA - class Amphibious Assault Ship (Helicopter) and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name.

Decommissioned and stricken from the Navy list on December 17, 1992, the OKINAWA was disposed of as a target off the coast of southern California on June 6, 2002. The SINKEX was conducted at 031° 27' 03.0" North, 119° 42' 63.0" West by the USS PORTSMOUTH (SSN 707) using a MK-48 ADCAP torpedo.

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Crew List:

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

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USS OKINAWA Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1970
• WestPac Cruise Book 1973-74
• WestPac Cruise Book 1975
• WestPac Cruise Book 1980
• WestPac Cruise Book 1985
• Operation Desert Shield / Desert Storm Cruise Book 1990-91
• WestPac Cruise Book 1992

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Accidents aboard USS OKINAWA:

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USS OKINAWA History:

USS OKINAWA was laid down 1 April 1960 (15th anniversary of the invasion of Okinawa) by the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Pa.; launched 19 August 1961; sponsored by Mrs. John L. McClellan, wife of the Senator from Arkansas; and commissioned 14 April 1962, Capt. William E. Lemos in command.

Following commissioning and sea trials, OKINAWA departed Philadelphia 20 June 1962 for her homeport, Norfolk, where she spent a month fitting out. After a six-week shakedown cruise out of Guantanamo Bay and another month in Norfolk, the amphibious assault ship began participation in her first fleet exercise in the Caribbean, 15 October. Shortly thereafter, the Cuban Quarantine was placed in effect and OKINAWA remained in the area, lending force to the United States' stand, until 3 December when she returned to Norfolk.

The first half of 1963 was spent in availability at the Philadelphia and Norfolk Naval Shipyards and further trial operations in the Caribbean and out of Norfolk. On 9 July, OKINAWA began her first formal Caribbean deployment, returning to Norfolk 1 October and spending the remainder of that year and the first part of the next in that area. During June 1964, she sailed to Newport, R.I., and New York for the World's Fair. On 7 October, she left on her first trip to European waters, for operation "Steel Pike I", an amphibious exercise off the coast of Spain. After a stop in France and a goodwill visit to Plymouth, England, OKINAWA arrived back in Norfolk at the end of November.

In April 1965, while participating in an exercise off Puerto Rico, OKINAWA was alerted and sent to an area off the Dominican Republic to act as medical evacuation ship with her Marines as a floating reserve during the crisis in that troubled country. Then, following the end of her deployment, she proceeded via Norfolk to Philadelphia for overhaul. The following April she returned to Norfolk and began her third Caribbean deployment on 13 June. OKINAWA transferred to the Pacific Fleet sailing 24 January 1967, for the West Coast, and arriving San Diego, her new homeport, 8 February.

OKINAWA left on 10 March for her first deployment off Vietnam. On 13 April, while sailing from Okinawa to Taiwan, the ship was diverted by a distress call, and the next day rescued all 38 persons from the grounded Panamanian vessel SILVER PEAK near the Sento Shosho Islands. While off Vietnam, OKINAWA was a mobile base from which a well-equipped force of Marines could quickly strike via helicopters at the Communist insurgents. She returned to San Diego 5 December.

On 4 April 1968, after an intensive period of special training, OKINAWA recovered the unmanned Apollo VI space capsule 380 miles north of Kauai, Hawaii. With further exercises and upkeep, she conducted her second Westpac deployment from 2 November to 26 June 1969, when she arrived in San Diego for leave and upkeep.

In January 1970, OKINAWA took part in the fleet-wide introduction of the Basic Point Defense Missile System when a RIM-7 SEA SPARROW surface-to-air missile was test-fired from the Mk 25 launcher fitted on her starboard side.

A major tasking that year reflected the wider re-equipment of Western allies in the Pacific. New Zealand had purchased ten A-4K Skyhawk strike aircraft and four TA-4K trainers for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and these were loaded aboard OKINAWA on the U.S. West Coast for ocean transport. After crossing the Pacific and riding out a particularly severe storm after leaving Hawaii, the ship arrived at Auckland, New Zealand, on 17 May 1970, where the crated or preserved aircraft were off-loaded at the port and then moved by road to RNZAF Whenuapai for preparation and onward ferry to RNZAF Base Ohakea. The delivery completed New Zealand's transition to a modern jet strike force, and contemporary accounts note that the arrival of the Skyhawks from OKINAWA was a politically visible event, drawing both official attention and public protest.

