| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Fort Snelling |
| Awarded: | 28 February 1952 |
| Builder: | Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi |
| Laid down: | 17 August 1953 |
| Launched: | 16 July 1954 |
| Commissioned: | 24 January 1955 |
| Decommissioned: | 28 September 1984 |
| Struck: | 24 February 1992 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 25 August 1995 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Thomaston-class dock landing ship |
| Displacement: | 8,899 long tons (9,042 t) light 11,525 long tons (11,710 t) full load |
| Length: | 510 ft (160 m) |
| Beam: | 84 ft (26 m) |
| Draft: | 19 ft (5.8 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × steam turbines, 2 shafts, 23,000 shp (17 MW) |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Boats and landing craft carried: |
21 × LCM-6 landing craft in well deck |
| Troops: | 300 |
| Complement: | 304 |
| Armament: | • 4 × twin 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal guns • 6 × twin 20 mm AA guns |
| Aircraft carried: | One helicopter |
| Aviation facilities: | Helicopter landing area usually of wood construction; no hangar |
USS Fort Snelling (LSD-30) was a Thomaston-class dock landing ship of the United States Navy. She was named for Fort Snelling at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, for many years the northernmost military post in the land of the Sioux and Chippewa. She was the second ship assigned that name, but the construction of Fort Snelling (LSD-23) was canceled on 17 August 1945.
Fort Snelling (LSD-30) was laid down on 17 August 1953 by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 16 July 1954, sponsored by Mrs. Robert P. Briscoe, wife of Vice Admiral Briscoe; and commissioned on 24 January 1955, Commander H. Marvin-Smith in command.
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Homeported at Norfolk, Virginia, Fort Snelling carried out an intensive exercise schedule along the east coast and in the Caribbean, almost always with Marines embarked for amphibious training. She made her first deployment to the Mediterranean in 1956, returning the next year again to serve with the 6th Fleet. During her 1958 deployment, she was at sea bound for the island of Rhodes when on 14 July she was notified to land her Marines at Beirut, Lebanon, the next day. Thus, Fort Snelling took part in the immediate response of the U.S. Navy to the Middle Eastern crisis of summer 1958. Several times more before leaving the Mediterranean she returned to the coast of Lebanon to support the Marines ashore.
Through 1959 and 1963, Fort Snelling continued her training operations with marines in the Caribbean and on the Carolina coast. In 1966, while returning from a Mediterranean deployment, Fort Snelling was assigned as task group commander of the Navy's Palomares Incident recovery operations. Because of her large well deck, Fort Snelling carried the deep diving submarine Aluminaut.[1] In 1966, she participated in the extraction of U.S. Marines from the Dominican Republican crisis.
On 3 April 1978, Fort Snelling and the replenishment oiler Waccamaw (AO-109) collided north of Corsica when the Waccamaw lost steering control during refueling. Despite structural damage both ships proceeded under their own power to Naples, Italy, for repairs.[2]
In October 1983, Fort Snelling participated in Operation URGENT FURY (the invasion of Grenada) as part of Amphibious Squadron Four (PHIBRON-4). Upon conclusion of Operation Urgent Fury, Ft Snelling continued on her deployment with PHIBRON-4 to support peacekeeping operations in Lebanon. During March 1984, Ft Snelling assisted in the evacuation of noncombatants from Beirut, conducting flight operations and subsequently transporting hundreds of evacuees to Cyprus.
Fort Snelling was decommissioned on 28 September 1984 and transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) on 7 September 1989. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 February 1992 and she was sold for scrapping on 25 August 1995 to Peck Recycling, Richmond, Virginia, for $268,707.
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