Monticello (LSD 35) - Naval Cruise Book

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v 5 E Q 4 K E 1 v'i?t'5 '1. . ag-. 4 . -1 JESS? Hill 5111014 1111109 LSE - f h h me of 'lihomas Iefferson, author of the USS MONTICELLO lLSD-351 bears the name 0 t e 0 . , Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States. She is the third U. S. warship to bear that name. Her armament, troop and equipment load capacity and speed make her a versatile top performer capable of multiple amphibious tasks and very much in demand by the Fleet. ln 1971 alone she steamed over 40,000 miles. MONTICELLO! keel was laid at Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation, Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 6 June 1955. She was launched on 10 August 1956 and commissioned on 29 March 1957. After ' ' ' ' t via the Panama outfitting, MONTICELLO trained at Norfolk, Virginia and sailed for the west coas Canal, arriving in San Diego on 29 May 1957.

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1 .I-'vi f . - 5 i . . H ' ik iff.-A swf? . F. . ' 3 iig3 W -1 36 'tiff' I ? r . Y 6' Qi f ' Q 4 1 if 1 it Meeeeeee 1971 was an eventful and well-traveled year for the crew of the IflOlVTIClfLLO. The tempo seemed to never slach as home port periods were spent preparing for another of the six underway operations or deployments of the year. Under the new command of Captain W. Spangenberg, the year began for USS MONTICELLO as other years have begun for other ships, in home port San Diego, anticipating refresher training and amphibious training, and then a normal deployment to the Western Pacific for duty with the Seventh Fleet. But p1lON1'IClfLLO,s schedule soon changed: partly as a result of an Amphibious Force reorganization which made MONTICELLO available, and partly as a result of plans in Washington to build a naval communications station on a tiny coral atoll in the Indian Ocean. MONTICELLOES large wet well was needed to transport unusual things to a very unusual place in an effort called Project Reindeer Station. Changes followed changes as the months progressed and when 1971 drew to Cl Cl0S6, MONTICELLO had made not Carrying equipment and materials outbound and ret, if h from Viet Nam. one but two long and interesting trips to Diego Carcia Island, urning uit. retrograde equipment sent home In the summer period between these two long voyages, MONYYICELLO took part in several Slwrcef 0P3fU5i0n.s which tools us to Hawaii twice, to Bremerton, Washington and to Camp Pendleton Cal' ' ' ' ' , tfornia, for the amphibious landing phase of a First Fleet Readiness and Opera- tional Ilvaluation exercise. The year 1971 will d h en muc as it began, with MONTICELLO in home port San Diego, looking forward L0 the USM! Sequence Of aC5iUili6S in a ship's overhaul-training-deployment cycle. But me m'e '?m'5le days, f7lil6S, people and places have made a very unusual 1971 for MONTICELLO Sailors: Che aCC0mPliSlW1'6fl5S and experiences of MONT1CELLO,s people using their own talents and sh1.p's equipment about them, 5 U ,Z ,,, , Use! Gr add up to MONTICELLO 11. hhhhrtrhikrrtkfrtkrirrhrti 5 vt .5- ,wrt 914 n, f,- +351