USS Barnstable County (LST-1197) was the nineteenth ship of the Newport class of tank landing ships. She was laid down on 19 December 1970 at San Diego, California, by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Corporation and launched on 2 October 1971. She was commissioned on 27 May 1972. The ship was named after Barnstable County, Massachusetts.
History
1970s Between 27 May and 24 July 1972, the tank landing ship completed fitting out, first at Long Beach and then at San Diego in July. On 24 July, she set sail from San Diego bound for her permanently assigned base of operations--Little Creek, Virginia She transited the Panama Canal on 7 August and arrived at Little Creek on 14 August. On 6 September, the ship got underway for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, whence she conducted shakedown training until returning to Little Creek on 21 October. Barnstable County completed her final contract trials early in November and then settled into a training routine that lasted until the first week in December. At that time, she began an extended stay at Little Creek that carried her into the new year. After loading ammunition on 11 January 1973, she proceeded to Morehead City, North Carolina, to embark marines. From there, the tank landing ship set course for the West Indies where she visited Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Vieques Island and Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands before returning to Little Creek on 24 January. She carried out training landings at Onslow Beach, North Carolina, on 31 January and conducted independent ship's exercises on 1 and 2 February.
After spending the rest of February in port at Little Creek, Barnstable County got underway on 28 February, bound ultimately for the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. She made completed a couple of brief collateral missions along the way and arrived in Philadelphia on 1 March. There she began her post-shakedown overhaul, an evolution that occupied her for all of March and the first two weeks of April. The ship returned to Little Creek on 13 April and commenced amphibious warfare training operations in nearby waters. These operations, largely preparations for her fall deployment to the West Indies as a unit of Caribbean Amphibious Ready Group (CARG) 2-73, took place all through the summer at either locations near Little Creek or at Onslow Beach on the North Carolina coast. In addition, they were coordinated with the training requirements for other military organizations as well. Thus, during her July missions, she introduced Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) midshipmen to amphibious warfare as a part of their summer cruise practical training. In August, she provided a similar opportunity to United States Marine Corps student officers.
On 4 September 1973, she departed Little Creek to deploy to the West Indies. She picked up marines at Morehead City on 5 September and resumed her voyage to Guantanamo Bay. Arriving there early on 9 September, Barnstable County opened her deployment with a landing exercise. For the next month, she participated in a series of amphibious warfare exercises at Vieques Island and made port calls at such places as Roosevelt Roads and San Juan in Puerto Rico and at Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. On 8 October, the ship left San Juan to return home. She dropped the marines off at Morehead City on 11 October and reentered port at Little Creek on 12 October. She stayed at Little Creek for the rest of October but got underway for the Caribbean again on 1 November. Barnstable County picked up her marine contingent at Morehead City on 2 November and arrived at Colón, Panama in Panama on 6 November. On 7 November, she sailed to Cartagena, Colombia, for a five-day port call that included participation in the celebration of Colombia's national holiday on 11 November. She returned to Colón on 13 November to reembark her marines and, after a visit to the Dutch island of Curaçao between 17 and 20 November, set a course for Puerto Rico. Over the next three weeks, Barnstable County participated in a series of amphibious exercises carried out at nearby Vieques Island and Roosevelt Roads. When not engaged in the landing drills, she made port calls at such places as St. John on Antigua, St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and San Juan in Puerto Rico. On 10 December, the ship departed San Juan for the voyage via Morehead City to Little Creek. She reached her home port again on 14 December and stood down for the rest of the year.
The standdown extended well into January 1974. She did not get underway again until the third week in the month when she reembarked upon local training assignments. Even that return to activity, however, proved to be of short duration for she returned to port on 25 January and stayed there for almost 15 weeks. In mid-April, orders to prepare for an unscheduled Mediterranean deployment sent her crew to the administrative equivalent of general quarters. On 9 May, Barnstable County set out for European waters with the other ships of PhibRon 8. She took on marines at Morehead City on 10 May and then headed out across the Atlantic She arrived in Rota on 20 May and received word there of her assignment to the multinational effort to clear the Suez Canal of the sunken ships that had barred its passage since 1967. After amphibious exercises at Carbonaresl, Italy, and İzmir, Turkey, Barnstable County finally reached the Suez Canal on 8 June, though she did not actually enter Port Said until the next day.
