1990s
Following completion of a phased maintenance availability in January 1990, New Orleans sailed the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf in support of Operations Desert Storm, Desert Saber and Desert Shield from 1 December 1990 to 28 August 1991. She served as a member of CTG-36/CTF-156, the largest amphibious task force to deploy from the West Coast of the United States in 25 years. Significant accomplishments included the off-load of 1,700 Marine combat troops on G-Day and aviation mine countermeasures in the North Persian Gulf, ten nautical miles (19 km) off the coast of Kuwait.
In November 1991, New Orleans returned to San Diego for a six month overhaul. In October 1992, she hosted festivities at Fleet Week '92 in San Francisco. After returning to San Diego, she was the first LPH to go through Afloat Training Group Pacific's "Tailored Ship's Training Availability" and was instrumental in developing a training track for LPH-class ships. In September 1993, New Orleans deployed on her fifteenth WESTPAC cruise where she participated in Exercise Valiant Usher '93 and was a member of the Amphibious Ready Group that conducted operations in support of Operation Restore Hope at Mogadishu, Somalia.
New Orleans next sailed onto the movie screen in November 1994 when astronaut Captain Jim Lovell, USN, director Ron Howard, and actors Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton came aboard to film several portions of the Oscar-winning film Apollo 13. She portrayed the then-decommissioned USS Iwo Jima, one of her sister ships.
June 1995 saw New Orleans underway again for WESTPAC operations. She was present to support the Marine raid on the Al Hamra Facility on October 24 of that year. She returned to San Diego on 22 December 1995, after embarking 198 Sea Scouts as part of a "Tiger Cruise" during the last leg of her journey from Pearl Harbor to San Diego. The ship got underway again on 31 January 1997, for another WESTPAC cruise which included boarding the Marines from the 31st MEU(SOC) based out of Okinawa, Japan and participating in Operation Tandem Thrust '97 in Townsville, Australia in which it weathered Cyclone Justin before returning to port on 2 May.
Read more about this topic: USS New Orleans (LPH-11)