After 46 years of service, USS Denver will hold its decommissioning ceremony at 10:00 a.m. at Naval Station Pearl Harbor on 14 August, 2014.
“It is with a great sense of pride that Denver will decommission as the oldest deployable warship in the Navy and as the last and longest serving Austin class amphibious transport dock,” said Commanding Officer Capt. Michael P. Donnelly, a native of Kent Island, Maryland. “Her extended service life is a true testament to the men and women of Lockheed Shipbuilding who built her and the generations of crews who maintained and sailed her through the full spectrum of missions: from disaster relief to Gulf War command ship.”
The ship was launched on January 23, 1965 and commissioned on October 26, 1968, being christened by her sponsor, Mrs. John Love, wife of the governor of Colorado. Denver is the third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of American pioneer James William Denver and the capital of the state of Colorado. Over its history, the ship played a significant role in several operations, most notably Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of Saigon, Vietnam in April 1975.
“That she finishes her operational service in our forward deployed naval forces is fitting to the reputation her crews have earned over 46 her years of service and is fittingly in-synch with our Navy’s current priorities: war fighting first; operate forward; be ready,” said Donnelly.
The ship is part of the forward-deployed Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) which reports to Commander, Amphibious Force 7th Fleet, Rear Adm. Hugh Wetherald, who is headquartered in Okinawa, Japan.