Clark County history: 522-foot USS Vancouver visited its namesake city in 1963

When the Navy laid the keel of a ship named after the city of Vancouver, no one from the local community was present. When the USS Vancouver launched in 1962, City Councilman Ken Teter and his wife watched as the ship slid into Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn. Adm. Howard Yeager, commander of the naval amphibious force, spoke at the ship’s christening. A year later, Don Tilson, a Northwest manager from Alcoa’s Vancouver plant, and his wife, Ann, were present at the ship’s commissioning.

The ship’s designation as LPD-2 identifies it as the second “landing platform dock” in a series of three amphibious transports built by the Navy. The LPDs transported up to 1,000 Marines, as well as their equipment and supplies, to military objectives. Helicopters and landing craft then deployed Marines and their fighting vehicles to inland combat areas, retrieved men and materials post-combat, and returned them to the ship.

Why name a ship after a town in Washington? The Navy took a logical approach to naming its vessels. Beginning in the 1880s, the Navy named cruisers after cities, destroyers after American Navy commanders or heroes, and battleships after states. So, Vancouver got its ship.

The 522-foot-long USS Vancouver visited its namesake city for the first time shortly after its commission in 1963. The Columbian carried stories as the ship, powered by two huge propellers turned by two steam turbines, cut its way through the seas heading here. After diverting to rescue a distressed fishing boat, the ship docked at Terminal 1 at the Port of Vancouver in September.

Several Vancouver men served aboard the USS Vancouver over the vessel’s life. Before the ship’s inaugural 1963 visit, Tom McClelland, a hometown crewman, wrote a “Letter to the Editor” saying the 432 crew on board wanted to learn more about the area’s industry, scenery and other attractions and hoped residents would open their homes, offer trips to the beach and other gestures of hospitality. The ship would be open for public tours, he said.

Other Vancouverites also served on the vessel during its life. The visits sparked at least two romances. In 1964, Lt. Kenneth Voss wed Billie Garretson, and a decade later, sailor Joseph Mackay married Pamela Gaylord.

In 1964, LPD-2 entered the Vietnam War, cruising the Tonkin Gulf and participating in war efforts until 1973, when the United States pulled out. During its time there, it deployed South Vietnamese troops and took part in many wartime operations. After the war, the Navy used the USS Vancouver in full-scale amphibious landing training exercises. In 1975, the vessel evacuated endangered Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees.

During the nation’s bicentennial celebration, the ship visited Vancouver again, participating in the city’s Fourth of July celebration, docking near the former Quay restaurant on the Columbia River at the foot of the Interstate 5 Bridge. Again, it was open to the public. Church services were held onboard.

A year before the ship’s 1992 decommissioning, Teter donated mementos of his trip to the Brooklyn Naval Shipyard to Clark College. In 2013, the USS Vancouver was sold for scrap and then dismantled.

Martin Middlewood is editor of the Clark County Historical Society Annual. Reach him at ClarkCoHist@gmail.com.