In our view, Nov. 11: Veterans & Vessels

With the traditional call of “Man our ship and bring her to life!” the USS New York was commissioned in New York Harbor last Saturday. The vessel is the latest in the U.S. fleet, part of the armed forces that have protected us and our country for more than two centuries. Today, Veterans Day, is time to remember and thank the 23.2 million living American men and women who honorably served on our behalf.

The USS New York is itself a living monument. Its bow stem — the part of the ship just below the waterline that cuts the way for the vessel to pass — is made from 7 1/2 tons of steel recycled from the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks. Wherever the ship goes in the decades to come, it will be a reminder of the danger our country faces, and the sacrifices made by those who aid others in time of national emergency.

“No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back,” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said at the ceremony. “America always comes back. That’s what this ship represents.”

The USS New York, LPD-21, is the latest in the line of amphibious assault ships, equally able to bring relief and power to distant shores.

That’s the same mission carried out for nearly 30 years by another valiant ship, USS Vancouver, LPD-2. Named for our city, the Vancouver was the second of its type built, and the first to be tested in a war zone. The ship could land more than 800 men plus their vehicles, weapons and supplies on foreign shores, with or without local cooperation. The vessel was big — 522 feet long, 100 feet wide — and fast, able to cruise at 21 knots. Its submersible lower deck housed landing craft, its top deck accommodated modern helicopters, and it could defend itself with its four three-inch guns, though its main purpose was to get the troops ashore.

In September 1963, the Vancouver visited its namesake city for the weekend, tying up at Terminal 1, downstream of the Interstate Bridge.

Local dignitaries wined and dined its officers at a banquet at the Quay restaurant. Enlisted men were invited to a football game between Fort Vancouver High School and Kelso at the Kiggins Bowl, while the happy petty officers were hosted at the Lucky Lager Brewery’s taproom. The city presented the ship and its crew with a piano, a silver service and library books, among other gifts. An estimated 30,000 citizens toured the Vancouver, according to The Columbian.

War loomed in 1963, and the USS Vancouver soon was called to Vietnam. On March 8, 1965, it landed Marines at Da Nang. In August, the ship saw its first combat action, when it landed Marines in hostile territory 60 miles east of Saigon.

The Vancouver continued to serve valiantly, eventually earning 11 battle stars for its service in the war. Following the U.S. troop withdrawal, it cleared mines from North Vietnamese harbors and transported refugees.

After Vietnam, the USS Vancouver remained active in the Pacific fleet, visiting ports throughout Asia and Australia from its home port of San Diego.

By the 1990s, the ship was ready for retirement. It was decommissioned on March 27, 1992, in Pearl Harbor and kept there for several years.

Today it sleeps with the “ghost fleet” at Suisun Bay, Calif., along with the battleship USS Iowa. A National Defense Reserve Fleet inventory sheet says the Vancouver has been placed on the “nonretention-military” list, which means it will likely be scrapped after undergoing a historic review.

Today, Veterans Day, is a good time to remember how these vessels, and the men and women who served in the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines and Coast Guard, have protected our nation and our people for more than 200 years.