Service History
Following commissioning, Harlan County was assigned to the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet, and transited the Panama Canal en route to her home port at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek.
The crew of the Harlan County affectionately nicknamed her the "Darlin' Harlan", "Supergator", and "the Golden Gator". Over her career, the Harlan County routinely deployed to the Mediterranean, Western Africa, and South America, while also conducting amphibious training operations along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean. The Harlan County served during several notable actions during her career: she was stationed off the coast of Lebanon in 1983 at the time of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut and she served in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield. In 1990 the USS Harlan County helped re-establish US Navy cooperation with Argentina; she was the first US Navy ship to make an official port visit to Buenos Aires since the Falklands War. On October 11, 1993, the Harlan County was sent to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to pave the way for an agreed-upon UN intervention. However, she was ordered back to sea a day later in the face of protests.
The Harlan County was decommissioned on 14 April 1995 and was temporarily leased to Spain, where she was re-christened as the Pizarro (L-42) in the Spanish Navy. In 1999 the US Government finally sold the Harlan County to Spain; the ship was decommisioned by the Spanish Navy on 14 December 2012.
Read more about this topic: USS Harlan County (LST-1196)
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