Home > USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)

The second USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the lead ship of the Blue Ridge class of command ships of the United States Navy, named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a series of ranges in the Appalachian Mountains of the easter US.

The ship was commissioned on November 14, 1970, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as a command and control platform for the Navy. With accommodations for more than 200 officers and 1200 enlisted, the ship provides all the services of a small town.

From 1971 until 1979, Blue Ridge operated from San Diego, California, where she deployed to the Western Pacific, earning the Meritorious Unit and Navy Unit Commendations for the evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam in 1975.

Since October 1979, Blue Ridge has been forward deployed from Yokosuka, JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh as the flagshipA flagship is the ship used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships. The term originates from the custom of the commanding officer (usually, but not always, an admiral) to fly a distinguishing flag. Used in this way, "flagship" is fundamentall of Commander Seventh Fleet. Blue Ridge participates routinely in U.S. and allied training exercise each year with countries throughout the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. She performed a nine-and-one-half month deployment as flagship for Commander United States Naval Forces Central Command during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm from August 1990 through May 1991, for which the ship earned another Navy Unit Commendation.

Blue Ridge frequently makes port calls throughout the Western Pacific and Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third-largest body of water in the world, covering about 20% of the Earth's water surface. It is bounded on the north by southern Asia (the Indian Sub-continent); on the west by the Arabian Peninsula and Africa; on the east by the including JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh, Hong KongThe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or Hong Kong (, pinyin: Xinggng, WG: Hsiang-kang, Cantonese IPA, Jyutping or Penkyamp: hoeng1 gong2, meaning Fragrant Harbour , is one of two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of Chi, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia. She made her historic port visit to Shanghai, People Republic of China in May 1989 and Vladivostok, Russia in July 1996. The ship has also been cited for rescues of refugees and merchant vessels.

See USS Blue Ridge for other ships of this name.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.