COURTESY OF U.S. NAVY The USS Frederick is the Navy's last Newport-class amphibious landing vessel.

Landing ship’s retirement
ends its LST design

The USS Frederick played
a pivotal role in the war in
Vietnam and Desert Storm

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

The Navy's last Newport-class amphibious landing vessel, the USS Frederick, made its final voyage last week as it prepared to leave active service after nearly 33 years.

However, none of its six diesel engines were "lit" and it only had a skeleton crew as the tank landing ship (LST) was towed from the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to another pier to await its final assignment -- decommissioning yesterday and sale to the Mexican navy.

Robert Mix, 76, who served on an LST in World War II and who rode the Frederick on its "last trip" described it as a "sentimental moment."

"It's the last one. It's history."

Short as "the trip" may have been on Thursday, it was "a nostalgic moment," said Mike Gumjak, president of the U.S. LST Association, which now has more than 10,000 members.

GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Command Master Chief Dave Pennington and Mike Gumjak, in the foreground, rendered honors on the USS Frederick on Thursday as it prepared for its decommissioning ceremony yesterday at Pearl Harbor. The Frederick was commissioned in 1970 and served in the Vietnam War and the 1991 Desert Storm conflict.

"Almost all of our members are from World War II," said Gumjak, 75, "however, there are a few from Korea and Vietnam, but very few."

Gumjak, of Oregon, Ohio, was among the eight LST veterans who made Thursday's short "trip" and attended yesterday's decommissioning ceremony. He served on the LST USS Krishna, which was later converted to a repair ship in 1945.

Cort Jackson, 48, served on the Frederick from March 1973-76 while it was home-ported in San Diego.

"This was my home for 3 1/2 years," said Jackson, who now works as a carpenter for the Arizona Republic.

"It was the only ship I knew when I was in the Navy," added Jackson, a native of Phoenix, as he watched while a tug boat moved along side to nudge the Frederick down the channel.

"It's really kind of sad."

The Frederick is the second naval vessel to honor the city of Frederick in Maryland.

The first Frederick was an armored cruiser, which was 503 feet and had a displacement of 13,680 tons. Armed with eight six- and three-inch guns, had two 18-inch torpedo tubes, the cruiser served in World War I on patrol duty in the South Atlantic, and was decommissioned on Feb. 14, 1922.

The Tank Landing Ship Frederick was built at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. in San Diego and was commissioned on April 11, 1970, at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Calif.

It is the sixth of the Newport class of fast Tank Landing Ships and represents a departure from the previous concept of amphibious tank landing ships. The traditional bow doors, which have characterized LST construction since the first vessels of this type were built during World War II, were replaced by a 40-ton bow ramp supported by two distinctive derrick arms. The conventional flat bottom hull was redesigned to include a destroyer-type bow enabling Frederick to attain speeds in excess of 20 knots.

Lt. Erin Bailey, a Frederick crew member, told the LST veterans and their families that the Frederick made 16 western Pacific deployments. It participated in the Vietnam War in 1970, the evacuation of South Vietnamese refugees in 1974, and deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990-91. Frederick also was a part of Operation Sea Angel, the humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh, and in 1994 deployed to Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope.

In January 1995, Frederick was transferred to the Naval Reserve Force and then assigned to Pearl Harbor in November. Until yesterday, it was the only amphibious and Naval Reserve ship at Pearl Harbor.

During World War II, more than 1,000 LSTs were built. To meet the conflicting requirements of deep draft for ocean travel and shallow draft for beaching, the ship was designed with a large ballast system that could be filled for ocean passage and pumped out for beaching operations.

From their combat debut in the Solomons in June 1943 until the end of the hostilities in August 1945, the LSTs participated in every major invasion in World War II. They landed troops in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and southern France in the European campaign and were an essential element in the island-hopping battles in the Pacific which ended with the liberation of the Philippines and the capture of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Tony Burwinkel, 55, was part of the crew of the USS Newport (LST-1179), which in 1969 marked the introduction of an entirely new concept in the design of LSTs. The Newport, which is the sister ship of the Frederick, was the first of a new class of 20 LSTs capable of steaming at a sustained speed of 20 knots.

To obtain that speed, the traditional blunt bow doors of the LST were replaced by a pointed ship bow. Unloading was accomplished through the use of a 110-foot ramp operated over the bow and supported by twin derrick arms. A stern gate to the tank deck permitted unloading of amphibious tractors into the water or the unloading of other vehicles into a utility landing craft or onto a pier.

However, Bailey said the changing philosophy of war made the Frederick obsolete since LSTs no longer had "to drive right up to the beach to unload its cargo of tanks and Marines."

"Now an amphibious landing craft gets no closer than 20 nautical miles from shore since the amphibious assault vehicles that carry the Marines can make their own way to the beach." she said.

Bailey said she expects the Marines at Kaneohe will miss the Frederick since it was used on numerous occasions to transport the 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, to the Big Island for training.