USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)

USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) in 2012
History
United States
Name	Blue Ridge
Namesake	Blue Ridge Mountains
Ordered	31 December 1964
Builder	Philadelphia Naval Shipyard
Laid down	27 February 1967
Launched	4 January 1969
Sponsored by	Mrs. Gretchen Thompson-Byrd
Commissioned	14 November 1970[1]
Homeport	Yokosuka, Japan
Identification	LCC-19
Motto	Finest in the Fleet
Status	In active service
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Blue Ridge-class command ship
Displacement	19,609 tons
Length	634 ft (193.2 m)[2]
Beam	108 ft (32.9 m)
Draft	28.9 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion	2 boilers, 1 geared turbine
Speed	23 knots (43 km/h)
Range	10,000 nmi (18,520 km)
Complement	Crew: 52 officers, 790 enlisted With command staff: 268 officers, 1,173 enlisted
Armament	2 × Phalanx CIWS guns 2 × 25 mm Bushmaster cannons 8 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns Mark 36 SRBOC chaff rockets
Aircraft carried	2 × Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters
Aviation facilities	Flight deck

USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge-class amphibious command ships of the United States Navy, and is the flagship of the Seventh Fleet. Her primary role is to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) support to the commander and staff of the United States Seventh Fleet. She is currently forward-deployed to U.S. Navy Fleet Activities, Yokosuka in Japan, and is the third Navy ship named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range of mountains in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. Blue Ridge is the oldest deployed warship of the U.S. Navy, following the decommissioning of USS Denver.^[3] Blue Ridge, as the U.S. Navy's active commissioned ship having the longest total period as active, flies the First Navy Jack instead of the jack of the United States.^[4] Blue Ridge is expected to remain in service until 2039.^[5][6][7]