USS BONHOMME RICHARD (LHD 6) READY FOR AUGUST 15 COMMISSIONING

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi - The U.S. Navy/Marine Corps team will commission its newest large-deck amphibious assault ship on Saturday, August 15, 1998, at Naval Air Station Pensacola (Florida). USS BONHOMME RICHARD (LHD 6) departed its building yard, Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton Industries, Pascagoula, Mississippi, on August 8, sailing into Pensacola for precommissioning activities.

U.S. Representative John P. Murtha, of Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District, a Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, member of the House Appropriations Committee, and ranking minority member of the Subcommittee on National Security, will deliver the principal commissioning address. The Secretary of the Navy, John H. Dalton, will place the new ship in commission.

Congressman Murtha's wife, Mrs. Joyce Murtha, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, serves as Ship's Sponsor for LHD 6, and christened the ship at Ingalls in May 1997. During LHD 6's commissioning, Mrs. Murtha will give the traditional order to "Man our ship and bring her to life!"

Other commissioning participants will include Mississippi's Fifth District Representative, Congressman Gene Taylor, who is also a member of the House National Security Committee; Admiral Donald L. Pilling, USN, Vice Chief of Naval Operations; Vice Admiral Patricia A. Tracey, USN, Chief of Naval Education & Training; and Jerry St. Pe', Senior Vice President of Litton Industries and President of Ingalls Shipbuilding.

The 40,500-ton LHD 6, second in size only to the Navy's aircraft carriers, is designed to lay off a troubled area of the world, and insert its 2,000-member Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) ashore by helicopters and 40 m.p.h. LCAC hover craft. As the centerpiece of an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), an LHD is fully capable of amphibious assault, advance force and special purpose operations, as well as noncombatant evacuation and other humanitarian missions.

As the sixth LHD to be completed by Ingalls, LHD 6 reports for U.S. Pacific Fleet duty, and will be homeported in San Diego, California, as an element of Amphibious Group THREE.

Captain Douglas W. Keith, USN, a native of Los Angeles, California, who received his commission in the Navy at the University of Southern California, is USS BONHOMME RICHARD's Commissioning Commanding Officer.

LHD 6 will be the third U.S. Navy ship to carry the name BONHOMME RICHARD into fleet duty. The first was a frigate built in France in 1765 for the East India Company, for service between France and the Orient. The French government placed the ship at the disposal of Captain John Paul Jones on February 4, 1779. Captain Jones then renamed the ship "Bonhomme Richard." It was from the frigate's deck, during an epic sea battle against a British Fleet led by HMS Serapis, that Captain Jones issued his immortal refusal to surrender, "I have not yet begun to fight!," a cry which has become LHD 6's motto.

A second Bonhomme Richard, the aircraft carrier CV/CVA 31, was launched on April 29, 1944, at the New York Navy Yard. The ship was commissioned November 26, 1944, and served honorably during the latter stages of World War II, in the Korean Conflict and in Vietnam, before being decommissioned in 1971. A group of CV/CVA 31 veterans will be on hand in Pensacola for LHD 6's commissioning.

In their principal mission, LHDs embark, transport, deploy, command and fully support a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) of over 1,500 troops. For operational support, an LHD carries its own squadron of AV-8B Harrier II jets, as well as a full range of Navy/Marine Corps helicopters and amphibious vehicles. Additionally, the ships are fully equipped with command and control (C ⁴ I) systems for flagship command duty; and have medical facilities -- including a hospital with up to 600 beds -- second only to the Navy's Hospital Ships in capability.

LHD 6's armament system includes two NATO Sea Sparrow Surface Missile Systems (NSSMS) for antiair warfare protection, two Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) Systems and two Phalanx Close-In-Weapon-System (CIWS) mounts to counter threats from low flying aircraft and missiles. Passive defense systems augment LHD 6's antiship missile capability. Miscellaneous armament provisions include four 50 caliber machine guns and three 25mm machine guns for defense against close-in small craft.

LHD 6 is 844 feet long, with a 106 foot beam. Two steam propulsion plants, developing a combined 70,000 horsepower, will drive the 40,500-ton ship to speeds in excess of 20 knots.

Following LHD 6, Ingalls has one additional LHD in production, IWO JIMA (LHD 7)