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Career (US)
Ordered:	1 May 1969
Laid down:	15 November 1971
Launched:	1 December 1973
Commissioned:	29 May 1976
Status:	Active in service as of 2007
General characteristics
Displacement:	38,900 tons
Length:	820 ft (250 m)
Beam:	106 ft (32 m)
Draught:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h)
Complement:	960+ officers and enlisted and 2000+ marines
Armament:	4 × Mk 38 Mod 1 25 mm Bushmaster cannons 5 × M2HB .50-caliber machine guns 2 × Mk 15 Phalanx (CIWS) 2 × Mk 49 RAM launchers
Aircraft carried:	Up to 35 Helicopters and 8 AV-8B Harrier II VSTOL aircraft
Motto:	Eagle of the Sea
Nickname:	Big T

USS Tarawa (LHA-1) is a United States Navy amphibious assault ship, the lead ship of her class, and the second ship to be named for Tarawa Atoll, site of a Marine landing during World War II. The first Tarawa was the USS Tarawa (CV-40).

She was laid down in November 1972 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding, launched 1 December 1973, sponsored by Audrey B. Cushman, the wife of General Thomas J. Cushman, former Commandant of the Marine Corps; and commissioned on 29 May 1976, Capt. James H. Morris in command.

Tarawa is the first of five ships in a new class of general-purpose amphibious assault ships and combines in one ship type the functions previously performed by four different types: the amphibious assault ship (LPH), the amphibious transport dock (LPD), the amphibious cargo ship (LKA), and the dock landing ship (LSD). She is capable of landing elements of a Marine Corps battalion landing team and their supporting equipment by landing craft, by helicopters, or by a combination of both.

The ship departed Pascagoula on 7 July 1976 and set a course for the Panama Canal. She transited the canal on 16 July and, after a stop at Acapulco, Mexico, arrived at San Diego, California on 6 August. During the remainder of 1976, the amphibious assault ship conducted trials, tests, and shakedown in the southern California operating area.

During the first half of 1977, Tarawa was engaged in training exercises off the California coast. On 13 August, she entered Long Beach Naval Shipyard for post shakedown availability which was completed on 15 July 1978. Following four and one half months of intensive individual ship and amphibious refresher training with embarked marines, Tarawa ended 1978 in her home port of San Diego on Christmas stand down.

Her first deployment came in 1979, where she successfully experimented with AV-8 Harrier jets and later rescued 400 Vietnamese refugees adrift in the South China Sea.

After a second deployment in 1980, and in 1983, during her third deployment, Tarawa went to the Mediterranean to support the UN peacekeepers in Beirut, Lebanon. Several additional cruises followed.

Activity hums around the USS Tarawa (LHA-1), as U.S. Marines go ashore in Kuwait.

In December 1990, Tarawa was the flagship of a thirteen-ship amphibious task force in support of Operation Desert Storm. She participated in the Sea Soldier IV landing exercise in January that was a deception maneuver suggesting an amphibious assault in Kuwait, and then on 24 February landed Marines in Saudi Arabia just south of the Kuwaiti border.

In May of 1991, Tarawa went to Bangladesh in support of Operation Sea Angel, providing humanitarian assistance to victims of a cyclone, delivering rice and water purification equipment.

Her 1992 deployment included visits to Hong Kong, Singapore, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, and Australia.

In April 1996, following another complex overhaul at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Tarawa left from San Diego on its ninth Western Pacific deployment. A U.S./Thailand amphibious training exercise in the Gulf of Thailand, and exercise Indigo Serpent (with the Royal Saudi Arabian Navy) and exercise Infinite Moonlight (the first-ever exercise between U.S. and Royal Jordanian Navy) in the Red Sea preceded Tarawa's visit to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch, enforcing the "no-fly zone" over southern Iraq. Tarawa was also part of Operation Desert Strike. Returning to San Diego in October 1996, Tarawa earned both the Federal Energy Conservation Award and the Secretary of the Navy Energy Conservation Award.

In mid October of 2000, the Tarawa was passing through the Strait of Hormuz on her way into the Persian Gulf when the USS Cole was attacked. Upon news of the attack, the Tarawa came about and steamed full ahead to the Port of Aden in Yemen where she joined the USS Donald Cook, USS Hawes, and the British ship HMS Marlborough, already providing logistical support and harbor security, as the command ship in charge of force protection. Other US Naval ships involved were the Catawba, Camden, Anchorage, and the Duluth. The Tarawa remained with the Cole until she was secure aboard the Norwegian heavy-lift semi-submersible salvage ship MV Blue Marlin for passage to the US before returning to duty in the Persian Gulf.

Part of the film Rules of Engagement (2000) includes scenes of actor Samuel L. Jackson filmed aboard the USS Tarawa LHA-1. You can see the "1" painted on the side of the bridge in one of the opening scenes.

Tarawa's latest deployment from mid 2005 to early 2006 took her to the Middle East in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She transported the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. During this deployment, she visited Darwin, Australia, Dubai, UAE, Bahrain, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It is currently deployed in Bangladesh once again as part of the Cyclone Sidr relief efforts with the USS Kearsarge. Code name for the mission is "Operations Sea Angel II" in recognition of the USS Tarawas previous support to Bangladesh in 1991.

Commanding Officer

Capt. Donald Shunkwiler

Executive Officer

Capt. David F. Bean

Command Master Chief

CMDCM(SW/AW) Linda Handley

• USS Tarawa (LHA-1) homepage
• USS Tarawa Veterans' Association homepage
• LHA-1 Personnel Roster at HullNumber.com

See USS Tarawa for other Navy ships of the same name.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.