Kodiak: When trying to think up a nick my wife came up with this. She says I can be cute, fuzzy and cuddly, BUT at the same time I have a temper that brings out the claws and fangs! I'm also "big boned" and had a very full beard at the time.
My avatar is the USS Nassau, LHA-4. It is the ship I served on. That part of my life is one that impacted me, in a good way, for the rest of my life. The places I've been to, the people I've met are great memories to me. I was very sad when I found out it was decommissioned this last March.
Ships seal
USS Nassau (LHA-4) was a Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship. She was capable of transporting more than 3,000 US United States Navy and United States Marine Corps personnel and their equipment. Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, laid the ship's keel on August 13, 1973, she was commissioned on July 28, 1979. She was decommissioned on March 31, 2011.
She is named for "The Battle of Nassau"
The Battle of Nassau (March 3–4, 1776) was a naval action and amphibious assault by American forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas during the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence). It is considered the first cruise and one of the first engagements of the newly established Continental Navy and the Continental Marines, the progenitors of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The action was also the Marines' first amphibious landing. It is sometimes known as the
Raid of Nassau.
Conducting flight deck qualifications with the air combat element of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit along with members of the Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (Nov 2007)
Tonnage: 25884 tons
Displacement: 39,300 tons
Length: 833.34 ft (254.00 m)
Beam: 106.6 ft (32.5 m)
Draft: 26.25 ft (8.00 m)
Propulsion: Steam Turbine
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h)
Troops: 1,900+ Marines
Complement: 82 officers, 882 enlisted men,
Armament: 2 × RAM launchers
4 × 25 mm Mk 38 cannons
2 × Phalanx CIWS
5 × .50-caliber M2HB machine guns
Aircraft carried: 6 AV-8B Harrier attack planes, 4 AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters, 12 CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, 9 CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters, 4 UH-1N Huey helicopters, V-22 Ospreys
April 14, 1999 -- The Air Boss watches as the last AV-8B "Harrier" from Helicopter Medium Squadron Two Six Six (HMM-266) lands on board USS Nassau following a strike mission into Kosovo.