USS Eldorado (AGC-11)
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Eldorado |
| Builder: | North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, North Carolina |
| Launched: | 26 October 1943 |
| Acquired: | 1 February 1944 |
| Commissioned: | 25 August 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 8 November 1972 |
| Struck: | 16 November 1972 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Sold by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for scrapping, 1 December 1976 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mount McKinley-class amphibious command ship |
| Displacement: | 7,234 long tons (7,350 t) |
| Length: | 459 ft 2 in (139.95 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft (19 m) |
| Draft: | 28 ft 3 in (8.61 m) |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 684 |
| Armament: | 2 × 5"/38 caliber guns (2×1) |
USS Eldorado (AGC-11) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named after a mountain range in Nevada. The ship was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.
The Eldorado was launched on October 26, 1943 as Monsoon by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company in Wilmington, North Carolina, under a Maritime Commission contract, sponsored by Mrs. P. A. Peeples; transferred to the US Navy on February 1, 1944; converted by Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Brooklyn, New York; and commissioned on August 25, 1944, with Captain Jesse Wallace in command.
The Eldorado sailed from Naval Station Norfolk on September 15, 1944 and arrived at San Diego on September 29 to embark Rear Admiral Lawrence F. Reifsnider who broke his flag as Commander, Amphibious Group 4. In November, it sailed to Pearl Harbor and there became the flagship for Vice Admiral Richmond K. Turner, Commander, Amphibious Forces, Pacific.
On January 27, 1945, after rehearsal landings in Hawaii, the command ship sailed for the Marianas and further preparations for the assault landing on Iwo Jima. The ship also carried General Holland Smith, USMC, and his staff, and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal and his party when it sailed from Saipan on February 16 for Iwo Jima. The Eldorado lay off Iwo Jima from February 19 to March 9, its distinguished passengers directing operations ashore and afloat. It served as headquarters for war correspondents, and broadcast directly from the beachhead to the people at home through its facilities. One of these correspondents was Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, who took the famous American flag-raising photo on Mount Suribachi. Through the critical period of this bloody and arduous operation, the ship carried out its duties as flagship and operations center with effective thoroughness.
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