Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Naval Cruise Book

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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

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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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V 29 Aug: IWO JIMA replaces another Big Deck as Ready Ship for possible relief mission 30 Aug: IWO JIMA underway for engineering inspection, but was call back to Norfolk to load supplies and depart for Gulf Coast 31 Aug: Underway with TORTUGA and SHREVEPORT, landing craft and helos 01- 03 Sep: Transit to Gulf of Mexico (1,500 nm distance at 25 knots) 03-04 Sep: Ships arrive off the coast of Biloxi, joining BATAAN who was already on station 04 Sep: OtTload of Naval Beach Group and Construction Battalion equipment and relief mission at Episcopal Church; 05 Sep: Mississippi River transit 05-21 Sep: Relief Operations in the city of New Orleans 21-27 Sep: Undei-way for HuiTicane Rita Contingency operation 28 Sep-01 Oct: Transit to Norfolk and offload at Onslow Bay 02 Oct: Return to Norfolk ' ns oiv Bay, NC