First Cruises and Cuban Missile Crisis
Iwo Jima was laid down on 2 April 1959 by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Wash.; launched on 17 September 1960, sponsored by Mrs. Harry Schmidt; and commissioned on 26 August 1961, Captain T. D. Harris in command.
Following shakedown training, she spent the rest of 1961 off the California coast in amphibious exercises. In April 1962, the ship joined Joint Task Force 8 in the Johnston Island-Hawaii area for an important series of nuclear tests. Iwo Jima evacuated several islands and took part in the test evaluation. On 26 July, she sailed from the test area to Pearl Harbor, and continued on to San Diego, where she arrived on 10 August 1962.
In September, the ship took part in full-scale amphibious exercises in California, departing from San Diego on 17 October for her first deployment to the western Pacific. However, as the crisis flared up on 19 October over the introduction of offensive missiles into Cuba, Iwo Jima returned to San Diego, embarked Marines 22 October to 27 October, and departed quickly for the Caribbean. As part of America's powerful and mobile force afloat, she cruised in a "ready" status until December brought an easing of the Cuban situation. She arrived in San Diego on 13 December.
Read more about this topic: USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2)
Famous quotes containing the words cuban, missile and/or crisis:
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