Ex - USS Duluth (LPD-6) | military, ship, dock (maritime), United States Navy

 military, ship, dock (maritime), United States Navy

USS Duluth is a Austin Class Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD) laid down on December 18th, 1963 by the New York Naval Shipyard and commissioned on December 18th, 1965 after two years construction and fitting out. Her completion marked the end of Naval Shipbuilding in New York Naval Yard, which shut down on January 1st, 1966.

Steaming directly for combat, the USS Duluth transited the Panama Canal and joined the US 7th Fleet off Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam in May 1966 and began operations in support of the Vietnam War, operations she and her crews continued through 1975. Taking aboard 900 refugees as part of Operation Frequent Wind, the Duluth departed Vietnamese waters for the final time on April 29th, 1975 with eight Campaign Stars for Vietnam War service to her credit.

Returning to San Diego the Duluth continued operations as part of the Amphibious Force COMNAVSURFPAC, taking part in multi-national peace keeping efforts in Lebanon in 1983, Exxon Valdez cleanup efforts in 1989 and rescue missions off Somalia in 1994 among other WestPac deployments. Participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom from January through May 2003 and humanitarian relief efforts during Operation Unified Assistance to aid victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Duluth ended her final deployment in June 2005 after a six-month cruise to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Decommissioned at San Diego on September 28th, 2005 the Duluth was stripped of usable material for her active sisterships and prepared for inactivation while pierside. She was finally towed from San Diego to the North Loch Reserve Fleet in early 2006 where she remained in Category L Reserve until 2013. Simultaneously removed from reserve and sold for scrapping in October of 2013, the Duluth departed Pearl Harbor under tow on the 25th of October, bound for Esco Marine's shipbreaking yard in Brownsville, TX where she arrived on December 27th, 2013.

www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/LPD6.htm
www.navsource.org/archives/10/09/0906.htm
navy.memorieshop.com/Duluth/index.html