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The Marines Have Landed
Iwo Jima-class Amphibious Assault Ships

LPH-7 USS Guadalcanal


Highlights of Ship's Service History



 [USS Guadalcanal photo]
An aerial starboard side view of the amphibious ship USS GUADALCANAL (LPH-7) passing the Ellis Island Memorial Immigration Center as the ship arrives at New York City for Fleet Week '92.
U.S. Navy photo

Photo source: Wikipedia [ Wikipedia icon ]
21 Dec 1959
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Contract awarded to the U.S. Navy Shipyard, Philadelphia, PA
1 Sep 1961
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Keel laid
16 Mar 1963
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Launched
20 Jul 1963
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Commissioned
21 Jul 1966
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Recovery ship for Gemini X
13 Mar 1969
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Recovery ship for Apollo 9
24 Sep 1981
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Collided with T-AO-109 USNS Waccamaw during UNREP near Italy. Minor damage, no casualties.
1987
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Helicopters from Guadalcanal stopped, and Marines from Guadalcanal boarded and captured, the Iran Ajar, which was laying mines in the shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf. This was the second enemy combatant ship captured by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812; the first was when the Guadalcanal's namesake, the escort carrier CVE-60 USS Guadalcanal, captured the German u-boat U-505 in the south Atlantic in June of 1944.
31 Aug 1994
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Decommissioned
31 Aug 1994
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Stricken from the Navy List
19 May 2005
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Sunk during a fleet training exercise.

Sources

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships - U. S. Naval Historical Center  [ Flag of United States ] United States Naval Vessel Register  [ Flag of United States ] Wikipedia [ Wikipedia icon ] NavSource: Photographic History of the U.S. Navy [ World Wide Web icon ] Haze Gray & Underway [ World Wide Web icon ]