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USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52)

USS PEARL HARBOR is the last of the United States Navy's four new cargo variants of the WHIDBEY ISLAND-class of Landing Dock Ships and the first ship to carry the name Pearl Harbor to commemorate the heroic actions of the members of the armed services as well as the citizens of the Island of Oahu during the attack on December 7, 1941.

General Characteristics:	Keel laid: January 27, 1995
	Launched: February 24, 1996
	Commissioned: May 30, 1998
	Builder: Avondale Industries, New Orleans, Louisiana
	Propulsion system: four 16 cylinder Colt-Pielstick Diesel Engines
	Propellers: two
	Length: 610 feet (186 meters)
	Beam: 84 feet (25.6 meters)
	Draft: 20 feet (6 meters)
	Displacement: approx. 16,500 tons full load
	Speed: 22 knots
	Well deck capacity: two LCAC or one LCU or four LCM-8 or nine LCM-6 or 15 amphibious assault vehicles (AAV)
	Aircraft: none, but two landing spots allow for operation of aircraft as large as the CH-53E
	Crew: Ship: 24 officers, 328 enlisted Marine Detachment: 504 Marines
	Armament: two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two Mk-38 Machine Guns, six .50 Machine Guns, Rolling Airframe Missile System
	Cost: about $258 million
	Homeport: San Diego, CA.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USS PEARL HARBOR. 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 PEARL HARBOR memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS PEARL HARBOR Cruise Books:

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USS PEARL HARBOR History:

USS PEARL HARBOR was ordered for the U.S. Navy during the post–Cold War recapitalization of the amphibious force and built in the "cargo variant" configuration of the WHIDBEY ISLAND-class to maximize vehicle and stores capacity for Marine Expeditionary Units. The ship was laid down at Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans, on January 27, 1995; launched on February 24, 1996; and commissioned at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, on May 30, 1998, entering service with Amphibious Group staff oversight as a San Diego-based unit. These milestones reflected the Navy's intent to sustain global expeditionary reach after Desert Storm and the Balkan crises of the 1990s.

During her early working-up period in 1998-1999, the ship completed trials and local operations from San Diego and the Southern California Operating Areas to qualify her well deck, flight deck, and logistics systems for sustained MEU embarkation. In the new decade, she made her first Western Pacific deployment as part of the BONHOMME RICHARD (LHD 6) Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), a six-month WESTPAC that began in January 2000 amid continuing no-fly and containment operations against Iraq under Operation Southern Watch and stepped-up U.S. naval presence across East Asia. The ARG's 2000 command and operations reporting records - and the dock landing ship's own deployment ledger - trace the cruise through the 7th Fleet theater with minimal in-port time.

Following the September 11 attacks and the opening of Operation Enduring Freedom, USS PEARL HARBOR sailed again on December 1, 2001, with the BONHOMME RICHARD ARG to support combat operations related to Afghanistan and heightened maritime security from the North Arabian Sea to the Arabian Gulf. The deployment ran through June 2002 and included a stateside return via Hawaii, with a port call to her namesake harbor from June 7-10, aligning with the wider carrier- and amphibious-led campaign that projected airpower and special operations into Central Asia from the sea.

On January 17, 2003, the ship left San Diego with AMPHIBIOUS TASK FORCE WEST (ATF-W) - centered on flagships BONHOMME RICHARD and BOXER (LHD 4) - for an unscheduled surge in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The task force moved rapidly across the Pacific and Indian Ocean to the Northern Arabian Gulf, lifting Marines, helicopters, and vehicles into Kuwait and preparing for amphibious options while providing sea-based sustainment as the coalition opened the ground offensive in March. Contemporary Navy histories and command reports document ATF-W's seven-ship composition and its quick back-load and redeployment after major combat operations. PEARL HARBOR returned to San Diego in late July 2003, as the force rebalanced for sustained operations and security assistance in the Gulf.

After a period of local training, maintenance, and certifications, USS PEARL HARBOR redeployed in mid-2005 with elements of a San Diego-based expeditionary strike group at a time when U.S. maritime forces were simultaneously managing counterterrorism, partner-capacity building, and disaster response tasks across Pacific and Central Command waters. In October and November 2005, as part of the U.S. response to the devastating Kashmir earthquake, the ship shuttled logistics through Karachi to support helicopter airlift and relief distribution inland, reflecting the long-standing practice of tasking amphibious ships as afloat logistics bases for humanitarian crises.

