USS Washtenaw County (LST-1166) was a in commission in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1973. Named for Washtenaw County, Michigan, she was the only U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name. She is currently derelict. In October 2008, she was reported to be at the southeastern tip of Lord Island on the Columbia River in Rainier, Oregon at 46°07′18″ N 123°00′51″ W next to the Oregon shoreline. She is listed as a derelict vessel by the interagency Derelict Vessel Task Force, and has suffered damage from vandalism and looting between 2005 and 2008. While some had hoped to restore the ship as a museum ship, there is no funding or plan to do so.
Service history (source: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships)
Construction and commissioning Designed under project SCB 9A and laid down as LST-1166 on 29 November 1951 at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin by the Christy Shipbuilding Corporation. The ship was launched on 22 November 1952, sponsored by Miss Dorothy Christenson; and commissioned at the New Orleans Naval Station on 29 October 1953.
1953–1955 The tank landing ship departed New Orleans on 28 November 1953 to join Landing Ship Flotilla 2, Atlantic Fleet, based at Little Creek, Virginia. There, she first joined the Amphibious Operational Training Element for seven weeks of shakedown training, following which she participated in amphibious operations at Vieques Island near Puerto Rico as a unit of LST Squadron 4. Routine operations out of the amphibious base at Little Creek occupied her time through the summer of 1954 and into the fall. In October, she began an extended repair period at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard to correct vibration problems. She returned to active operations in March 1955. On 1 July 1955 she was named USS Washtenaw County (LST-1166). Between July and November, she operated out of Little Creek and then began preparations for her first overseas deployment.
1956–1957 On 9 January 1956 Washtenaw County stood out of Norfolk for a cruise with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. That deployment proved to be a quiet one, and the most notable events in which she participated were exercises and visits to a long itinerary of ports along the Mediterranean littoral. At the conclusion of that assignment, she headed back to Norfolk, where she arrived on 4 June. Following repairs at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, she resumed operations with the Atlantic Amphibious Force out of Little Creek. That November, the amphibious exercise in which she was scheduled to participate were cancelled because of the Suez Crisis. Washtenaw County remained in port through the end of the year on alert status ready to leave port on 24 hours notice. By January 1957, however, the crisis subsided, and the ship moved north to Staten Island, New York for an overhaul, followed by a month of refresher training in April. In June and July, she joined in a series of exercises in preparation for the NATO exercises which followed that fall.
1958
On 6 January 1958 the ship departed Little Creek in conjunction with her transfer to the Pacific Fleet Amphibious Force as a unit of PhibRon 1. She transited the Panama Canal on the 15th and headed north in company with sister ships , , , and .
The landing ships reached San Diego on 27 January and began a period of upkeep and local operations. In May, Washtenaw County participated in two amphibious exercises with marines from Camp Pendleton and, in June, joined the for another one. In July and August, the crises which broke out in Lebanon and Taiwan, respectively, caused Washtenaw County to be alerted once again. In August, she embarked upon an emergency deployment to the Far East. The tank landing ship made it only as far as Pearl Harbor before the trouble in the Orient abated sufficiently to allow her to head back to the west coast. There, she resumed her schedule of normal operations and exercises with PhibRon 1 until 3 October when she entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a two-month overhaul. Upon completion of the yard work, the ship returned to San Diego on 7 December for refresher training and preparations for her first deployment to the Far East.
1959–1960 On 15 April 1959 she cleared San Diego in company with the and Washoe County. After stops at Sasebo, Japan and Buckner Bay, Okinawa Washtenaw County got underway with the other ships of PhibRon 1 for SEATO Exercise "Saddle Up," conducted along the coast of British North Borneo. After 19 days of drills, she departed Borneo for a liberty visit to the British crown colony at Hong Kong. Washtenaw County's first western Pacific assignment lasted until September. In the period of time between Exercise "Saddle Up" and the end of the tour, she participated in a number of routine exercises, transported troops and equipment, and visited such ports as Sasebo, Numazu, and Yokosuka, in Japan; Naha, Okinawa; and Keelung, Taiwan. On 10 September the tank landing ship was again placed on alert in response to the tense situation in Laos. At the time, it was felt that troops might be required there under the aegis of the United Nations. However, the situation never developed to full crisis proportions, and ships such as Washtenaw County were not needed to lift troops into the area. Consequently, the tank landing ship ended her deployment on schedule, returned to the west coast in November, and resumed normal operations out of San Diego. Late in June 1960 Washtenaw County travelled across the Pacific Ocean to her new home port, Yokosuka, Japan, arriving on 12 July. A brief period for voyage repairs followed, and then she was off to join the 7th Fleet in training operations in the Philippines near Manila.
