LPD 24 USS Arlington
On September 9, 2004, the Department of Defense announced that Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England had named the Navy's next amphibious transport dock ship Arlington to honor the city and county in northern Virginia, and especially, the 184 victims, aboard American Airlines Flight 77, and on the ground, who died during the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon.
The 684-foot-long amphibious transport dock ship will be built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in New Orleans and will carry a Navy crew of 363 and 699 Marines. The ship will be used to transport and land Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked air cushions or conventional landing craft or amphibious vehicles, augmented by helicopters or vertical take off and landing aircraft in amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions.
The ship will also incorporate the latest quality of life standards for the embarked sailors and Marines, including the sit-up berth, ship services mall, a fitness center and learning resource center and electronic classroom with the flexibility to accommodate mixed gender sailors and Marines as part of the crew and embarked troops. The design team also incorporated hundreds of suggestions and recommendations from more than 1,000 sailors and Marines in the design for ownership process to ensure that this ship will meet their needs throughout the first half of the 21st century.
Previous Ships
Two previous vessels have been named Arlington. The first was a steel-hulled C1B type cargo ship operating during World War II.
The second USS Arlington was a 14,500-ton major communications relay ship, originally commissioned in July 1946, which saw heavy use during the Vietnam War, including helping with communications during a June 1969 conference between U.S. President Nixon and Republic of Vietnam President Thieu.
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