Talking Navy

[THE PILGRIM]

Was up at the NM Vietnam Veterans Memorial, near Angel Fire, NM.
It's a beautiful peaceful place, stop by if you get up that way.
So I am chatting with theses two Navy Vets. They got the caps and shirts.
So I am trying to talk Navy. My Navy story goes like this-
I was driving in the middle of nowhere down the East side of Okinawa.
The road goes down to ocean level and circles in on a small cove. All of a sudden I see this really big ship. The bow is up on the beach. It's got swing open front doors and a big ramp pulled out on the beach. The most distinctive feature would be the two huge crane looking structures sticking over the bow.
This ship is big, several hundred feet long. These Navy guys say they never saw or heard of a ship like that. I know what it is now, I can Google!
So here's my question Navy guys, what is the largest ship the US Navy ever had that was designed to be put up on the beach?

 

[DeadAye]

I wasn't in the Navy but my dad was. He was the helmsman on an USN WWII USS LST.
They're pretty big at 300+ feet.
Are there larger landing craft?

 

[gm272gs]

Are you thinking of a landing barge?

 

[Bob R]

The Newport class of LST came in at a little over 500ft. That class was the last of the LSTs.

bob

ETA: From the sounds of your description that is what you saw.

 

[Coastie762]

OP, Did the ship you saw look like the attached photo? If so, that was a Newport Class LST, built in the late 60/early 70s. I saw a few of them in San Diego over the years, they were definitely big ships!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Sure thing, it was a Newport Class.
Ok, was the Newport the largest ship the Navy ever designed to drive up on the beach?

 

[Bob R]

I believe so, the LSTs prior to the Newport class were around 300ft the Newport class of boats came in at a little over 500ft. I believe that once the Newport class of ships was gone they did not develop a ship that could beach to replace them.

bob

 

[shaggist]

OK. I give up. Please tell this ground pounding grunt how the tanks and trucks get off this thing onto the ground. There are no bow doors that open like the 300 ft LSTs. Does that crane thingy on the bow pick them up and lower them one at a time. Also, the bow looks to be too sharp to run into a beach. It wouldn't slide up, but would cut into the sand. Let's go Navy!

 

[Bob R]

Bow ramp. Bow opens, think predator creature from the movies when he screams. Yes, they beach themselves.

Tank Landing Ship LST-1179 Newport

bob

 

[Owen49]

Thanks, Bob R

 

[The Last Standing Knight]

OWWW! I'm having flashbacks! I did a Westpac in the mid 80's aboard USS Cayuga, LST 1186. I believe she was given to a South American navy.
Looked big, but was smaller than a lot of people think. Going through heavy seas in one of these class of ships was like a non-stop roller coaster ride.
If you ever watch one of the "Airport" series of movies back in the 70's where a 747 goes down in the Bermuda Triangle, the rescue ship was Cayuga.
In modern warfare, she obsolete when I was aboard her...a literal sitting duck for her purpose.

 

[DeadAye]

....
In modern warfare, she obsolete when I was aboard her...a literal sitting duck for her purpose.

That's EXACTLY the phrase my dad used - Sitting Duck

 

[Kinman]

I served in the Army's Navy aboard a 150' LCU during the Southeast Asian unpleasantries. We broke up at sea during Typhoon Kate and were at the mercy of the wind and waves, a Navy destroyer came knifing through the weather but could not get close enough to shoot us a line, finally a Korean LST came to our assistance and on the third try got a line across to us and towed us back to shore where we could get further assistance. I remember thinking how small that LST looked because they look so much larger in pictures when they were offloading during D-Day, etc. That LCU I was stationed on was commissioned in 1938 and had been sitting in Luzon Harbor, P.I. since the end of WWII. We often used to argue over whether there were any pieces of equipment used during the Vietnam War that were any older than that old tub.

 

[Comrad]

Historic Naval Ships Visitors Guide - HMAS Advance

 

[yanici]

I served on LST 1171 USS Desoto County the last class of LSTs that actually had bow doors that opened. Much larger than the WWII T's. Think of a big flat bottomed bathtub. Top speed of 18 knots. Yeah, it was like a roller coaster at sea half of the time. The LST like the Newport pictured above replaced this class of ship. There are no more LSTs of any class in service any longer, IIRC.

Interesting video on the LST 1171 at sea. It's a short one. Notice that this is in relatively calm seas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MH2T66wDPg

Class & type: De Soto County-class tank landing ship
Displacement: 3,560 long tons (3,617 t) light
7,823 long tons (7,949 t) full load
Length: 445 ft (136 m)
Beam: 62 ft (19 m)
Draft: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
Propulsion: 6 × Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, two shafts, fixed pitch propellers
Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph)
Boats & landing
craft carried: 3 LCVPs and 1 Captain's Gig
Capacity: • 28 medium tanks or vehicles to 75 tons on 288 ft (88 m) tank deck
• 100,000 gal (US) diesel or jet fuel, plus 7,000 gal fuel for embarked vehicles
Troops: 575 officers and enlisted men
Complement: 10 officers and 162 enlisted men
Armament: 3 × 3"/50 Mark 22 caliber gun mounts

 

[NCTexan]

The Newport class of LST came in at a little over 500ft. That class was the last of the LSTs.

bob

ETA: From the sounds of your description that is what you saw.

I was actually deployed on that same 1179 "USS Newport" for a short cruise. Had also been on one of the older "front loaders".

Not terrible but not a great luxury cruise ship.

 

[bshepherd]

Did my 3rd class cruise on LST 1184 in 1981. USS Frederick, aka The Fast Freddie. The best part was San Diego!

 

[DR505]

They ALL look like "boats" to me.

See the little itty-bitty carrier in the bottom left of the photo?

 

[Bob R]

I can't find my pictures like that.

Although my ride off of the boat wasn't in such a new fangled aeroplane.

As part of a reenlisment incentive I was offered a sortie in one of those fancy jets with twin J79's belching smoke. I was part of the COD crew, so I jumped on that incentive. I ended up getting nearly 1.5 hours in the back seat of a F4J and later nearly a 2 hour sortie in the back of a EA6B. That was my one and only boat tour, after that it was shore duty and off to be a P3 Flight Engineer for 12 years. BTW, we also tanked off of an A7.

bob

 

[DR505]

I can't find my pictures like that.

Although my ride off of the boat wasn't in such a new fangled aeroplane.

As part of a reenlisment incentive I was offered a sortie in one of those fancy jets with twin J79's belching smoke. I was part of the COD crew, so I jumped on that incentive. I ended up getting nearly 1.5 hours in the back seat of a F4J and later nearly a 2 hour sortie in the back of a EA6B. That was my one and only boat tour, after that it was shore duty and off to be a P3 Flight Engineer for 12 years. BTW, we also tanked off of an A7.

bob

It sounds like you were treated well. We took up lots of re-enlistees in Tomcats before the Navy quashed all of that moral building nonsense.