USS Essex (LHD-2)
_transits_the_Pacific_Ocean.jpg)
USS Essex in the Pacific Ocean in 2015
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Essex |
| Namesake: | Essex County, Massachusetts |
| Ordered: | 10 September 1986 |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| Laid down: | 20 March 1989 |
| Launched: | 23 February 1991 |
| Commissioned: | 17 October 1992 |
| Homeport: | Naval Base San Diego |
| Motto: | Take Notice |
| Nickname(s): | "The Iron Gator" |
| Status: | in active service |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Wasp-class amphibious assault ship |
| Displacement: | 40,650 tons (full combat load) |
| Length: | 844 ft (257 m) |
| Beam: | 106 ft (32 m) |
| Draft: | 28 ft (8.5 m) (full load) |
| Propulsion: | Geared steam turbines |
| Speed: | exceeds 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
3 LCACs or 2 LCUs |
| Troops: | 1,800 |
| Complement: | 73 officers, 1109 enlisted |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | up to 36, including: UH-1Y Venom, AH-1Z Viper, CH-53 Super Stallion, MV-22 Osprey, MH-60 Seahawk, AV-8B Harrier |
USS Essex (LHD-2) is a United States Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ship built at what is now Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and commissioned on 17 October 1992 while moored at North Island NAS beside USS Kitty Hawk. It is the fifth ship named for Essex County, Massachusetts. Dick Cheney, then the Secretary of Defense in the first Bush Administration, spoke at the commissioning ceremony. Essex served as the command ship for Expeditionary Strike Group Seven until replaced by USS Bonhomme Richard on 23 April 2012.Essex collided with USNS Yukon in May 2012.
Essex conducted a training program during the spring of 1993, and from 18 August until 23 November, was undergoing upgrades, during Post Shakedown Availability, in Long Beach harbor.
Essex's maiden deployment was in October 1994. With the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) embarked, Essex showcased her abilities on numerous occasions. The highlight of the deployment came in January 1995, when she left the Persian Gulf to prepare for the complex task of covering the withdrawal of United Nations multinational force from Somalia in Operation United Shield. Under fire from advancing Somalis, every member of the force was successfully extracted. Essex returned to San Diego on 25 April 1995.
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