USS Bataan (LHD-5)

USS Bataan in 1999
History
United States
Name:	USS Bataan
Namesake:	the defense of the Bataan Peninsula
Ordered:	20 December 1991
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	22 June 1994
Launched:	15 March 1996
Christened:	18 May 1996
Commissioned:	20 September 1997
Homeport:	Norfolk, Virginia
Motto:	Courage, Commitment, Honor
Nickname(s):	"Big 5", "Dirty Nickel", "Rusty Nickel", "Cell Block 5"
Status:	in active service
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Wasp-class amphibious assault ship
Displacement:	40,358 long tons (41,006 t) full load
Length:	844 ft (257 m)
Beam:	106 ft (32 m)
Draft:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	Geared steam turbines
Speed:	exceeds 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Troops:	1,894 Marines
Complement:	104 officers, 1,004 enlisted
Armament:	2 × NATO Sea Sparrow missile systems 2 × Rolling Airframe Missile systems 2 × Phalanx CIWS 3 × 25 mm Mk 38 cannons 4 × .50-cal machine guns
Aircraft carried:	Variable by mission: 4 × CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters 6 × AV-8B Harrier attack aircraft 3 × UH-1N Huey helicopters 4 × AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters 8 × MV-22 Osprey VTOL tiltrotor aircraft 2 × MH-60S KnightHawk helicopters

USS Bataan (LHD-5) is a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship commissioned in 1997. The ship is named to honor the defense of the Bataan Peninsula on the western side of Manila Bay in the Philippines during the early days of US involvement in World War II.

Ship's sponsor, Linda Sloan Mundy, wife of former Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Carl E. Mundy, Jr., christened the new ship "in the name of the United States and in honor of the heroic defenders of Bataan." at Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi. More than 100 members of veterans groups associated with the defense of Bataan and the subsequent infamous "Death March", the Battle of Corregidor, and the aircraft carrier Bataan (CVL-29) were at the christening ceremony.

The USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) were the first ships to respond after the 11 September 2001 attacks. The ship was home on leave during the attack and was scheduled to be deployed on 19 September 2001. The crew was called back from early leave and the ship headed for New York Harbor, as it is capable of acting as a 600-bed hospital ship with surgical suites on board. Once it was determined there were few survivors, Bataan returned to Norfolk, Virginia. The ship's crew prepared and onloaded the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit with gear both pierside in Norfolk, and off the coast of North Carolina from Cherry Point and Camp Lejeune. The Bataan ARG delivered more than 2,500 Marines and their equipment to Pakistan with the aim to enter Afghanistan, thus opening Operation Enduring Freedom. The Bataan ARG stayed on station off the coast of Pakistan and completed the longest sustained amphibious assault in U.S. history with sailors not touching ground for over four months.

...
Wikipedia