USS Peleliu (LHA-5)

USS Peleliu

USS Peleliu in October 2007
History
United States
Name:	USS Peleliu
Namesake:	Battle of Peleliu
Ordered:	6 November 1970
Builder:	Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down:	12 November 1976
Launched:	25 November 1978
Commissioned:	3 May 1980
Decommissioned:	31 March 2015
Homeport:	U.S. Naval Base San Diego
Motto:	"Pax per Potens" ("Peace through power")
Nickname(s):	The Fighting Five, Iron Nickel,
Status:	Inactive reserve
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship
Displacement:	39,438 long tons full and 25,982 tons light
Length:	820 ft (250 m)
Beam:	106.6 ft (32.5 m)
Draft:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	2 steam combustion engineering modified super 6 boilers 2 Westinghouse steam turbines
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Complement:	262 officers and about 2,543 enlisted men
Armament:	Two rolling airframe missile launchers, four 25 mm Mk 38 Bushmaster gun mounts, two Phalanx CIWS for self-defense, five 0.50 caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns. These ships were built with an offensive armament with three 5-inch rapid-fire naval guns and a defense of two Mk 115 Basic Point Defense Missile guided missile units.
Aircraft carried:	(typical) Six AV-8B Harrier attack planes; four AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters; 12 CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters; nine CH-53 Sea Stallion heavy helicopters; four UH-1Y Venom utility helicopters, and two V-22 Ospreys.
Aviation facilities:	hangar deck

USS Peleliu (LHA-5) was a Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy, named for the Battle of Peleliu of World War II. Entering service in 1980, she has been deployed to the Persian Gulf on several occasions, performed an evacuation of U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, operated with the INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce, participated in Pacific Partnership deployments, and provided assistance following the massive floods in Pakistan in 2010. She was decommissioned in San Diego, California on March 31, 2015. She will rest in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii alongside USS Tarawa in the inactive reserve in case of further need.

Peleliu was originally going to be named USS Khe Sanh, and then USS Da Nang. Peleliu's keel was laid down in 1976 at the Litton Industries Ingalls Shipbuilding company in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was launched on 25 November 1978, sponsored by Peggy Hayward, the wife of the Chief of Naval Operations at that time, Admiral Thomas B. Hayward. Peleliu was commissioned on 3 May 1980, with Captain T. P. Scott in command.