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Memorabilia

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USS Boxer's COs

Interesting Facts

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Homeports of USS Boxer

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USS Boxer (LHD 4)

USS BOXER is the fourth amphibious assault ship (multi-purpose) in the WASP - class and the sixth ship in the Navy to bear the name. With a construction cost of $341 million, USS BOXER is also the cheapest ship in her class.

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Crew List:

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

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• Click here to see which USS BOXER memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS BOXER Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1998-99
• WestPac Cruise Book 2001
• WestPac Cruise Book 2003
• WestPac Cruise Book 2006-07
• WestPac Cruise Book 2009
• WestPac Cruise Book 2013-14

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USS BOXER's Commanding Officers:

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Interesting Facts:

• USS BOXER’s Food Services Department provides about 9,700 meals a day.
• USS BOXER’s two propulsion plants generate a total of 400 tons of steam per hour. If the energy of the two boilers were converted to electrical power, it could power a city of 160,000.
• The fuel distribution system on board is capable of receiving and transferring 360,000 gallons per hour.
• USS BOXER’s electrical power subsystem develops 5 Megawatts of electric power.
• USS BOXER’s 1,500 tons of air conditioning equipment and fresh water storage facilities exceed necessary requirements to keep the ship running smoothly.
• USS BOXER’s destilling units are capable of making over 200,000 gallons of fresh water a day.

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USS BOXER History:

USS BOXER was built at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where fabrication began on July 9, 1990, keel was authenticated on April 8, 1991, she launched on August 13, 1993, and the Navy accepted delivery on November 21, 1994. Commissioned on February 11, 1995, for duty with the U.S. Pacific Fleet, she promptly transited to her West Coast homeport via the Panama Canal and commenced post-commissioning trials and shakedown in Southern California operating areas through 1996. Early milestones recorded in command histories included initial trials, restricted availability work in San Diego, and routine at-sea periods that set the foundation for her first deployment.

Following workups, BOXER executed her maiden Western Pacific deployment from March 24, 1997 to September 24, 1997, with an amphibious ready group that included USS OGDEN (LPD 5) and USS HARPERS FERRY (LSD 49). The cruise featured regional engagement port calls - including a noted April 18-21, 1997 visit to Hong Kong - and routine presence operations at a time of steady post-Cold War maritime cooperation across the Indo-Pacific.

The ship returned to sea on December 5, 1998, for a WestPac-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf deployment with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), participating in bilateral exercises such as EDGED MALLET, NEON FALCON and EAGER MACE while Amphibious Squadron SEVEN reported port visits to Hong Kong, Singapore, Phuket, Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali, Bali, Townsville, and Pearl Harbor. That sequence reflected the late-1990s emphasis on theater security cooperation in the Arabian Gulf and Southeast Asia. BOXER completed the cruise on June 5, 1999.

On March 13, 2001, BOXER again deployed to the Western Pacific, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch - the enforcement regime over Iraq that preceded the 2003 invasion. During this deployment she visited Singapore, Thailand, Guam, Jebel Ali, Bahrain and Jordan, returning to San Diego on September 14, 2001, just three days after the 9/11 attacks that reshaped U.S. operations in the region.

With the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom, BOXER surged early on January 17, 2003, as flagship of a San Diego-based amphibious group that included USS BONHOMME RICHARD (LHD 6), USS ANCHORAGE (LSD 36), USS CLEVELAND (LPD 7), USS COMSTOCK (LSD 45), USS DUBUQUE (LPD 8) and USS PEARL HARBOR (LSD 52). She supported combat operations for the opening phase of the war, remaining at sea for the first 100 days before a short logistics break in Jebel Ali on April 27, 2003, and then completed the deployment on July 26, 2003. BOXER earned the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for Pacific Fleet performance that year.

In another early "surge" sortie, BOXER got underway alone on January 14, 2004, to deliver equipment and supplies to Kuwait Naval Base in support of the post-invasion stabilization of Iraq (often referred to as OIF II), returning to San Diego on April 29, 2004. The brief but purposeful evolution underscored the amphibs' logistics value to CENTCOM in the immediate post-major-combat period.

BOXER conducted a Western Pacific deployment from April to September 2005, that centered on presence operations and bilateral training across the theater, then sailed again with the 15th MEU on September 13, 2006. By November 8, 2006, the BOXER Expeditionary Strike Group had entered the U.S. Fifth Fleet area for maritime security operations while the embarked MEU pushed ashore to Al Anbar Province during the Iraq "surge", before re-embarking and returning home on May 31, 2007. Port periods during this era included Manama, Bahrain (where BOXER tested a new liberty tracking system), with the MEU's own record highlighting India and Maldives stops for bilateral work on the westbound leg.

From April 28 to June 26, 2008, the ship shifted from combat readiness to humanitarian engagement as the Pacific-phase platform for Operation Continuing Promise 2008. Embarking military medical teams, Seabees and NGO partners, BOXER delivered care and civil-engineering assistance in El Salvador (a 13-day period), Guatemala and Peru - an emblem of U.S. soft-power outreach in the Americas that year - before returning to San Diego.

