Dubuque (LPD 8) - Naval Cruise Book

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COMMANDING OFFICER CAPTAIN J. R. DENNIS CAPTAIN JEFFERSON R. DENNIS Captain Dennis is a 1957 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. His sea duty assignments have included tours aboard USS NORFOLK (DL-1), USS KING (DLG-10), USS TOWERS (DDG-9), Staff, COMDESRON SIX, USS DENVER (LPD-9), an command of USS MONTICELLO (LSD-35). His shore duty assignments have included U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, NAVORDSYSCOM, CONC- PAC Staff, Naval Advisory Unit Da Nang, RVN, Royal Naval College, Greenwich, England and Staff, CINCUSNAVEUR. Captain Dennis was born in San Diego, California, and considers this area his home. He is married to the former Judith Ahl of Carmel Valley, California. Captain and Dennis reside in Coronado, California, with their two children Allison and Michael.

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USS DUBUQUE LPD-8 THE MISSION OF USS DUBUQUE USS DUBUQUE (LPD-8) is the fourth in a series of modified AUSTIN -class LPD ' s, combining the best features of three earlier classes of ships. The ship carries its own assault boats and can handle many types of helicopters as well as the Vertical Takeoff and Landing Harrier jet fighter. The spacious well deck provides safe haven for numerous assault and landing craft which are launched and recovered within the ship. In wartime and exercise situations DUBUQUE transports and lands troops and their essential equipment by means of embarked landing craft or amphibious vehicles augmented by helicop- ter lift. D-B-Q FACTS AND FIGURES The keel of USS Dubuque was laid on January 25, 1965 by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation at Pascagoula, Mississippi. The ship was launched on August 6, 1966 and was placed in commission at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on September 1, 1967. She arrived in her homeport of San Diego, California, in November of 1967 to become the flagship of Amphibious Squadron ONE. Since 1968 Dubuque has completed nine Western Pacific deployments, including four combat deploy- ments to Viet Nam. She has served as Flagship for Commander, Amphibious Forces Seventh Fleet (CDF-76), Commander, Amphibious Group Easter Pacific and Commander, Amphibious Squadron ONE. During WESTP AC 1981-82 Dubuque provided extensive support to U.S. Marine Corps units. Teamed with USS Frederick (LST-1184) to form a Separate Operations Group, Dubuque transported 4498 Marines, 978 vehicles and 1200 tons of cargo. Most of the transport services involved shuttling Marines and their equipment between training bases in the Western Pacific. The ship traveled a total of 28,938 miles between November 12, 1981 and May 15, 1982, a span of 183 days. The crew and embarked Marines ate 180,000 meals and consumed 150,000 cans of soda during the deployment. The Supply Department processed 4,293 requisitions. Much of the deployment was made at a cruising speed of 14 knots, which is about 15 miles per hour. At that speed Dubuque burns 1200 gallons of fuel each and every hour, enough to drive a compact automobile around the world twice. Dubuque doesn ' t have a milage rating , the ship only gets 70 feet to the gallon!

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EXECUTIVE OFFICER COMMANDER W. P. FINI COMMANDER WALLACE P. FINI Commander Fini was born in Leominster, Massachusetts and maintains his permanent home in New Hampshire. He holds a BSEE degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute as well as an MSME and a Mechanical Engineer Degree from the Naval Postgraduate School. Commander Fini began his Naval career as an Executive Officer when he was assigned to Oceanogra- phic Unit Two aboard USS DUTTON. He has also served aboard USS HENRY B. WILSON (DDG-7), USS JOHNS. MCCAIN (DDG-36), and USS BERKELEY (DDG-15). His shore assignments have been at Naval Destroyer School and Naval Postgraduate School. Commander and Mrs. Fini, the former Theresa Howey of Long Beach, California, live in San Diego with their children, Kevin and Catherine.