USS Anzio (CG-68)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Anzio.
USS Anzio (CG-68)
A gray-painted ship sails past a green statue.
USS Anzio (CG-68) sails past the Statue of Liberty in May 2004, during Fleet Week.
History
United States of America
Name: Anzio
Namesake: Battle of Anzio
Operator:  United States Navy
Ordered: 16 April 1987
Builder: Ingalls Shipbuilding
Laid down: 21 August 1989
Launched: 2 November 1990
Acquired: 10 February 1992
Commissioned: 2 May 1992
Homeport: NAVSTA Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
Motto: "Stand and Fight"
Status: in active service
Badge: The ship's crest of the USS Anzio.
General characteristics
Class and type: Ticonderoga-class cruiser
Displacement: Approx. 9,600 long tons (9,800 t) full load
Length: 567 feet (173 m)
Beam: 55 feet (16.8 meters)
Draft: 34 feet (10.2 meters)
Propulsion:
  • 4 × General Electric LM2500 gas turbine engines, 80,000 shaft horsepower (60,000 kW)
  • 2 × controllable-reversible pitch propellers
  • 2 × rudders
Speed: 32.5 knots (60 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Complement: 33 officers, 27 Chief Petty Officers, and approx. 340 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters.

USS Anzio (CG-68) is a Ticonderoga-class cruiser guided missile cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the site of a beachhead invasion of Italy by Allied troops from 22 January to 23 May 1944. Her keel was laid down by the Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation at Pascagoula, Mississippi on 21 August 1989, she was launched on 2 November 1990, and commissioned on 2 May 1992 under Captain H. Wyman Howard. Anzio operates out of Norfolk in Virginia.

Etymology

The ship is named for the battle of Anzio in Italy, the site of an Allied amphibious assault during Operation Shingle as part of the Italian Campaign of World War II. One other ship, an escort aircraft carrier, had been named USS Anzio.

History

U.S. Navy sailors in flash gear man the helm during a general quarters drill aboard USS Anzio in June 2002.
USS Anzio anchored at Boothbay Harbor, Maine in June 2008.

2000s

On 6 April 2000, Anzio, along with another cruiser and the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, was participating in an exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean, about 250 miles off the coast of Israel. In an unannounced missile test, the Israel Defense Forces fired a Jericho-1 medium-range ballistic missile from a test facility in Yavne, which landed 40 miles from the ship. The missile was detected by the ship's radar, and the crew briefly thought that they were under attack.[1][2]

On 9 January 2003 Anzio was pre-deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ordered first to the eastern Mediterranean Sea for the initial phase of President George W. Bush's Shock and Awe strategy (during which the U.S. Navy deployed to obliterate and defeat the Iraq military before ground forces were sent in). Once the Anzio completed her mission in the eastern Mediterranean, she forward-deployed to the Persian Gulf. Once the Anzio arrived in the Gulf, she had marked her 45th straight day at sea. In the Gulf, Anzio continued carrier-flight support operations and coastal surveillance. After President Bush announced major combat had concluded in the Iraq War, on 1 May 2003, Anzio was relieved of her duties, returning home on 3 July 2003 after 175 days at sea. In March 2003 she was assigned to Cruiser-Destroyer Group Eight.[3]

In 2004, Anzio participated at the annual Fleet Week in New York City. In January 2007, the warship was sent to the coast of Somalia to conduct anti terrorist operations as part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower task force.

On 16 February 2007, Anzio was awarded the 2006 Battle "E" award.[4]

Anzio was anchored and a participant for 'Windjammer Days' in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, 25–26 June 2008.

Anzio has served as the flagship of the horn of Africa international anti-piracy Combined Task Force 151.[5] On 15 October 2009 a team from the cruiser working with U.S. Coast Guard personnel from Maritime Safety and Security Team 91104 seized a skiff carrying an estimated 4 tons of hashish worth an estimated $28 million about 170 nautical miles (310 km) southwest of Salalah, Oman.[6][7] The boarding team destroyed the drugs by dumping them into the ocean and released the skiff's crew.[8]

2010s

USS Anzio embarked Detachment 2 of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 46 (HSM-46) for its 2012 operations.

Anzio was tentatively scheduled to be decommissioned and designated for disposal on 31 March 2013.[9] However, Anzio was retained under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013.[10][11]

On 13 January 2016, 10 U.S. Navy sailors were picked up by USS Anzio for transport and medical evaluations after being held in Iranian custody. The sailors were captured by Iran on 12 January 2016 after their two naval boats entered Iranian waters. "The evidence suggests that they unintentionally entered the Iranian waters because of the failure of their navigational system,” IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif said on Press TV.[12] Anzio was also involved in a RaS with MS Defender, USS Harry S Truman, USS Ramage, USNS Pecos, and USNS Medgar Evers.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 2015-09-09.
  2. ↑ "World Navies Today: US Navy Aircraft Carriers & Surface Combatants". Hazegray.org. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  3. ↑ "Surface Force Ships, Crews Earn Battle "E"". Navy.mil. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  4. ↑ "United States Department of Defense". Defenselink.mil. 2015-04-10. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  5. ↑ Guha, Amita (2015-09-30). "Military Daily News". Military.com. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  7. ↑ Stars and Stripes, "Navy seizes 4 tons of narcotics at sea", 21 October 2009.
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ "US Navy to retain four Ticonderoga-class cruisers in service". Naval Technology. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  10. ↑ "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013" (PDF). Gpo.gov. p. 5. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  11. ↑ "10 American sailors detained by Iran freed". WREG.com. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2016-10-23.
  12. ↑ "Defender refuels for counter-Daesh operations". Royal Navy. 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2016-10-23.

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain.

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