Vietnam War
1960–1964
Washtenaw County's final 13 years of service in the U.S. Navy can be divided easily into two phases: the period before America's buildup in South Vietnam, and the period of that involvement. The first phase was characterized by routine operations in support of the 7th Fleet Amphibious Force and encompassed the period from 1960 to 1964. During that time, she carried troops and equipment to various bases in the Far East, including a trip or two to South Vietnam during the initial stages of the American presence there. More often, however, she engaged in amphibious exercises – both unilateral and with units of foreign navies – as well as goodwill missions to Far Eastern ports. The tank landing ship's itinerary of foreign ports during those four years would read like a travel guide of the Orient, ranging from Korean and Japanese ports in the north to Philippine harbors in the south and across to cities on both coasts of the Southeast Asian peninsula.
1964–1967 Not long after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in the summer of 1964, however, she began to concentrate increasingly upon the waters around Southeast Asia, though not to the exclusion of other areas. Initially, her efforts in regard to the Vietnam War centered around logistics and troop transportation. During the buildup, the ship carried troops and supplies into Vietnam and took on equipment headed for other American bases. When not engaged in that duty, Washtenaw County continued her routine of amphibious training at Okinawa and in the Philippines with Marine Corps battalion landing teams based at Numazu, Japan.
Throughout the first four years of America's involvement in Vietnam, Washtenaw Countys contact with that war remained one of brief visits, though with one notable exception. In January 1967 she helped to pioneer some of the techniques which later became the basis of the doctrines used by the River Patrol and Mobile Riverine Forces. In Operation Deckhouse V, she joined and in conducting the first seaward penetration of the Co Chien River to support an assault launched by the 7th Marines against enemy forces in the area. Otherwise, she made only brief visits to bring in troops and supplies.
1968
It was not until 1968 that Washtenaw County began a more intimate association with the war in Vietnam. That phase of her service began as a result of her duty in support of the Mobile Riverine Force operating in the Mekong Delta area of South Vietnam. She departed Yokosuka on 8 January, stopped at Da Nang to unload cargo on the 15th and 16th, and then continued on to the mouth of the Cua Tien River in the Mekong Delta where she arrived on the 17th. The ship anchored there for the night and, the next morning, crossed the bar and headed upriver to join Task Force 117, the Mobile Riverine Force. She relieved Westchester County as support ship for the boats and monitors of the riverine force on 27 January. For three months, she served as a mobile home for 200 Army troops and 170 sailors of the force: a joint Army-Navy organization charged with the mission to control the many waterways in the Mekong Delta. In addition to providing berthing space for men, she also served as a mobile, floating supply depot transporting and issuing tons of ammunition, rations, and other supplies to the gunboats and river monitors operating in the delta.
Washtenaw County ended her assignment in the Mekong Delta on 27 March and headed for Bangkok, Thailand. There, her crew enjoyed five days of rest and relaxation before departing with a Saigon-bound cargo of steel. After a brief stop at Sattahip, Thailand to embark an Army signal company, she reached Saigon on 11 April, unloaded the steel, and then continued on via Naha, Okinawa to Japan. The tank landing ship arrived in Yokosuka on 22 April and began 37 days of upkeep, inspections, and repairs. On 29 May she departed Yokosuka on what was supposed to be a round-trip voyage to Subic Bay and back to her home port. However, two days out, she received a change in orders sending her back to Vietnam at the completion of her mission to the Philippines. On 20 June the ship arrived at Can Tho in the Mekong Delta and relieved Vernon County as the support LST for the Mobile Riverine Force. This time, she remained only one month and made just nine river transits before relieved her on 20 July. After a visit to Kaohsiung, Taiwan and another to Naha, the ship reentered Yokosuka on 5 August.
Another period of repairs, upkeep, and inspections followed as well as a training exercise with units of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy at Chin Hae late in September. At the completion of those exercises, the ship returned to Yokosuka on 7 October to prepare for another tour of duty in Vietnam. Ten days later, she put to sea again for the combat zone. Before joining the riverine forces, however, she completed a brief assignment at Vung Tau. She arrived there on 26 October and began a two-week assignment in support of Operation Bold Dragon VIII, an amphibious search-and-destroy mission conducted at Phu Quoc Island by TF 115, the Coastal Surveillance Force. Washtenaw County joined and two AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships in providing naval gunfire support for Navy SEAL teams engaged in the actual operation. She completed her assignment with TF 115 on 7 November and headed on to Dong Tam (Dong Tam Base Camp) to join TF 117. She arrived on the 10th and relieved Westchester County, heavily damaged below the waterline by a bomb planted by a Viet Cong swimmer. Her emergency assignment to the riverine forces lasted less than a month, though, because Whitfield County took over as support LST on 2 December and released Washtenaw County for a liberty call at Hong Kong followed by a return to Yokosuka on 20 December.
1969