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U.S.S. OAK HILL
(LSD-7)BEST SHIP BEST SQUADRON
ANY FLEET ANY NAVY
Click to view crew list
USS OAK HILL (LSD-7) - an Ashland-class dock landing ship
In Commission 1944 to 1969LSD-7 Deployments - Major Events
Add a LSD-7 Shellback Initiation | Add a LSD-7 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MAR | 1943 | - | Keel Date: 9 MAR 1943 | ||
JUN | 1943 | - | Launch Date: 25 JUN 1943 | ||
JAN | 1944 | - | Commissioned: 5 JAN 1944 | ||
JUL | 1944 | - | Shellback Initiation - 7 JUL 1944 - Pacific Ocean | ||
JUL | 1944 | - | Shellback Initiation - 7 JUL 1944 - Pacific Ocean | ||
AUG | 1944 | - | Shellback Initiation - 22 AUG 1944 - Pacific Ocean | ||
MAY | 1951 | - | MAY | 1951 | Panama Canal |
JUL | 1951 | - | AUG | 1951 | Antarctic Circle |
JAN | 1952 | - | JAN | 1953 | Panama Canal |
MAY | 1952 | - | DEC | 1952 | Operation Ivy Eniwetok. 1st Hydrogen Bomb test |
JAN | 1954 | - | APR | 1958 | Panama Canal |
MAY | 1954 | - | JAN | 1958 | West Pac |
JAN | 1956 | - | SEP | 1959 | Middle Pacific |
JUN | 1957 | - | Shellback Initiation - 15 JUN 1957 - Pacific Ocean | ||
JAN | 1960 | - | JUN | 1960 | Regular Overhaul |
JAN | 1960 | - | JAN | 1965 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
JAN | 1964 | - | AUG | 1964 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
JAN | 1964 | - | AUG | 1966 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
AUG | 1965 | - | APR | 1966 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
NOV | 1965 | - | JAN | 1966 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
JUL | 1966 | - | AUG | 1966 | Dry Dock |
JAN | 1967 | - | SEP | 1967 | West Pac |
JAN | 1967 | - | OCT | 1967 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
JUL | 1968 | - | Shellback Initiation - 4 JUL 1968 - Pacific Ocean | ||
AUG | 1968 | - | MAR | 1969 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
NOV | 1968 | - | Shellback Initiation - 27 NOV 1968 - Pacific Ocean | ||
OCT | 1969 | - | Decommissioned: 26 OCT 1969 |
LSD-7 General Specifications
Complement: 17 Officers and 237 Enlisted
Displacement: 7930 tons
Length: 457 feet 9 inches
Beam: 72 feet 2 inches
Draft: 8 feet 2 in
Flank Speed: 17 knots
Final Disposition: Sold for scrap 18 March 1948
USS OAK HILL (LSD-7)
Oak Hill (LSD-7)
originally designated APM-7
was laid down by the
Moore Dry Dock Co.
Oakland
Calif.
9 March 1943; launched 25 June 1943;
sponsored by Mrs. Robert E. Garrels; and commissioned 5 January 1944
Comdr.
Carl A. Peterson in command.
Following shakedown and amphibious training off southern California
Oak
Hill
designed to serve as a cargo and transport type amphibious ship
and as a floating dry dock
ferried cargo between the west coast and Hawaii.
In early May she engaged in rehearsals for operation "Forager"
the thrust into the Marianas
and
at the end of the month
sailed west
in T.G. 52.16. With tank-bearing LCMs and troops of the 2rd Marine Division
on board
she arrived in transport area off Saipan early on 15 June. Her
boats soon away and headed for the beachhead
the LSD took up repair duties
working on LCMs
LCVPs and LCTs until the 22nd. She then headed back to
Pearl Harbor to resume shuttling cargo and landing craft between Hawaii
and the west coast.
On 12 August
Oak Hill
with tanks and soldiers of the 710th Tank
Battalion embarked
headed west again. Following rehearsals for the Palau
operation at Guadalcanal
she was off Babelthaup by 15 September. There
she feinted toward Namai Bay
then proceeded to Anguar
sent her tank laden
LCTs in
and again repaired landing craft. Departing the Palaus on the 21st
she moved to Ulithi
thence proceeded to New Guinea arriving at Humboldt
Bay on the 29th to prepare for the invasion of the Philippines.
On 20 October Oak Hill stood off Leyte and launched LTMs and LVTs
carrying 1st Cavalry Division units toward White beach. For the next two
months she carried reinforcements from New Guinea to Leyte and then
on
Christmas Day
arrived at Morotai to prepare for the Lingayen Gulf offensive.
Departing the 28th
she proceeded to Sansapor
thence
on 1 January 1945
to the Philippines. On the 9th she dispatched LCTs and LCVPs to the Luzon
beachhead
then withdrew to Leyte to begin ferrying reinforcements from
there
and from Morotai
to the assault area.
Sailing to the Solomons on 2 February
Oak Hill rehearsed with units
of the 1st Marine Division for her next operation
the Okinawa campaign.
On 1 April
she arrived in transport area Baker
lowered her LCMs for the
assault on Blue Beach and then began repairing landing craft. Through the
end of May
she remained in the Hagushi area for repair duties. Then she
transported Marines and tanks to Iheya Shima and to Aguni Shima before steaming
back to Leyte
10 June.
For the remainder of the war
Oak Hill transported men and equipment
from the central Pacific to the Philippines and Okinawa. Post-war duties
at Jinsen
Korea
and Tsingtao
China
occupied the remainder of her tour
in the Far East. In February 1946 she got underway for the United States
and on 17 March 1947 she decommissioned and was berthed at San Diego as
a unit of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
After the outbreak of hostilities in Korea
Oak Hill recommissioned
at San Diego 26 January 1951. Assigned to the Pacific Fleet
she participated
in operation "Blue Jay"
in Arctic waters
in the late summer
months of 1951
and
hetween May and December 1952
took part in the atomic
and hydrogen bomb tests in the Marshalls. Following that duty she was transferred
to the Atlantic Fleet and homeported at Norfolk.
In January 1955 Oak Hill returned to San Diego and Pacific Fleet
duty
departing for her first regular WestPac deployment 31 March. During
her 1958 WestPac tour she supplied Nationalist Chinese offshore islands
as they withstood shelling by Chinese Communist guns. Since 1965
her annual
western Pacific deployments have taken her to South East Asia where she
has supported Naval operations in strife torn South Viet Nam. Operating
primarily in the Da Nang -- Cam Ranh Bay areas
she has performed assignments
as far south as the Mekong Delta and visited ports in Thailand
Taiwan
and Japan as well as in the Philippines.
Oak Hill (LSD-7) earned five battle stars during World War II.
[Note: The above USS OAK HILL (LSD-7) history may or may not contain text provided by crew members of the USS OAK HILL (LSD-7) or by other non-crew members and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]