Later in 1970, OKINAWA's helicopters and embarked Marines were reassigned from combat support to humanitarian work. In October 1970, Super Typhoon Joan crossed southern Luzon and the Bicol region of the Philippines between about 7 October and 18 October, making landfall in the Lagonoy Gulf area and causing extensive destruction in coastal communities. In the weeks after the storm, OKINAWA operated off the Lagonoy Gulf together with the dock landing ship USS ANCHORAGE (LSD 36) and the amphibious transport dock USS DULUTH (LPD 6), using embarked CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters to move food, medical supplies, and emergency assistance ashore to isolated villages and towns that had lost road access. For this relief effort in the wake of Typhoon Joan, the ship and her crew were later recognized with the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation for humanitarian assistance to the people of the Lagonoy Gulf.

In 1971, OKINAWA's most visible mission was tied not to Southeast Asia but to the U.S. space program. She was designated the primary recovery ship in the Pacific for the APOLLO 15 lunar mission, which launched on 26 July 1971 at the height of the race to consolidate U.S. achievements in manned spaceflight. After completing their extended stay on the lunar surface and a period in lunar orbit, the crew re-entered Earth's atmosphere and the APOLLO 15 command module ENDEAVOUR splashed down in the Pacific on 7 August 1971 at about 16:45 local time. Recovery helicopters from OKINAWA quickly closed the capsule, and approximately forty minutes after splashdown, at about 17:25 on 7 August 1971, astronauts David Scott, James Irwin, and Alfred Worden were brought aboard the ship. From her position near Hawaii she then served as the platform for initial medical checks and post-flight procedures before the crew was transferred onward to the continental United States, underscoring the role of large amphibious ships in the support structure of the space program.

Following the Apollo recovery, OKINAWA returned to her routine pattern of Pacific Fleet employment, but in 1972 she again moved into direct support of the Vietnam War at a time when the conflict was entering its final, highly contested phase. In May 1972, she deployed with the 9th Marine Amphibious Brigade embarked, together with a reinforced helicopter squadron, HMM-164, for operations in the western Pacific and off the coast of South Vietnam during the so-called Easter Offensive and the subsequent U.S. aerial and naval campaign often grouped under the label LINEBACKER. This deployment ran roughly from May 1972 until November 1972. Operating as an amphibious assault ship and helicopter platform, OKINAWA emboldened the U.S. Navy's ability to move Marines rapidly along the coast, to support naval gunfire spotting, and to provide search and rescue coverage for air and naval forces.

One well-documented episode from that 1972 deployment illustrates the ship's role in the broader air war. On 10 May 1972, during one of the most intense days of aerial combat over North Vietnam, U.S. Navy F-4J Phantom II crew Commander Randall "Duke" Cunningham and Lieutenant William Driscoll, flying from the aircraft carrier USS CONSTELLATION (CVA 64), shot down several enemy MiG fighters before their own aircraft was damaged and they were forced to eject. A Marine CH-46 helicopter operating from OKINAWA conducted the rescue, recovering the two aviators from the Gulf of Tonkin and bringing them aboard the amphibious assault ship. From there, they were later transferred back to CONSTELLATION. The incident showed the close integration of amphibious ships, Marine helicopter units, and carrier air wings in the complex operational environment off Vietnam in 1972.

After the 1972 deployment, the cease-fire process that followed the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973 sharply reduced the likelihood of large-scale amphibious landings in Vietnam, but OKINAWA continued to serve as part of the forward-deployed U.S. presence in the western Pacific. During this period, she alternated training, maintenance, and readiness operations from San Diego with deployments that are recorded mainly through cruise books rather than detailed operational summaries. A WestPac deployment covering late 1973 and early 1974 is documented by the ship's 1973-74 cruise book, which shows the ship visiting Subic Bay and Olongapo in the Philippines among its ports of call. These images confirm that OKINAWA remained part of the familiar pattern of Seventh Fleet amphibious operations centered on the Philippines and the South China Sea in the immediate post-ceasefire period, even though open sources provide relatively few exact entry and departure dates for individual ports on that cruise.

By 1975 the geopolitical situation in Southeast Asia had changed fundamentally. North Vietnamese forces were advancing toward Saigon, and the Khmer Rouge were closing in on Phnom Penh. OKINAWA once again moved to the center of events. She departed San Diego on 8 January 1975 for a Western Pacific deployment with the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit embarked, including Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMH-462 equipped with heavy CH-53 helicopters. The amphibious group deployed under Commander Task Force 76 and was held in readiness in the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea as the situation in Cambodia and South Vietnam deteriorated.

The first crisis to require action was in Cambodia. On 12 April 1975, as Phnom Penh was near collapse, Operation EAGLE PULL was executed to evacuate the U.S. Embassy and selected Cambodian and third-country nationals. In the early morning, twelve CH-53 helicopters of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron HMH-462 launched from OKINAWA, carrying a security force of roughly 360 Marines from the 31st MAU. They flew to prepared landing zones around the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, secured the perimeter, and then lifted out diplomats, including U.S. Ambassador John Gunther Dean, along with other evacuees. The helicopters cycled between the city and the evacuation task force, bringing evacuees back to ships that included OKINAWA and the amphibious command ship USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC 19). The operation removed several hundred people from the city just days before it fell to the Khmer Rouge.

