 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Fort Marion |
| Namesake | Fort Marion in Florida |
| Builder | Gulf Shipbuilding Corp. |
| Launched | 22 May 1945 |
| Commissioned | 29 January 1946 |
| Decommissioned | 13 February 1970 |
| Stricken | 31 October 1974 |
| Fate | Sold toTaiwan, 15 April 1977 |
 Taiwan | |
| Name |
|
| Acquired | 15 April 1977 |
| Decommissioned | May 1999 |
| Fate | Sunk asartificial reef, 9 December 2000 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Casa Grande-class dock landing ship |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 457 ft 9 in (139.5 m) overall |
| Beam | 72 ft 2 in (22.0 m) |
| Draft |
|
| Propulsion | 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2 Skinner Uniflow Reciprocating Steam Engines, 2 propeller shafts - each shaft 3,700 hp, at 240 rpm total shaft horse power 7,400, 2 11 ft 9 in diameter, 9 ft 9 in pitch propellers |
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Range |
|
| Boats & landing craft carried | |
| Capacity | 22 officers, 218 men |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | modified in 1953 to accommodatehelicopters on an added portable deck |
USSFort Marion (LSD-22) was aCasa Grande-classdock landing ship of theUnited States Navy. She was named for theCastillo de San Marcos inSt. Augustine, Florida, which was namedFort Marion from 1821 till 1942.[1]
Fort Marion waslaunched on 22 May 1945 byGulf Shipbuilding Corp.,Chickasaw, Alabama, sponsored by Mrs. Louise S. Dodson; andcommissioned on 29 January 1946.
Fort Marion arrived atSan Diego herhome port, 26 May 1946, and through the next three years repairedlanding craft, carried cargo and landing craft betweenSan Diego andSan Francisco, and took part in amphibious training exercises on theCalifornia coast. Between 4 April and 21 July 1949, she made her first tour of duty in theFar East, calling inAlaska outward bound.
Upon the outbreak of theKorean War,Fort Marion sailed for action 12 July 1950, and arrived atPusan withMarines and their equipment 2 August. For the next month, she ferried troops fromKobe toYokosuka for further routing onward toKorea. On 12 September, at Pusan,Fort Marion embarked men of the3rd Battalion,5th Marines and threeLSUs, carrying tentanks, for theinvasion of Inchon.Fort Marion was theflagship of Captain Norman W. Sears' Advance Attack Group, which comprisedFort Marion and thefast transportsHorace A. Bass,Diachenko, andWantuck.[2]
Shortly after midnight on the 15th,destroyers andcruisers of the Gunfire Support Group entered Flying Fish Channel and headed north, accompanied by the Advance Attack Group.Fort Marion's Marines and tanks landed on Green Beach on Wolmi-do starting at 06:33.[2] The seizure of this strategically placed island made possible the landings at 17:30 that afternoon by the rest of the 5th Marines and the1st Marines.Fort Marion lay offInchon for the next month, receiving casualties and caring for small craft.
From 25 October 1950 until 23 NovemberFort Marion lay atWonsan for similar duty, as well as aiding in the withdrawal early in December. From 29 December through March 1951, she carried troops fromJapan to Korea.
In April, a special task organization, Task Force 74, was set up under AdmiralRoscoe H. Hillenkoetter, with the mission of interdictingNorth Korea's east coast rail line by a commando raid.Fort Marion, with 250 men of theBritishRoyal Marines'41 Commandobattalion, andBegor (APD-127) with aUDT detachment, set sail for Sorye Dong, eight miles south ofSŏngjin, with a supporting force composed ofSaint Paul (CA-73), two destroyers, and sixminesweepers.The landing itself was the responsibility of Captain Philip W. Mothersill, commanding officer ofFort Marion and Commander Amphibious Group; Adm. Hillenkoetter controlled only the supporting ships.Despite fog and an unsuitable landing zone, the commandos blew up about 100 yards of railroad, and were then successfully reembarked, although they found that airstrikes byTask Force 77 had already made the railway inoperable.[3]Fort Marion sailed from Yokosuka for home 26 April 1951.
During her second Korean War deployment, from 16 April 1952 to 14 January 1953,Fort Marion operated with amine squadron in Wonsan Harbor, acting as mother ship for the small ships as they carried out their dangerous operations. She also operated with anamphibious construction battalion, and joined in a mock invasion on the coast north of Wonsan.
Extensively overhauled in 1953,Fort Marion was equipped with a mezzanine deck and fitted to carryhelicopters. She arrived atSasebo 7 December to resume duty as aminesweepertender, and during this tour of duty joined in amphibious exercises offOkinawa and Japan. Back in San Diego 19 August 1954, she sailed later that year to theHawaiian Islands for exercises, and in May 1955 took part inOperation Wigwam, the experimental detonation of an underwateratomic explosion.
In 1956–57, 1958, and 1959,Fort Marion made additional deployments to the western Pacific, taking part in mine and amphibious warfare operations, and in the summer of 1958, joining in emergency operations to meet the threat posed by renewedCommunist shelling of theNationalist-held offshore islands. In September, serving with the Taiwan Patrol Force, she brought supplies toQuemoy under Communist fire.Fort Marion spent much of 1960 in an extensive modernization overhaul which added many useful years to her expected span of service, and on 22 November sailed for Far Eastern duty once more.
Fort Marion served in severalVietnam War campaigns between 1965 and 1969.
Fort Marion wasdecommissioned on 13 February 1970, and stricken from theNaval Register on 31 October 1974.The ship was sold to theRepublic of China on 15 April 1977.
Fort Marion received fivebattle stars forKorean War service and five campaign stars forVietnam War service.
Ex-Fort Marion served in theRepublic of China Navy asROCSChen Hai (LSD-192;Chinese:鎮海). She was decommissioned in May 1999, and sunk to form anartificial reef on 9 December 2000.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere. United States Navy |
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