Mount Vernon (LSD 39) - Naval Cruise Book

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COMMANDING OFFICER CDR D. E. MYERS Command.-! David E. M ■ Wayna, Indiana, vji.i.iu.u. ' , I from tha Stata Unlvti - ... York .it Buffalo m ! and waa commlaaionad an Ensign upon graduation from dldata School in February 1972 After completion of trol School is Damage Control Assist. mi I USS LAWRENCE (DDG 4) and USS WILLIAM M WOOD (DD 715) homaportad In Athans, Greece He served Department Head aboard USS DAMATO (DD 871) and as uit aboard USS HERMITAGE (LSD 34). Commander ad as Executive Officer of USS NEWPORT (LST 1179). He commanded USS ADROIT (MSO 509) and USS FORTIFY (MSO 446). From May 1988 until September 1988, Commander Myers commanded USS INFLICT (MSO 456) while conducting minecountermeasures operations in the Persian Gulf. Commander Myers assignments ashore have been at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island as a chemistry instructor, and on the staff of Commander. Naval Surface Force. U.S. Atlantic Fleet as the Damage Control Readiness and Training Officer. Commander Myers is married to the former Carol Waszak of Brooklyn. New York. They presently reside in Seal Beach, California with their children Jennifer and Charles. BELCH . itroduc ] tha Exxon clean up coordinator to Navy cuisine at the 4th of July picnic RIGHT: Captain ' s Call in the Well Deck BELOW RIGHT COMPHIBGRU THREE RADM Baker stopped by to congratulate MOUNT VERNON on handling another difficult |ob

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MOUNT VERNON THROUGH HISTORY USS MOUNT VERNON is the fifth ship commissioned in the United States Navy to bear the proud name of MOUNT VERNON. Four predecessors served with distinction in times of conflict, beginning during the Civil War. The first MOUNT VERNON was a wooden screw merchant steamer purchased by the Navy and converted to a gunboat in 1861. Among her memorable exploits was participation in the attack on Fort Fisher which severed the last Confederate supply line and helped to bring about the end of the Civil War. Another ship, a side wheel river steamer fitted as a gunboat for the defense of Washington, DC, was named MOUNT VERNON during the Civil War. The name was later changed to MOUNT WASHINGTON to avoid any confusion with the first MOUNT VERNON. Built by Norddeutcher Lloyd Lines and originally named KRONPRINZESSIN CECILLE, the third MOUNT VERNON started out as a first class luxury liner in 1907. The ship was interned in Boston Harbor prior to the United State ' e entry into World War One. The German crew destroyed the ship ' s engines when the U.S. entered the war. After extensive repairs, the ship was transferred to the Navy for use as a troop transport. During the war, MOUNT VERNON transported 33,600 men to France, survived a torpedo hit from a German submarine, and returned 42,500 veterans home. A war correspondent commemorated the MOUNT VERNON ' s role in verse with a poem published in the June 18th, 1918 edition of The Atlantic Shuttle, in which he affectionately refers to the ship as the mighty Mickey V. Another spacious liner also bore the name MOUNT VERNON and saw duty as a troop transport. The fourth MOUNT VERNON was built in 1933 as a luxury liner named SS WASHINGTON. During World War Two, the liner was refitted as a troop transport by the Navy. Continuing in the role of delivering soldiers to battle, MOUNT VERNON transported thousands of troops across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

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EXECUTIVE OFFICER LCDR EDWARD FRITZ ABOVE Who was that masked man ' TOP RIGHT Assembling the troops on the Fo ' csle with scenic Alaska for a backdrop RIGHT Attention on deck!