Barely two weeks later, OKINAWA was again heavily engaged, this time in the final phase of the Vietnam War. On 29 April and 30 April 1975, she served as one of the principal helicopter platforms for Operation FREQUENT WIND, the helicopter evacuation of Saigon. In the last hours before the city fell, Marine and Air Force helicopters shuttled evacuees from the U.S. Embassy compound and the Defense Attache Office at Tan Son Nhut to a large flotilla of U.S. Navy ships off the Vietnamese coast. OKINAWA operated alongside the aircraft carriers USS HANCOCK (CV 19), USS MIDWAY (CV 41), USS CORAL SEA (CV 43), and USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65), as well as amphibious and logistic ships such as USS BLUE RIDGE, USS ANCHORAGE, USS MOUNT VERNON (LSD 39), USS DENVER (LPD 9), USS DUBUQUE (LPD 8), USS DULUTH (LPD 6), and a group of tank landing ships including USS BARBOUR COUNTY (LST 1195), USS FREDERICK (LST 1184), USS TUSCALOOSA (LST 1187), and USS PEORIA (LST 1183). Photographs from the operation show South Vietnamese UH-1 helicopters being pushed over the side of OKINAWA's flight deck to clear space for arriving aircraft, illustrating the intensity of the helicopter flow and the priority given to embarking as many evacuees as possible.

During FREQUENT WIND, OKINAWA's air group flew continuous sorties in coordination with the broader Task Force 76 and Task Force 77 structure, which combined amphibious ships, carriers, escorts, and logistic support. Marine helicopters operating to and from OKINAWA contributed to the evacuation of thousands of U.S. citizens and Vietnamese and third-country nationals judged to be at risk, while Navy and Marine aircraft from the carriers provided air cover against any potential interference. By late 30 April 1975, with Saigon in North Vietnamese hands, the evacuation was complete, and OKINAWA, having been central to both the Cambodian and Vietnamese evacuations, returned to more routine deployments. Her 1975 Western Pacific cruise concluded in July 1975, bringing the 31st MAU back to home waters after one of the most politically significant amphibious operations of the post-Second World War era.

In the following years, OKINAWA continued to serve as a primary helicopter assault platform for Marine amphibious units in the Pacific. A deployment from roughly September 1978 to April 1979 saw her again as the nucleus of a forward-deployed force, this time with the 31st Marine Amphibious Unit and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-165 (reinforced) embarked. That cruise, described in Marine aviation records as covering a WESTPAC and Indian Ocean period, reflected the growing U.S. interest in the Indian Ocean sea lanes during the period of late Cold War competition and, increasingly, concerns over stability around the Arabian Peninsula after the Iranian Revolution. Although detailed daily movements are not widely published, contemporary photographs show OKINAWA in Subic Bay and in other western Pacific anchorages during this timeframe.

The ship's Indian Ocean role became more defined in 1980. Early that year, she again embarked the 31st MAU, now with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines as the ground combat element, aviation units from Marine Air Group 24, and support elements from Marine Amphibious Unit Service Support Group 31. After loading additional forces at Pearl Harbor in February 1980, the task group built around OKINAWA moved west across the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. On 24 April 1980, in the context of the Iranian hostage crisis, the OKINAWA amphibious group rendezvoused with the aircraft carrier USS NIMITZ (CVN 68) off Iran as an afloat reserve for Operation EAGLE CLAW, the attempted rescue of U.S. hostages in Tehran. Although the rescue mission failed ashore and the embarked Marines were not committed, OKINAWA and her group remained on station for an extended period - sources describe some fifty-plus days - providing a visible amphibious presence during a period of high regional tension and marking one of the earliest sustained amphibious deployments to the Indian Ocean.

Through the early 1980s, OKINAWA continued to cycle through deployments that combined WestPac port visits, training exercises, and operations in the broader Indian Ocean region. Imagery documents her in the Indian Ocean in October 1981 and off the Philippines in August 1982, while Navy records list an August 1985 to December 1985 deployment with the 13th Marine Amphibious Unit and Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-164 embarked. These cruises coincided with ongoing regional frictions, such as the protracted Iran-Iraq War, and were part of the pattern of U.S. naval presence operations intended to reassure allies and deter potential adversaries, even though most day-to-day events on these deployments were standard training and readiness activities rather than named combat operations.

The late 1980s brought OKINAWA into another high-profile operational setting, this time in the Persian Gulf. On 7 October 1987, she left on a deployment that would last until 7 April 1988, during which she supported mine countermeasures and amphibious security operations associated with Operation EARNEST WILL and the related covert effort Operation PRIME CHANCE, both conducted against the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq "Tanker War". Embarked on OKINAWA were RH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron HM-14, whose role was to tow minesweeping gear and to support surveillance missions over shipping lanes. Contemporary photographs show these large helicopters operating from her flight deck while the ocean minesweeper USS INFLICT (MSO 456) worked nearby, illustrating the combined use of surface and airborne mine countermeasures.

