USS De Soto County (LST-1171)

USS De Soto County (LST-1171) was a De Soto County-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during the late 1950s. The lead ship of her class of seven, she was named after counties in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.

USS De Soto County (LST-1171) underway in the Caribbean, circa 1958
History
Name: USS De Soto County
Namesake: De Soto County
Builder: Avondale Marine Ways, Inc. Avondale, Louisiana
Laid down: September 1956
Launched: 28 February 1957
Commissioned: 10 June 1958
Decommissioned: 17 July 1972
Stricken: 8 May 1992
Honours and
awards:
Fate: Loaned to the Italian Navy, 1972
Name: Grado (L 9890)
Acquired: 1972
Fate: Sold for scrapping, 1989
General characteristics
Class and type: De Soto County-class tank landing ship
Displacement:
  • 3,560 long tons (3,617 t) light
  • 7,823 long tons (7,949 t) full load
Length: 445 ft (136 m)
Beam: 62 ft (19 m)
Draft: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)
Propulsion: 6 × Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, two shafts, fixed pitch propellers
Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph)
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 3 LCVPs and 1 Captain's Gig
Capacity:
  • 28 medium tanks or vehicles to 75 tons on 288 ft (88 m) tank deck
  • 100,000 gal (US) diesel or jet fuel, plus 7,000 gal fuel for embarked vehicles
Troops: 575 officers and enlisted men
Complement: 10 officers and 162 enlisted men
Armament: 3 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 Mark 22 caliber gun mounts

De Soto County was laid down 15 September 1956 at Avondale, Louisiana by Avondale Marine Ways, Inc.; launched on 28 February 1957; sponsored by Mrs. C. Horton Smith; and commissioned on 10 June 1958 with Lieutenant Commander Daniel A. York in command.

Service history

For almost the entire length of her active service, De Soto County was assigned to the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet. She interspersed operations off the east coast of the United States with frequent deployments to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean. The tank landing ship saw brief service in the Vietnam theater of operations in 1969.

Grado (L 9890)

Decommissioned on 17 July 1972, De Soto County was transferred to the Italian Navy where she served as Grado (L 9890). Struck from the Naval Vessel Register 8 May 1992, the ship was sold for scrapping by the Italian government in 1989.

De Soto County earned one Meritorious Unit Commendation for service with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean and one battle star for Vietnam War service.

gollark: VIM IS THE EMACS OF LUCIFER
gollark: Well, PHP is, as they say, bad.
gollark: I shall become the world's first 2.6x10^3 engineer!
gollark: Well. Not bad exactly, but annoying.
gollark: Fiddly and bad.

References
  • This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
  • "LST-1171 De Soto County". Amphibious Photo Archive. Retrieved June 26, 2007.

See also
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.