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USS Somerset (LPD 25)

USS SOMERSET is the ninth SAN ANTONIO - class amphibious transport dock and the fifth ship in the Navy to bear the name.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Name:

USS SOMERSET is named in honor of the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93. Their actions prevented terrorist hijackers from reaching their presumed destination of the White House only to have the hijacked jet crash near Shanksville in Somerset County, Pa., Sept. 11, 2001. Like her sister ships, USS NEW YORK (LPD 21) and ARLINGTON (LPD 24), USS SOMERSET is named in commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Over the weeks following the Flight 93 crash, recovery personnel retrieved more than 95 percent of the airplane's wreckage from the crash site. An American flag was hoisted on the top of a power shovel or "dragline" on a hill dominating the area. The dragline had been used in coal stripping at one time, and the equipment with the flag became a symbol of the effort.

In the summer of 2008, the dragline's 22 ton steel bucket was melted down and cast into LPD 25's bow stem.

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USS SOMERSET History:

USS SOMERSET - a SAN ANTONIO-class amphibious transport dock built to honor the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 and named for Somerset County, Pennsylvania - was laid down at the Avondale shipyard on the Mississippi River on December 11, 2009, launched on April 14, 2012, and christened on July 28, 2012 by ship's sponsor Mary Jo Myers. After builder's and acceptance sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico in August-October 2013, she was delivered for final outfitting and crew training. SOMERSET was commissioned at Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, on March 1, 2014, then departed March 4 and proceeded down the East Coast, through Mayport, and via the Panama Canal to her new homeport of San Diego, arriving April 22, 2014. The ship carries steel salvaged from a coal dragline in Somerset County, and her motto and memorial spaces commemorate the Flight 93 story.

Through spring and summer 2014, SOMERSET completed fitting-out at San Diego (April 28-June 9), then ran combat systems ship qualification trials, culminating in a live missile event on July 20. In mid-August, she hosted the Mexican Navy sail training ship CUAUHTEMOC alongside in San Diego (August 15-19). She opened for public tours during San Diego's Fleet Week (September 19-22), then conducted final contract trials November 2-7 and additional performance and special trials December 8-18, closing out the year with crew and families of Flight 93 visiting the onboard memorial. In early 2015, she entered a five-month Post-Shakedown Availability at Naval Base San Diego, with work visible pierside by May 13.

Refresher training and amphibious work-ups through 2015 included a high-visibility community period when SOMERSET sailed north for San Francisco Fleet Week. She departed San Diego October 2, 2015 and hosted large public "open house" tours on the Embarcadero on October 11 before returning south to continue training ahead of her first deployment.

SOMERSET's maiden deployment began October 14, 2016, when she sortied with the MAKIN ISLAND (LHD 8) Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) - flagship USS MAKIN ISLAND, USS SOMERSET, and USS COMSTOCK (LSD 45) - and the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) for the U.S. 3rd, 7th and 5th Fleet areas. After crossing the Pacific, she made her first overseas liberty port at Changi Naval Base, Singapore, on November 13. Later that month, November 23-25, SOMERSET called at Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, where the ship and embarked Marines conducted a theater-security-cooperation exchange with the newly formed Sri Lanka Marine Corps, focusing on small-boat skills, basic infantry tasks, and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief techniques. In early 2017, after extended operations at sea, she entered the Port of Duqm, Oman, for an eight-day mid-deployment maintenance period, departing February 10. The stop underscored Duqm's growing role as a forward repair and logistics hub for U.S. naval forces operating around the Strait of Hormuz.

As the deployment wound down, SOMERSET crossed the Philippine Sea and made a late-April logistics stop at Apra Harbor, Guam, mooring at Victor Wharf on April 20, 2017, before continuing east. The MAKIN ISLAND ARG and 11th MEU returned to San Diego May 15, 2017, after seven months of maritime security operations and partner training across the Indo-Pacific and Middle East.

Following post-deployment maintenance in 2018, SOMERSET returned to sea frequently for West Coast amphibious training. In early 2019, she served as the at-sea platform for Exercise Iron Fist 2019 with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, embarking JGSDF troops and Assault Amphibious Vehicles from Camp Pendleton for ship-to-shore operations and combined planning at sea from late January into February. The embarked force drilled embarkation, well-deck operations, and flight operations - a routine that kept crew proficiency high between major deployments.

