USS Cleveland (LPD-7)

USS Cleveland in February 2000
History
United States
Name:	USS Cleveland
Namesake:	Cleveland, Ohio
Operator:	United States Navy
Ordered:	25 January 1963
Builder:	Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	30 November 1964
Launched:	7 May 1966
Commissioned:	21 April 1967
Decommissioned:	30 September 2011
Homeport:	Naval Base San Diego
General characteristics
Class and type:	Austin class amphibious transport dock
Displacement:	9734 tons light, 17326 tons full, 7592 tons dead
Length:	173.7 m (570 ft) overall, 167 meters (548 ft) waterline
Beam:	30.4 m (100 ft) extreme, 25.6 meters (84 ft) waterline
Draught:	6.7 m (22 ft) maximum, 7 meters (23 ft) limit
Speed:	21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h)
Complement:	164 officers, 396 enlisted, 840 troops, 90 flag staff
Armament:	Initially:4 x 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber AA guns, 2 x 25 mm Mk 38 chain guns, 2 x Phalanx CIWS, 8 x .50-caliber machine guns
Aircraft carried:	two CH-46 Sea Knights or two CH-53 Sea Stallions or four UH-1 Iroquois ("Hueys") or AH-1 Cobras or two AV-8 Harriers

USS Cleveland (LPD-7), an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city in Ohio. Her keel was laid down at Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 7 May 1966, and was commissioned on 21 April 1967 at Norfolk, Virginia. At the time of decommissioning, she was the third-oldest commissioned ship in the US Navy, behind USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and USS Enterprise (CVN-65).

After commissioning, Cleveland changed homeport to San Diego, California, to become a member of the Pacific Fleet's Amphibious Force. Cleveland divided her time between operations in the Eastern Pacific and extended deployments to the Western Pacific. Cleveland was normally assigned as part of an Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) and, with her embarked Marines and other forces, performed a wide variety of missions.

Cleveland first saw action during the Tet Offensive in 1968. After the Vietnam War cease-fire in January 1973, Cleveland joined Task Force 78 in the mine-clearing effort of Haiphong Harbor and Operation End Sweep. Cleveland then began a series of seven Western Pacific deployments between 1974 and 1985.

In 1978, portions of the film Inchon was filmed during a practice amphibious assault off the coast of Korea. This is referenced in the ship's logs of 1978.