USS Anchorage (LSD-36)

Career
Awarded:	June 29, 1965
Laid down:	March 13, 1967
Launched:	May 5, 1968
Commissioned:	March 15, 1969
Decommissioned:	October 1, 2003
Fate:
Struck:	March 8, 2004
General Characteristics
Displacement:	8325 tons (Light Displacement), 14095 tons (Full Displacement), 5570 tons (Dead Weight)
Length:	168.6 m (553 ft)
Beam:	25.9 m (85 ft)
Draft:	6.1 m (20 ft)
Propulsion:	Steam Turbines
Speed:	22 knots
Complement:	53 officers, 771 enlisted
Armament:	Two 20mm Phalanx CIWS, two Mk-38 machine guns, four .50 machine guns
Motto:

USS Anchorage (LSD-36) was a dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was lead ship of the Anchorage-class as well as the first ship in the navy to be named after the city in Alaska.

Anchorage was awarded to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi on June 29, 1965 and her keel was laid down on March 13, 1967. She was launched on May 5, 1968 and commissioned on March 15, 1969.

In the ship’s 34 years of service, she completed 19 deployments in the western pacific and became the most decorated dock landing ship on the west coast.

‘’Anchorage’’ participated in numerous military operations. At the end of the Vietnam War, the ship carried Marines back to the United States as a part of the US withdraw from Vietnam. In 1991, she served in Operation Desert Storm and later in 2000 she was used to assist the USS Cole following its bombing in Yemen.

In July 2003, the Anchorage returned to its homeport at San Diego, California after supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. She was decommissioned on October 1, 2003.