USS Traverse County (LST-1160) - Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean Service

Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean Service

Late in January 1954, LST-1160 moved, from Boston, Massachusetts, where she had completed outfitting, to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek at Virginia Beach, Virginia. On 26 March 1954, after seven weeks of shakedown training in the Virginia Capes operating area and three weeks of post-shakedown availability, LST-1160 became an active unit of the United States Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force. Between the spring of 1954 and the summer of 1955, she completed seven training exercises to sharpen her skill as an amphibious warfare ship. Those drills frequently took her south to the West Indies, most often to Vieques Island near Puerto Rico, where embarked United States Marines practiced amphibious landings.

On 1 July 1955, LST-1160 was named USS Traverse County (LST-1160). Not long thereafter, she was awarded the Battle Efficiency "E" as the outstanding ship of Landing Ship Tank Flotilla 4.

Late in 1955, Traverse County entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for a four-month overhaul. She exited the shipyard in April 1956 and, following a month of refresher training, resumed operations out of Little Creek. The remainder of 1956 saw her periodically embarking Marines at Morehead City, North Carolina, and putting them ashore at Little Creek and at nearby Camp Pendleton.

At the beginning of 1957, Traverse County completed preparations for her first deployment with the United States Sixth Fleet. From 1957 through 1968, Traverse County performed eight tours of duty in the Mediterranean. Most often, her operations with the Sixth Fleet included visits to ports in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey, and along the North African coast. She often conducted training exercises with units of friendly foreign navies. However, during her 1958 deployment, a crisis erupted in Lebanon at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean, and in July 1958 Traverse County joined other Sixth Fleet units and Amphibious Squadron 6 landing ships tank in landing Marines at Beirut to help stabilize the situation. The remainder of her Mediterranean assignments proved to be more routine in nature.

When not attached to the Sixth Fleet, Traverse County operated out of Little Creek in Virginia. Her western Atlantic duties frequently took her to the West Indies and the Caribbean where, in addition to the usual amphibious exercises, she performed supply missions to various American bases in the area under the auspices of the Commander, Service Force, Atlantic Fleet. Such was her assignment in the fall of 1962 when American surveillance of Cuba uncovered the siting of offensive ballistic missiles on that island by the Soviet Union. When the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred, President John F. Kennedy invoked a successful blockade, or quarantine, of Cuba to secure the removal of the missiles. During that operation, Traverse County provided support as a combat-ready unit. However, the Soviet Union withdrew the missiles and the tension abated, enabling Traverse County to resume her normal routine early in 1963. She returned to supplying Caribbean bases and conducting amphibious exercises at Little Creek, at Onslow Beach, North Carolina, and at Vieques Island near Puerto Rico.

The Cuban Missile Crisis proved to be Traverse County's last internationally significant operation. After 1962, she resumed her routine, alternating Mediterranean deployments with United States East Coast operations. She completed her eighth and last Sixth Fleet assignment in December 1968. During 1969, she conducted another series of amphibious exercises at her old haunts, Little Creek, Onslow Beach, and Vieques Island. Similar operations carried her into 1970.