USS Vernon County (LST-1161) - Operations at Diego Garcia, 1971

Operations At Diego Garcia, 1971

Vernon County began 1971 in dry dock number one at Yokosuka, Japan, at the naval ship repair facility. During the first few weeks of 1971, Vernon County took on a decidedly different appearance, because, instead of the standard U.S. Navy haze gray, Vernon County had been painted white overall in preparation for her next — and perhaps most interesting — deployment. During the week of 7 February 1971, the final preparations were made for Vernon County to become, by necessity, totally self-sufficient, far from the U.S. Navy's logistic, maintenance, and support areas. After taking on part of the necessary stores and equipment, she sailed for Okinawa to pick up the rest before proceeding on her way, bound for remote Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory, with an interim stop at Singapore.

Vernon County ultimately reached Diego Garcia shortly after 17:00 hours on 9 March 1971 and, on 10 March 1971, began underwater reconnaissance and beach surveys. On ll March 1971, the first formal construction of a United States Navy communication station on Diego Garcia began, which was to forge another link in the globe-gridling system of transmitting and receiving stations. On 12 March 1971, Vernon County became the first LST in history to beach on largely unexplored Diego Garcia, offloading much of her heavy equipment to prepare a staging site for the reception of the many tons of supplies and equipment needed to build the station.

As the days passed, the atoll began to change; the ship rode higher in the water as equipment was unloaded. Temperatures on deck averaged 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) between 10:00 and 15:00 hours each day; "tropical" duty hours of 0400 to 1400 soon commenced aboard the ship. The men of Underwater Demolition Team 12 and a platoon of Seabees removed underwater obstacles, installed buoys, marked anchorages, cleared land, set up a tent city, and began laying down an airfield. By the time dock landing ship USS Monticello (LSD-35) and amphibious cargo ship USS Charleston (LKA-113) arrived, the base camp was fully ready, as was a harbor. Later, having established a self-sustaining shore party, Vernon County made two additional voyages to and from Diego Garcia, picking up more men and supplies at Singapore, Cocos Island, and Mauritius.

During the last few days of her deployment to Diego Garcia, Vernon County was repainted her standard haze gray, a sure sign that the time had come for the ship to sail away from the atoll upon which she had established a base camp and the beginnings of a communication station.