USS Rushmore (LSD-14)
USS Rushmore (LSD-14) underway in 1965
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Rushmore |
Namesake | Mount Rushmore |
Awarded | 1 September 1941[1] |
Builder | Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. |
Laid down | 31 December 1943 |
Launched | 10 May 1944 |
Commissioned | 3 July 1944 |
Decommissioned | 30 September 1970 |
Stricken | 1 November 1976[1] |
Fate | Sunk as a target, 16 April 1993 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement |
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Length | 457 ft 9 in (139.5 m) overall |
Beam | 72 ft 2 in (22.0 m) |
Draft |
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Propulsion | 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2 Skinner Turbine Steam Engines, 2 propeller shafts – each shaft 3,700 hp, at 240 rpm total shaft horse power 7,400, 2 11 ft 9 in diameter, 9 ft 9 in pitch propellers |
Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
Range |
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Boats & landing craft carried |
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Capacity | 22 officers, 218 men |
Complement |
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Armament | |
Aircraft carried | modified to accommodate helicopters on an added portable deck |
USS Rushmore (LSD-14) was a
The ship was originally authorized under the Lend-Lease Act as BAPM-6, the sixth of seven British Mechanized Artillery Transports. Reclassified a Landing Ship Dock, LSD-14, on 1 July 1942, the contract for LSD-14 was awarded to
The ship was
1944 – 1946
Following shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay, landing ship dock Rushmore departed Norfolk on 5 August 1944 for the Pacific where she participated in four amphibious landings: the Battle of Leyte in October 1944; of Palawan in February 1945; of Mindanao in March 1945; and of Tarakan, Borneo, in May 1945.
Rushmore entered
For the invasion of
Returning to the Philippines, Rushmore loaded a 137-foot Japanese army submarine Yu 3 which she carried to San Francisco to serve as a display to help sell war bonds. In the United States from 2 to 27 June, Rushmore next carried landing craft from base to base in the South Pacific and was in Pearl Harbor when the war ended.
After the war, Rushmore operated in the Far East, particularly in occupied Japanese waters. She decommissioned 16 August 1946 and was mothballed in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
1950 – 1993
Rushmore recommissioned at
On 16 May 1960, Rushmore departed Norfolk for a 6-month tour with the
On 4 February 1963, Rushmore began a 5-month deployment to the Mediterranean. From December until February 1964, she operated in the Caribbean, remaining near the Panama Canal Zone area during and after the riots there, ready to land troops to protect American citizens and Government property. Operating in the Atlantic and Caribbean until 6 October, she then departed the United States for Europe and the largest amphibious assault yet staged in peacetime, Operation Steel Pike. She returned to Little Creek on 26 November.
Rushmore was again deployed to the Mediterranean from 8 February to 24 July 1965, participating in joint Norwegian-American and French-American exercises. In the summer of 1966 Rushmore made two midshipmen cruises. For the next four years she alternated deployments to the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean with operations off the U.S. Atlantic coast. She deployed to the Mediterranean November 1966 – May 1967, January–May 1968, and November 1969 – April 1970. Ordered inactivated soon after her return, Rushmore decommissioned 30 September 1970 and was transferred to the
Awards
Rushmore earned three battle stars for World War II service.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
- ^ a b "RUSHMORE (LSD 14)". Naval Vessel Register. U.S. Navy. 11 June 2002. Retrieved 21 April 2008.
External links
- "Rushmore". DANFS. U.S. Naval Historical Center. 21 October 2005. Retrieved 9 May 2008.
- Priolo, Gary P. (29 February 2008). "LSD-14 Rushmore". Amphibious Photo Archive. NavSource Online. Retrieved 9 May 2008.