USS La Salle (AGF-3)

History


Name:	USS La Salle
Namesake:	La Salle, Illinois
Ordered:	8 August 1960
Builder:	New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York
Laid down:	2 April 1962
Launched:	3 August 1963
Acquired:	21 February 1964
Commissioned:	22 February 1964
Decommissioned:	27 May 2005
Reclassified:	1972 as miscellaneous command ship (AGF-3)
Struck:	27 May 2005
Fate:	Sunk as target in support of Fleet training exercise, 11 April 2007
General characteristics
Class and type:	Raleigh-class amphibious transport dock
Displacement:	9,559 long tons (9,712 t) light 13,634 long tons (13,853 t) full 4,075 long tons (4,140 t) dead
Length:	522 ft (159 m) o/a 500 ft (150 m) w/l
Beam:	107 ft (33 m) extreme 84 ft (26 m) w/l
Draft:	22 ft (6.7 m) maximum 23 ft (7.0 m) limit
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Complement:	72 officers, 593 men, 24 Marines As AGF 750 Marines as LPD
Armament:	8 × 3"/50 caliber guns
Aircraft carried:	one helicopter

The second USS La Salle (LPD-3/AGF-3) was built as a Raleigh-class amphibious transport dock and later served as a command ship in the United States Navy.

La Salle was named for the city in Illinois that was in turn named after René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

Her keel was laid down by New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York, on 2 April 1962. She was launched on 3 August 1963 sponsored by Mrs. Victor M. Longstreet, and commissioned on 22 February 1964 with Captain Edward H. Winslow, USN in command.

After shakedown and training in the Caribbean Sea and off Norfolk, Virginia, the amphibious transport dock departed Norfolk on 9 October to participate in "Operation Steel Pike I", a complex training exercise involving over 80 ships and United States and Spanish troops. It closed the coast of Spain off Huelva on 26 October, and embarked Under Secretary of the Navy Paul B. Fay, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Horacio Rivero, Commandant of the Marine Corps General Wallace M. Greene, and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Congressman Mendel Rivers to watch the landing operations.