On July 30, 2020, during a 15th MEU mechanized raid training event near San Clemente Island, an AAV returning to SOMERSET began taking on water and ultimately sank. Eight Marines and one Sailor lost their lives. Subsequent Marine Corps and Navy investigations found a confluence of material failures, training shortfalls, and procedural lapses ashore and within the embarked unit, while a separate Navy review did not establish a direct causal link to SOMERSET's ship's force. The tragedy shaped subsequent pre-deployment certification and safety reforms across the amphibious force.

Despite the pandemic and follow-on investigations, SOMERSET completed work-ups and redeployed with the MAKIN ISLAND ARG and the 15th MEU in late 2020. In December 2020-January 2021, the ARG operated off the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Octave Quartz, the joint mission to reposition U.S. forces in Somalia while maintaining pressure on al-Shabaab and safeguarding maritime approaches. During this period the ARG operated alongside other U.S. naval formations and special operations elements. After transiting to the Arabian Gulf, the ARG supported coalition deterrence operations and Operation Inherent Resolve tasking into early 2021. SOMERSET moored at Mina Salman, Manama, Bahrain, in mid-February for upkeep while MAKIN ISLAND conducted a concurrent port visit. By March 19, the ARG exited the Gulf, and on May 23, 2021, SOMERSET returned to San Diego with the group, concluding a seven-month cruise across four numbered fleets.

The ship's inter-deployment cycle through 2022-2023 included sustainment at sea and a growing role in NASA's Artemis program. On November 7, 2023, SOMERSET operated off Southern California with Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Helicopter Sea Combat units to rehearse open-ocean procedures for recovering an Orion crew module, refining well-deck choreography and small-boat control that would be used for crewed missions. These rehearsals continued into 2024-2025.

SOMERSET sortied again with elements of the 15th MEU for an Indo-Pacific deployment that began in early 2024. She made a mid-February port call at Apra Harbor, Guam (departing February 13), then shifted to Hawaiian waters for the 29th Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise from June 27 to August 1, 2024. Embarking substantial elements of Battalion Landing Team 1/5 and aviation detachments, SOMERSET served as a primary amphibious platform for multinational littoral operations, live-fire events, and complex ship-to-shore integration alongside allied ships and aircraft.

After RIMPAC, SOMERSET returned to San Diego on August 13, 2024, completing a seven-month deployment in the 7th and 3rd Fleet areas that mixed presence operations, combined training, and new tactics for defending large-deck amphibious ships at sea. In October, she sailed north to support San Francisco Fleet Week, opening to public tours on the San Francisco waterfront and hosting dignitaries, veterans, and allied visitors during a week of outreach events.

In early 2025, SOMERSET pivoted back to high-end amphibious readiness on the Southern California ranges during Quarterly Underway Amphibious Readiness Training 25.2 (March 3-14), working closely with I Marine Expeditionary Force on ship-to-shore profiles and integrated air-and-maritime command and control. Immediately afterward, she embarked NASA's Exploration Ground Systems team for Underway Recovery Test-12 off San Diego from March 25-31, 2025 - the final at-sea validation of procedures, hardware, and medical integration aimed at recovering the crewed Artemis II Orion capsule. The test brought together the ship, small-boat teams, HSC-23 helicopters, Navy EOD, NASA astronauts and recovery specialists to rehearse end-to-end recovery, patient flow, and spacecraft handling in the well deck.

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Homeports of USS SOMERSET:

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USS SOMERSET Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Lydia Perz and show the SOMERSET at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on May 3, 2014. The ship arrived at San Diego for the first time on April 21, 2014, after the transit from Philadelphia, Penn., where it was commissioned.

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

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the SOMERSET departing San Diego, Calif., on her way to San Francisco to participate in Fleet Week San Francisco. The photo was taken on October 2, 2015.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning on October 11, 2015, during an open house aboard USS SOMERSET as part of Fleet Week San Francisco.

			Click here for more Photos.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SOMERSET at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on April 18, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SOMERSET at the General Dynamics NASSCO Shipyard in San Diego, Calif., on October 11, 2017.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the SOMERSET at the General Dynamics NASSCO Shipyard in San Diego, Calif., on November 10, 2017.

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

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SOMERSET leading the Parade of Ships during Fleet Week San Francisco on October 11, 2019.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the SOMERSET during her Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at the Continental Maritime of San Diego (CMSD) shipyard on November 28 and November 29 (aerial photos), 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SOMERSET during her Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at the Continental Maritime of San Diego (CMSD) shipyard on December 28, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the SOMERSET during her Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at the Continental Maritime of San Diego (CMSD) shipyard on May 29, 2022.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USS SOMERSET before and during the Parade of Ships in San Francisco Bay as part of Fleet Week San Francisco on October 11, 2024.

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