During this 1987-1988 deployment, OKINAWA served as the flagship and principal aviation platform for Contingency Marine Air-Ground Task Force 1-88 (MAGTF 1-88). Marines from 3d Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion embarked on the ship and were used to provide air-defense detachments ashore on the mobile sea bases HERCULES and WIMBROWN VII, converted barges positioned in the northern Gulf to support special operations forces, patrol boats, and helicopter units during PRIME CHANCE. From OKINAWA, these Marines manned Stinger air-defense positions and other security posts, helping to safeguard the sea bases against potential Iranian aircraft and missile threats as U.S. naval forces sought to protect reflagged tankers from mining and attack. The deployment was significant enough that later Marine histories specifically associate OKINAWA, MAGTF 1-88, and these mobile sea bases with the success of EARNEST WILL and PRIME CHANCE in deterring further Iranian interference with shipping.

After completing this Persian Gulf deployment by returning to the United States in April 1988, OKINAWA resumed her pattern of amphibious readiness group operations in the Pacific. By 1990, she was again deployed westward, this time as the flagship for the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable). In August 1990, while on a WestPac cruise, the ship and the 13th MEU were diverted to the Persian Gulf in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the build-up of Coalition forces for Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM. Navy documentation and Marine unit awards later recorded OKINAWA, together with other amphibious ships such as USS OGDEN (LPD 5), USS MOUNT VERNON, USS JUNEAU (LPD 10), and others, as part of the amphibious task force associated with the Gulf War.

During DESERT SHIELD, OKINAWA and her embarked Marines formed part of an amphibious force positioned in the Persian Gulf and northern Arabian Sea, whose very presence contributed to Iraqi fears of an amphibious landing along the Kuwaiti coast. When DESERT STORM began in January 1991, Marines on OKINAWA prepared for possible landings, but their primary kinetic contribution came in the form of helicopter operations. According to later accounts, helicopters from OKINAWA were launched as part of deception and diversion efforts at the start of the ground campaign in February 1991, reinforcing the perception that a seaborne assault might accompany the main Coalition advance into Kuwait and southern Iraq. The Gulf War deployment ran from mid-1990 until roughly April 1991, at which point photographs show OKINAWA returning to San Diego.

Even after the liberation of Kuwait, OKINAWA's career continued for a final deployment. A 1992 cruise with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) and reinforced helicopter squadron HMM-166 took her once more across the Pacific and into the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. Images from this period show her at Subic Bay in February and June 1992 and operating in the Gulf, with mixed U.S. and regional helicopters - such as Kuwaiti SA-330 Puma aircraft - landing on her deck, reflecting the shift from high-intensity combat preparations to multinational exercises and presence operations in the post-war security environment of the Gulf.

By late 1992 the ship, commissioned in 1962, was approaching the end of her service life. After returning to San Diego and off-loading her final embarked units, USS OKINAWA was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 December 1992 in a ceremony at Naval Station San Diego. She was then transferred to the Maritime Administration and laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California, where she remained for nearly a decade. Finally, on 6 June 2002, the former amphibious assault ship was towed to a deep-water location off Southern California and sunk as a target in a fleet exercise. After being struck by air-launched Maverick and Harpoon missiles and general-purpose bombs, she was finished by a Mk 48 torpedo from the submarine USS PORTSMOUTH (SSN 707), coming to rest in very deep water.

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About the Sinking of USS OKINAWA:

USS OKINAWA which served the US Navy for over 30 years, was put to rest off the coast of Southern California as part of a COMSUBPAC ship sinking exercise (SINKEX) on June 6, 2002. The ship was sunk by a NUWC Keyport-built MK-48 Mod 5 ADCAP torpedo fired by USS PORTSMOUTH (SSN 707). Decommissioned in December of 1992, the OKINAWA had resided at the Suisan Bay Reserve Fleet in Benecia, CA before being transferred to Naval Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Bremerton in August 2000 for SINKEX preparation.

Though the ADCAP torpedo was the weapon that ultimately sank the OKINAWA, it wasn’t the only ordnance employed against her that day. Prior to the warshot firing, naval air training operations were conducted involving several Maverick and Harpoon missile firings as well as a number of general-purpose bomb drops. Though the OKINAWA did sustain some minor damage during the air exercises, there was never any sign of her going down prematurely. After the actual torpedo detonation, the OKINAWA, due to its large size and watertight condition, listed increasingly for almost four hours before ultimately descend below the surface.

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USS OKINAWA Image Gallery:

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