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 USS Francis Marion (APA-249 / LPA-249)
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Namesake
Francis Marion was born in 1732 at Winyah, a plantation in St. John’s Parish, Berkeley County, S.C., near Georgetown. He gained his first military experience fighting Cherokee Indians in 1759 and 1761, during the French and Indian Wars. Elected to the South Carolina Provincial Congress in 1775, he was soon commissioned captain and helped defend Patriot positions in Charleston Harbor in 1776. Marion participated in the unsuccessful American campaign to take Georgia in 1779. When the British took Charleston in the following year and overran most of the State, Marion was commissioned a brigadier general and distinguished himself in organizing and leading a guerrilla band which soon won fame harassing British units and intimidating Tories. When the perplexed red coats sent their reliable troubleshooter Colonel Tarleton in pursuit of Marion, the crafty American won the sobriquet, “the Swamp Fox,” by slipping through the Carolina marshlands. He subsequently joined General Green and assisted in the skillful series of tactical maneuvers which exhausted the British Army under Cornwallis, ultimately causing him to abandon the Carolinas and head toward his doom at Yorktown. After peace returned, Marion served in the State senate until retiring from public life in 1790. He died 27 February 1790.
Image from the University of San Diego, Department of History |
Bill Gonyo |
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USS Francis Marion (APA-249) underway, date and location unknown.
US Navy photo |
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USS Francis Marion (APA-249) underway, date and location unknown.
US Navy photo |
Bob Martin
USS Francis Marion web site |
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Amphibious Group at sea, 17 April 1964. The ships are USS Hermitage (LSD-34) in left foreground, USS Francis Marion (APA-249) in center, USS Plymouth Rock (LSD-29) in the left rear and USS Yancey (AKA-93) in the right rear. Three UH-34 helicopters are flying in formation over Francis Marion. Photo was received from USS Francis Marion in 1964.
US Naval History and Heritage Command photo #: NH 85059 |
Robert Hurst |
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USS Francis Marion (APA-249) underway in Hampton Roads, VA. in 1968
US Navy photo |
Photo by Masao Aochi |
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USS Francis Marion (LPA-249) moored pierside at Norfolk, VA., Fall 1976 |
Photo by Steven Loomis IC3, USNR |
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USS Francis Marion (LPA-249) moored pierside at Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Fall 1976 |
Photo by Steven Loomis IC3, USNR |
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USS Francis Marion (LPA-249) departing Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, VA., circa 1977. |
Tommy Trampp |
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USS Francis Marion (LPA-249) moored pierside at NOB Norfolk, VA. circa 1978.
Photo by Karsten Petersen |
Robert Hurst |
 Aragón (L-22)
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Aragón (L-22) Ship's patch |
Francisco Javier Santos Vazquez, La Coruña, Spain |
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Ex-USS Francis Marion (APA-249), seen here in Spanish service as Aragón (L-22), Cadiz, Spain in 1984. |
Photo by Ignacio Lopez
ex member Armada Espanola |
