USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)
USS Blue Ridge in 2012
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Blue Ridge |
| Namesake: | Blue Ridge Mountains |
| Operator: |
 United States Navy
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| Ordered: | 31 December 1964 |
| Builder: | Philadelphia Naval Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 27 February 1967 |
| Launched: | 4 January 1969 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Gretchen Thompson-Byrd (1917–1989) |
| Commissioned: | 14 November 1970 |
| Homeport: | Yokosuka, Japan |
| Motto: | Finest in the Fleet |
| Status: | In active service, as of 2015 |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Blue Ridge class command ship |
| Displacement: | 19,609 tons |
| Length: | 194 m (636.5 ft) |
| Beam: | 32.9 m (108 ft) |
| Draft: | 8.8 m (26.9 ft) |
| Propulsion: | Two boilers, one geared turbine |
| Speed: | 23 kn (43 km/h) |
| Range: | 10,000 nmi (19,000 km) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Two helicopters, currently the Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk |
| Aviation facilities: | No Hangar |
USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge–class command ships of the United States Navy, and is the command ship of the United States Seventh Fleet. Her primary role is to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) support to the commander and staff of the United States Seventh Fleet. She is currently forward-deployed to U.S. Navy Fleet Activities, Yokosuka in Japan, and is the third Navy ship named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range of mountains in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. Blue Ridge is the oldest deployable warship of the U.S. Navy, following the decommissioning of USS Denver (LPD-9) in Pearl Harbor on 14 August 2014.Blue Ridge, now the U.S. Navy's active commissioned ship having the longest total period as active, flies the First Navy Jack. As of 2011, Blue Ridge is expected to remain in service until 2039.
USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) was put "in commission special" on 14 November 1970, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as an Amphibious Command and Control (LCC) ship, with Captain Kent J. Carroll (Vice Admiral Carroll, Ret.) as the Commanding Officer. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Gretchen Byrd, wife of the U. S. Senator from Virginia, Harry F. Byrd, Jr.. The principal speaker at the ceremony was the Honorable John W. Warner, Under Secretary of the Navy and later Senator from Virginia.
Blue Ridge was the replacement for the USS Estes (LCC-12), but Estes was decommissioned earlier than planned in October 1969 due to the budget cuts of the late 1960s.
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Wikipedia