Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Naval Cruise Book

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The next generation... 7% 7 f ory » ] ; Fabrication work for the new USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7) began at Ingalls shipyard on September 3, 1996, and the ship ' s keel was laid on December 13, 1997, She was launched on February 4th, 2000. USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7) was christened by her sponsor, Mrs. Zandra Krulak, in Pascagoula, Mississippi on March 25th, 2000. The commissioning crew moved aboard in AphI of 2001, and made the ship ' s maiden voyage (accompanied by more than 2,000 World War II veterans— many of them survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima) on June 23rd, 2001 . She was commissioned a week later in Pensacola, Florida on June 30th, 2001. Shortly thereafter, the ship and crew began an accelerated Inter Deployment Training Cycle, which tested virtually every system onboard in realistic combat conditions. Together with the 26th Mahne Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7) completed a record-setting extended combat deployment from March 4th-October 24th, 2003.

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r ' fH yj fi ry of 1 USS I wo JIM A is named for the epic battle of Febiiun i ' -»?. in . www three divisions of the United States Marine Corps took control of the tiny island of Iwo Jima from 22,000 determined Japanese defenders. The United States had recovered from the disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor, to the point where routine air attacks on Japanese cities could be made by heavy bombers launched from the Marianas. The successfijl outcome of the war seemed inevitable, but victory over the Japanese would come only at a high price. The Japanese considered Iwo Jima a part of mainland Japan, and an invader had not set foot on Japanese soil for 4,000 years.Iwo Jima was a thorn in the side of the U.S. heavy bomber crews. Air attacks on the Marianas bomber bases, and bombers enroute to and from Japan, were launched from Iwo Jima. An assault on the island was necessary to eliminate these air attacks and to provide a haven for damaged American aircraft returning from Japan. Amphibious forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet attacked the fortress of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. with a formidable force, totaling 495 ships, including 17 aircraft carriers. 1 1 70 planes, and 1 1 0.308 troops. Before the amphibious assault, elements of the Air Force and Army Air Corps pounded the island in the longest sustained aerial offensixe of the war. Incredibly, this ferocious bombardment had little effect. Hardly any of the Japanese underground fortresses were touched. The Japanese defenders de ' ised a unique and deadly strategy to defend Iwo Jima from an American assault. Instead of building a barrier to stop the Americans at the beach, they fortified the interior of the island, creating a defense that could not be breached in a day. On February 19, 1945, the first wave of Marines were launched after an hour-long bombardment by the Navy ' s big gims. The Americans planned to capture, isolate and fortify Mt. Suribachi. The success of the entire assault depended upon the early capture of the mountain. After an hour of calm, the Japanese defenders, hiding in their network of caves and underground bunkers, unleashed a hail of gunfire. Mortars, machine guns and heavy artillery rained down from scores of machine gun nests atop Suribachi. . fter the first day of fighting. 566 American men were killed and 1,755 more were woimded. For the next several weeks, some of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific were fought on the isle of Iwo Jima. It was a battle of attrition on terrain that had no firont lines; where the attackers were exposed and the defenders fortified.The battle for Iwo was fought desperately until March 26th. when the island was finally secured by U.S. forces. In the struggle, nearly 7,000 Americans and more than 20,000 Japanese were killed. It was one of the most savage and costly battles in the histon, ' of the Marine Corps. As Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz observed, Among the Americans who served on Iwo Jima. unc ommon valor was a common virtue. PFC Jack Lucas was 17 when he earned the Medal of Honor, the youngest awardee in our nation ' s history. He leapt on two live grenades, saving countless brother Marines. A doctor aboard the hospital ship on which Lucas was treated said he was. too damned young and too damned tough to die. When asked. 53 years later, why he jumped on the grenades. Jack simply said. to save my buddies. He and his lovely wife. Ruby, are honorarv ' crew and family members of USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7).

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t ' ' % W .I ' «f » ■mf o, - i t« n the 29th of August 2005, having ravaged South Florida on its way through the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States, leaving a wake of massive destruction and devastation of Biblical proportions across an area reaching from the western panhandle of Florida to Louisiana. The city of New Orleans dodged the eye of the stonn but was lulled into a sense of false security. Hurricane forces winds and heavy rains from this Category 4 storm produced a tidal surge of some 22 to 26 feet along the Gulf Coast, but also in Lake Ponchartrain to the north of New Orleans. After several hours of over-topping, numerous levees that protected the city and its neighborhoods gave way, flooding the entire city and leaving thousands stranded in rising flood waters. On the same day, USS IWO JIMA (LHD-7) was preparing for an engineering inspection in homeport Norfolk, Virginia, when the word was received that IWO JIMA would replace one of her sister ships as the Ready Ship for possible humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. The inspection was postponed and the ship remained pierside on call. It was not until late the following day, Tuesday. 30 August, the full magnitude of the disaster was realized. The ship had been given approval from the Fleet Commander to get underway to complete the engineering inspection, but halfway down the Thimble Shoals Channel leading from the Norfolk Naval Base to the Atlantic Ocean, IWO JIMA received word to turn around and return to the Naval Base to load supplies and equipment. The ship returned to Norfolk, loaded humanitarian supplies throughout the evening and then got underway the following day, Wednesday 3 1 August with two LCAC from Assault Craft Unit FOUR, elements of Beachmaster Unit TWO, Naval Beach Group TWO, Amphibious Construction Battalion TWO, and Amphibious Squadron FOUR, a detachment of some 85 doctors and medical personnel from Naval Hospital Portsmouth, and aircraft from HM-14, HSC-26, and HC-2, and sailed some 1,500 miles at a sustained speed of 25 knots from Norfolk to the Gulf Coast, arriving in less than 72 hours late in the afternoon of Saturday, 3 September. Two other ships, USS TORTUGA (LSD-46) and USS SHREVEPORT (LPD-12), and later followed by USS WHIDBEY ISLAND (LSD-41) sailed with IWO JIMA to the Gulf Coast to join USS BATAAN (LHD-5) who was already on station in the Gulf of Mexico conducting rescue and relief operations. Over the next three to four weeks, IWO JIMA and her sister amphibious ships, as part of Joint Task Force KATRINA and a 40,000-person Department of Defense response, undertook a wide ariety of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions in the region, starting with relief and clean-up efforts in Gulfport and Biloxi to humanitarian efforts in the city of New Orleans itself to rescue and relief operations back out along the Gulf Coast after a second Hurricane, Rita, struck western Louisiana and eastern Texas on 23 September. On the 28th of September with the relief mission transitioning to federal and state agencies, the ship was released from the Joint Task Force, and after debarking some 650 members of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines at Camp Lejeune. returned to homeport Norfolk on 02 October 2005. The following pages are a compilation of the observations of the ship ' s coirmianding officer of the extraordinary events and the remarkable accomplishments of the ship and her crew. . . ' i i