Deploying again on January 9, 2009, BOXER operated in the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean as flagship of the multinational anti-piracy Combined Task Force 151. In April 2009, during the MAERSK ALABAMA hostage crisis, Capt. Richard Phillips was brought aboard BOXER after his rescue for medical evaluation and rest. The ship continued counter-piracy tasking and coordination with partner forces in the region before returning to San Diego on August 1, 2009. The deployment captured the operational pivot to maritime security and coalition interdiction off the Horn of Africa that marked those years.

On February 22, 2011, BOXER got underway with the 13th MEU for a seven-month WestPac and Indian Ocean deployment that featured routine Fifth Fleet maritime security operations and port engagement across the region, before returning to Southern California on September 30, 2011 as the U.S. balanced ongoing CENTCOM commitments with Pacific presence.

She sailed next with the 13th MEU from August 24, 2013 to April 24, 2014, operating between Seventh and Fifth Fleet theaters and conducting partnered engagement in the Western Pacific and Arabian Sea. The MEU's formal homecoming on April 24, 2014, at Camp Pendleton capped the eight-month cruise amid the drawdown from major ground operations ashore and an increased emphasis on sea-based, rapidly deployable crisis response.

On February 12, 2016, BOXER departed again - this time with USS NEW ORLEANS (LPD 18), USS HARPERS FERRY (LSD 49) and the 13th MEU - for a deployment that traversed Seventh and Fifth Fleets. After a March port call in Hong Kong at the conclusion of the ROK-U.S. amphibious exercise Ssang Yong, the group entered Fifth Fleet on April 5. In mid-June, AV-8B Harriers from BOXER began strike sorties for Operation Inherent Resolve from the Arabian Gulf while aircraft from USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) struck from the Mediterranean - the first time naval aviation hit ISIS targets simultaneously from two maritime theaters. Along the way BOXER made liberty calls in Bahrain (June 7-11) and Jebel Ali/Dubai and completed the cruise with a late-August return-leg stop in Pearl Harbor.

The BOXER ARG and embarked 11th MEU left San Diego on May 1, 2019, and were operating in the Strait of Hormuz on July 18, 2019, when U.S. officials stated that BOXER downed an approaching Iranian unmanned aircraft using shipboard Marine counter-UAS capability. Iran publicly denied the loss of a drone. Within days BOXER called at Bahrain for a scheduled port visit and continued WestPac operations before calling at Pearl Harbor on November 13 and returning to San Diego on November 27, 2019. The deployment took place amid elevated regional tensions following attacks on merchant shipping and underscored the ARG/MEU's role in deterrence and sea control at the chokepoint.

In April 2020, the Navy awarded a major depot-level modernization and maintenance package for BOXER in San Diego, including upgrades to support F-35B operations. The yard period extended well beyond the initial estimate, and by July 2023, officials confirmed the ship had not yet returned to sea. BOXER finally sortied on April 1, 2024, for an Indo-Pacific deployment with the 15th MEU but returned to San Diego on April 10 due to an engineering casualty. After repairs, she redeployed on July 16, 2024, operated with allies and partners in the Philippine Sea and wider Indo-Pacific, and returned to San Diego in late November 2024. These cycles reflected both the scope of modernization required across the amphibious force and the Navy-Marine Corps imperative to restore ARG/MEU availability for crisis response.

As she marked the 30th anniversary of commissioning on February 11, 2025, BOXER resumed routine Third Fleet operations from San Diego, including summer 2025 flight operations with Marine MV-22B and F-35B aircraft that showcased the results of her modernization while she remained ready for tasking.

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Homeports of USS BOXER:

USS BOXER Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Ian Johnson and show the BOXER arriving at Fremantle, Australia, on April 29, 2007, for her first visit to Western Australia. The third photo was taken on May 3, 2007.

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOXER dry-docked at NASSCO in San Diego, Calif., on March 23, 2010. Undocking took place on April 1, 2010.

The photos below were taken by Shiu On Yee during USS BOXER's port visit to Hong Kong August 31 - September 3, 2011.

Click here for more Photos.

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on September 30, 2011, just a few hours after returning home from a seven-month deployment to the 7th and 5th fleet areas of operation.

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on May 10, 2012.

The photos below were taken by me and show the BOXER arriving and berthed at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 3, 2012.

The photo below was taken by Lydia Perz and shows the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on May 3, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on December 27, 2014.

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

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 6, 2016. She proudly displays the rarely-seen Gold Battle E among her Command Effectiveness Awards. Displayed as a white E somewhere near the ship's bridge, the Battle E is the most prestigious of the Command Effectiveness Awards. There is only one Battle E award per squadron and only one ship in the squadron wins it every year. A gold Battle E symbolizes that a ship has won the award in 5 consecutive years.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the BOXER during her Phased Maintenance Availability (PMA) at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on December 20, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOXER near the end of her Phased Maintenance Availability (PMA) at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 11, 2017.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on March 2, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on November 28 and November 29 (aerial photos), 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on December 28, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the BOXER at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on May 29, 2022.

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