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NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

USS Fort Snelling (LSD-30)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Tango - Quebec - Delta
NTQD

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Navy Unit Commendation (2) - Navy Battle "E" Ribbon (2) - Navy Expeditionary Medal (4-Cuba, 2 Lebanon)
Second Row - National Defense Service Medal (2) - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (1-Cuba, 2-Dominican Republic, 5-Lebanon, 1-Grenada) - Humanitarian Service Medal (1-Beirut Lebanon Evacuation)

Thomaston Class Dock Landing Ship:

Laid down, 17 August 1953, at Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, MS.

Launched, 16 July 1954

Commissioned USS Fort Snelling (LSD-30), 24 January 1955, CDR. H. Marvin-Smith in command

Decommissioned, 28 September 1984

Custody transferred to MARAD, 7 September 1989

Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet

Struck from the Naval Register, 24 February 1992

Final Disposition, sold by MARAD for scrapping to Peck Recycling, Richmond, VA., for $268.707

Specifications:
Displacement 8,899 t.(lt), 11,525 t(fl)
Length 510'
Beam 84'
Draft 19'
Speed 21 kts.
Complement 304
Troop Accommodations 300

Armament (as built)

eight twin 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts

six twin 20mm AA gun mounts

Boat Capacity (Well Deck) 21 LCM(6)s

Aircraft up 8 helicopters

Propulsion

two steam turbines

two propellers, 23,000shp

Size	Image Description	Contributed By
158k	*PCU Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** underway off her builder's yard at Pascagoula, MS., 12 January 1955. US Navy photo from "U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History" by Norman Friedman.	Robert Hurst
111k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine April 1957.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
79k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30) with her well deck flooded takes aboard LCU-1487**, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine July 1957.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
61k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** off loading an LCU at Red Beach, Lebanon, 16 July 1958. US Navy photo from DANFS.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
321k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** preparing to moor in the harbor at Rapallo (Genoa), Italy, 28 February 1962.	Photo by Carlo Martinelli
44k	Two photos of *USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)**'s well-deck and flight deck filled with US Army vehicles during Power Pack Operations in the Dominican Republic, mid-September 1966.	Wayne Schipper, BMCM USN Ret.
101k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)**moored pierside at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 20 February 1971.	© Richard Leonhardt
86k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** moored pierside at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 21 February 1971.	© Richard Leonhardt
283k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** moored pierside during a port visit to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1972.	Graeme Hanson
245k
272k
330k
273k
87k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** underway, date and location unknown.
1160k	*LCU-1664* and *LCU-1663* and a LCM-6 moored forward of *USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30)** at Genoa, Italy, 5 March 1977.	Photo by Carlo Martinelli
78k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30) at Barcelona, Spain, 6 April 1977. Note the SPS-6 air search radar antenna on the mast. Thomaston-class LSDs were the last active ships fitted with this radar set. USS El Paso (LKA-117)** is alongside.	Photo by Fabio Peña
108k	*USS Fort Snelling* (LSD-30) at Barcelona, Spain, 6 April 1977, USS El Paso (LKA-117 is just visible inboard of Fort Snelling**.	Photo by Fabio Peña