USS St. Louis (LKA-116)

USS St. Louis (LKA-116) in 1976
History
Name:	USS St. Louis
Ordered:	11 June 1965
Builder:	Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.
Laid down:	3 April 1968
Launched:	4 January 1969
Commissioned:	22 November 1969
Decommissioned:	2 November 1992
Struck:	31 August 2015
Fate:	To be sunk as a target
General characteristics
Class and type:	Charleston-class amphibious cargo ship
Displacement:	18,465 tons (full load)
Length:	576 ft (176 m)
Beam:	82 ft (25 m)
Draft:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Propulsion:	Steam Turbine
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	50 officers, 592 men
Service record
Operations:	Vietnam War

USS St. Louis (AKA-116/LKA-116), a Charleston class amphibious cargo ship, is the sixth US ship to bear the name. She served as a commissioned ship for 22 years and 11 months.

She was laid down as AKA-116 on 3 April 1968 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia; redesignated LKA-116 on 1 January 1969; and launched on 4 January 1969. She was sponsored by Leonor K. Sullivan, Representative from the 3d District of Missouri and commissioned on 22 November 1969 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, CAPT John W. Klinefelter in command. USS St. Louis (LKA-116) was decommissioned on 2 November 1992 in Sasebo, Japan. From Sasebo the ship was towed to Pearl Harbor, HI, where she was kept in mothballs.

Following commissioning, St. Louis was outfitted at Norfolk; and, on 3 February 1970, commenced trials. On 6 February, she was ready for sea and sailed for Long Beach, California, her home port. While en route, she conducted underway training for her crew, visited Fort Lauderdale, Florida, transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Long Beach on 28 February ready for two months of intensive training in battle organization and amphibious operations.

St. Louis spent May and June in post-shakedown availability and the greater part of July in provisioning preparatory to her first deployment with the fleet. Late in July, she conducted her first dependents' cruise to familiarize the families of her crew members with her operations and capabilities. She got underway on 1 August with units of Amphibious Squadron 11 for Pearl Harbor.

St. Louis, with the squadron, reached Pearl Harbor on 6 August, refueled, and sailed on the 8th for Vietnam. On 16 August, she was detached to proceed to Subic Bay and finally rejoined her squadron at Danang on 21 August. After offloading Marines and their equipment, she then proceeded to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, returned to Long Beach to transport a World War II midget Japanese submarine to the submarine base at Pearl Harbor; and anchored again in Danang Harbor on 11 October. After completion of a large redeployment operation involving over 2,000 Marines and 22,000 tons of equipment in the Quang Nam province, St. Louis visited Hong Kong and then moved to Subic Bay in the Philippines to participate in large scale amphibious landing exercises during November and December.