From April to November 2007, PEARL HARBOR deployed to the SOUTHCOM theater for Partnership of the Americas 2007, a naval diplomacy and interoperability cruise that included participation in UNITAS and combined events with allied navies. The ship conducted port visits and training alongside regional partners - including a documented call at Puerto Belgrano, Argentina on May 11 - and operated with U.S. and South American units to practice maritime security, amphibious cooperation, and at-sea replenishment skills.

In 2008, the ship made another Western Pacific/5th Fleet deployment under the PELELIU (LHA 5) ARG, getting underway from San Diego on May 4 as the United States surged amphibious capacity for Persian Gulf presence and maritime security. On July 21, 2008, while operating off Kuwait, PEARL HARBOR grounded on a shoal without hull damage. Following a preliminary inquiry, the commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3 relieved the ship's commanding officer and assigned interim leadership while the ship resumed tasking. The episode occurred amid a high-tempo Fifth Fleet posture marked by Iraq stabilization operations and routine Gulf maritime security patrols.

The ship departed again on May 20, 2010, with the PELELIU ARG and 15TH MEU for a deployment that would span the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Gulf. When catastrophic monsoon flooding struck Pakistan in August, the ARG shifted to humanitarian operations centered on Karachi, embarking heavy- and medium-lift rotary-wing assets to move people and supplies ashore. Navy and Marine Corps releases record millions of pounds of relief cargo delivered and thousands evacuated during the multi-month effort. Afterward, the task group resumed maritime security operations, including counter-piracy and crisis response, and PEARL HARBOR operated in proximity to coalition forces engaged in the broader counter-terror and Iraq/Afghanistan campaigns before returning to San Diego on December 17, 2010.

On November 14, 2011, PEARL HARBOR sailed with the MAKIN ISLAND (LHD 8) ARG and the 11TH MEU for another WESTPAC/5th Fleet cruise, conducting forward presence, maritime security, and amphibious training throughout the Middle East and Indian Ocean. The ARG relieved the IWO JIMA (LHD 7) ARG in theater, executed exercises and port calls across the region through spring 2012, and returned to San Diego in late June after the turnover and redeployment, closing a deployment shaped by continuing drawdown dynamics in Iraq and ongoing support to Afghanistan.

From May through August 2013, the ship deployed independently as the primary platform for PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP 2013, a multinational disaster-preparedness and civic-assistance mission that took PEARL HARBOR to Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and the Solomon Islands. Embarked medical, engineering, and veterinary teams worked alongside host-nation ministries and regional partners to drill surge capacity and interagency coordination in the South Pacific's disaster-prone littorals, a line of effort that underpinned growing Indo-Pacific humanitarian cooperation.

After returning to San Diego, the ship entered an Extended Docking Phased Maintenance Availability on April 15, 2014 - a mid-life overhaul that, after significant growth work extensions, completed in May 2016. The period modernized combat systems and habitability and restored full well-deck capability. Shortly thereafter, PEARL HARBOR participated in RIMPAC 2016 amphibious events in Southern California, integrating with Australian, Canadian, Japanese, German, and U.S. units to rehearse ship-to-shore movement and coalition amphibious command-and-control.

On July 14, 2017, the ship entered her namesake harbor for a port visit at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam - the first time back in Hawaii since Pacific Partnership 2013 - before continuing WESTPAC 17-2 with the AMERICA (LHA 6) ARG (AMERICA, SAN DIEGO (LPD 22), and PEARL HARBOR) and the 15TH MEU. After departing Hawaii on July 22, the ARG crossed into 5th Fleet, where it conducted the theater's "ALLIGATOR DAGGER 2017" amphibious combat rehearsal series from expeditionary sea bases in the Red Sea/Arabian Sea region and executed security cooperation and port visits including Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, on November 10. The AMERICA ARG returned to San Diego on February 2, 2018, closing a seven-month deployment that emphasized crisis response and maritime security from the Western Pacific to the Horn of Africa.

Back in the United States, PEARL HARBOR entered a sequence of maintenance availabilities tied to the LSD service-life plan. She underwent selected restricted availabilities at BAE Systems San Diego in late 2018 and early 2019, then completed a major Southwest Regional Maintenance Center availability on June 8, 2019, returning the ship to full material readiness for subsequent tasking.

