USA — Navy Names Amphibious Ship for Congressman John Murtha

Sec­re­tary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today the selec­tion of the USS John P. Murtha as the name of the 10th San Anto­nio class Amphibi­ous Trans­port Dock ship. Mabus made the announce­ment at John P. Murtha John­stown-Cam­bria Coun­ty air­port in John­stown, Pa.

The USS John P. Murtha hon­ors the late U.S. rep­re­sen­ta­tive and Marine who ded­i­cat­ed his life to serv­ing his coun­try. Murtha served a dis­tin­guished 37 years in the Marine Corps and received the Bronze Star with Com­bat “V,” two Pur­ple Hearts and the Viet­namese Cross of Gal­lantry for his ser­vice in the Viet­nam War, retir­ing as a colonel in 1990. 

In his pub­lic life, Murtha served the peo­ple of Pennsylvania’s 12th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict from 1974 until his death in 2010. In his posi­tion as the chair­man of the House Appro­pri­a­tions Sub­com­mit­tee on Defense, he over­saw fund­ing issues for the Depart­ment of Defense, includ­ing the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and the intel­li­gence community. 

“Both in uni­form and in the halls of Con­gress, Chair­man Murtha ded­i­cat­ed his life to serv­ing his coun­try both in the Marine Corps and Con­gress. His unwa­ver­ing sup­port of our sailors and Marines, and in par­tic­u­lar our wound­ed war­riors, was well known and deeply appre­ci­at­ed,” said Mabus. 

The future USS John P. Murtha will be used to trans­port and land Marines, their equip­ment and sup­plies, by embarked air cush­ion or con­ven­tion­al land­ing craft or expe­di­tionary fight­ing vehi­cles, aug­ment­ed by heli­copters or ver­ti­cal take­off and land­ing air­craft. It will sup­port amphibi­ous assault, spe­cial oper­a­tions, or expe­di­tionary war­fare mis­sions through the first half of the 21st century. 

The amphibi­ous trans­port dock ship will be 684 feet in length, have a water­line beam of 105 feet, dis­place approx­i­mate­ly 25,000 tons, and will make speed in excess of 22 knots. It will be crewed by 363 per­son­nel and embark an addi­tion­al 700 Marines. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)