In August 2021, the ship departed again with the ESSEX (LHD 2) ARG - ESSEX, PORTLAND (LPD 27), and PEARL HARBOR - embarking the 11TH MEU for a deployment that spanned 3rd, 5th, and 7th Fleet waters. In 5th Fleet from September 2021 to January 2022, the team conducted theater amphibious combat rehearsals in Kuwait and operated across the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean while supporting ongoing maritime security and the tail end of Operation Freedom's Sentinel/Inherent Resolve missions. In January 2022, the ARG linked up with CARL VINSON (CVN 70) CSG in the South China Sea for expeditionary strike force operations before returning to San Diego on March 4, 2022.

From January 2023, USS PEARL HARBOR shifted into a humanitarian-cooperation rhythm that would define the period through 2025. After local preparations in San Diego early in the year, she embarked staff and mission modules for PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP 2023 (PP23), the Indo-Pacific's annual multinational disaster-response and civil-affairs mission. PP23 formally began in August 2023 and unfolded as a rolling series of port stops and fly-away teams across Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. The mission's country list that year included Vietnam, the Philippines, Samoa, Malaysia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Tonga, with PEARL HARBOR serving as the primary afloat platform for multiple phases while other elements executed "fly-in" detachments ashore.

In mid-September 2023, the ship hosted the closing ceremony for the Malaysia stop at Kuantan on September 15, 2023, underscoring how an LPD's well deck and vehicle spaces can be repurposed for medical exchanges, engineering briefs, and community engagements between at-sea periods. Two weeks later, during a planned logistics and engagement pause in Singapore at the end of the month, her sailors and embarked Marines participated in outreach events at Sembawang Naval Installation - publicly noted when ONE Championship athlete Angela Lee visited the crew on September 27-30, a small but visible reminder that PP23 blended technical preparedness with broader people-to-people ties. The mission then pivoted back into the islands, and by November 20, 2023, PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP announced its final 2023 mission stop in Tonga, closing a circuit that had begun in August. PEARL HARBOR returned to Naval Base San Diego on December 14, 2023, completing her PP23 tasking.

Through 2024 the ship remained West Coast-based while the Navy sequenced humanitarian and amphibious assets for the next cycle. Her public profile that year was comparatively low - typical of an inter-deployment period in which a dock landing ship cycles through upkeep, crew rotations, certifications, and short underway periods in the Southern California operating areas - while planning accelerated for the next PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP embarkation. That build-up came into view the following summer as PP25 details were announced.

On July 11, 2025, the PP-25 team embarked in PEARL HARBOR pulled into Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to stage for a multi-month mission. Navy releases and trade press outlined the planned country lineup - Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Samoa, and Vanuatu - with fly-in detachments to the Philippines, Fiji, and Tonga already underway in June. After pre-sail preparations in Hawaii, the ship proceeded west. Imagery from late July shows routine weapons-system maintenance at sea during transits between mission stops, characteristic of the "sustain while moving" tempo of PP deployments.

Among the publicly dated port phases, PEARL HARBOR arrived in Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, on August 15, 2025, to open another mission stop focused on medical exchanges, engineering projects, and disaster-response drills with local agencies - one of several PP-25 engagements across Oceania. The ship continued the itinerary through late summer and early autumn before shifting back east across the Pacific for homeport return.

PEARL HARBOR returned to San Diego on October 1, 2025, closing her PP-25 deployment and marking the end of a two-year span dominated by humanitarian and civil-preparedness operations, book-ended by PP23 in 2023 and PP25 in 2025.

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Homeports of USS PEARL HARBOR:

Period	Homeport
commissioned at San Diego, Calif.
1998 - present	San Diego, Calif.

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USS PEARL HARBOR Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Brian Barton and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego on December 6, 2003.

The photos below were taken by me and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego on March 10, 2008.

The photos below were taken by me and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego on September 29, 2011.

The photos below were taken by me and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego on October 3 and 11, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Lydia Perz and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASCCO), at San Diego, Calif., at the beginning of her Extended Drydocking Phased Maintenance Availability (E-DPMA). The photos were taken on May 3, 2014.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at Huntington Ingalls Industries Continental Maritime of San Diego shipyard on December 27, 2014.

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

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

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on December 20, 2016.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the USS PEARL HARBOR undergoing a Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair on September 28, 2018.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the USS PEARL HARBOR undergoing a Selected Restricted Availability (SRA) at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair on March 2, 2019.

The photo below was taken by me and shows USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on July 26, 2024.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows USS PEARL HARBOR at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on October 15, 2024.

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