Barnstable County relieved as the support ship for the canal-clearing operation. Inchon had supported the mine-clearing phase of the task, which had been conducted by helicopters. Barnstable County took over support duties largely consisting of communications and logistics responsibilities. On 22 June 1974, the tank landing ship made the six-hour transit of the canal south to her duty station at Ismailia. There, she rode at anchor in Lake Timsah for just over 15 weeks. On 8 October, Barnstable County made the canal passage north to Port Said where she was relieved of her duties by the following day. That afternoon, she began the long voyage back to Little Creek. Engineering problems with her main engines caused by bad fuel forced her to stop at Souda Bay, Crete, for two days to refuel and then she made a five-day liberty call at Palma de Majorca before arriving in Rota on 22 October. There, she refueled quickly and resumed her passage home that same evening. Barnstable County reentered Little Creek on 1 November. She spent the remainder of 1974 in port, engaged in post-deployment standdown at first and then in holiday standdown later.
Her extended period of inactivity finally came to an end in January 1975 when she began preparations for a deployment with the Caribbean amphibious ready group. She was underway from 7 to 10 January to load ammunition and to conduct independent ship's exercises and again from 14 to 16 January to carry out weapon systems training. On 23 January, Barnstable County embarked on her only deployment of 1975. After embarking marines at Morehead City, she set course for Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, where she arrived on 1 February. For two weeks, the ship engaged in a variety of drills and exercises before damage to a bearing in her port shaft forced her into drydock at San Juan for repairs on 17 February. She completed those repairs by the end of February, and, after refueling on 1 March and reembarking the marines at Vieques on 2 March, laid in a course home. The marines disembarked at Morehead City on 6 March, and Barnstable County stood into Little Creek again the next day.
Following her return from the West Indies, the tank landing ship remained in port until the middle of April. At that time, she got underway to participate in some amphibious exercises conducted nearby during the third week in April. Barnstable County visited Washington, D.C., in May; and, early in June, she made two short cruises to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and back to Little Creek while serving as a training platform for NROTC midshipmen. The ship remained in port during July, but, in the first part August, she took up midshipman training once more with a voyage back to Halifax, this time by way of New York City. Refresher training occupied her during the rest of August and the first week in September and then she underwent two successive availabilities in preparation for overseas assignment at the beginning of 1976. That maintenance work ended late in October, and Barnstable County resumed local training operations out of Little Creek in November. Early in December, a board of inspection and survey visited the ship, and she carried out her last underway period of the year on 8–9 December in conjunction with that inspection.
The tank landing ship left Norfolk on 5 January 1976 and steamed to Morehead City, North Carolina, in company with the four other units of PhibRon 8; , , , and . Arriving at Morehead City on 6 January, the ships loaded the 34th Marine Amphibious Unit (34th MAU) for rehearsal landings at Onslow Beach. After completing the weather-delayed exercises, Barnstable County finally got underway for Rota, Spain, on 10 January. The Atlantic crossing proved difficult and took longer than anticipated because engineering problems plagued several ships of the squadron. Upon arrival in Rota turnover formalities proceeded quickly, and Barnstable County officially joined the 6th Fleet. Plans for a landing exercise on Spain's Atlantic coast had to be canceled as a result of civil war in Lebanon, and the squadron passed through the Strait of Gibraltar instead on its way to Augusta Bay, Sicily. The civil unrest in Lebanon dominated the ship's schedule for the remainder of the cruise.
During this first stop in the Mediterranean, Barnstable County anchored with the squadron at Sicily for a few days. In the course of the training anchorage visit there, a violent storm broke with winds exceeding . Upon departing Augusta Bay after the storm subsided the ship headed for its first liberty port, Reggio di Calabria, on the Italian mainland. The ship arrived on 1 February and stayed until 6 February. Departing Reggio on a Friday the ship arrived at Brindisi, Italy, the following day for a seven-day training anchorage visit. The ship then proceeded to Villefranche, France, arriving on 16 February. Barnstable County left Villefranche on 23 February and proceeded to Monte Romano, Italy, where she carried out more amphibious training late in February. Early in March, the ship made a four-day port call at Naples, putting to sea again on 5 March bound for Sardinia to participate in NATO Exercise "Sardinia '76." After conducting a simulated opposed passage to Sardinia, Barnstable County sent her marines ashore in the first wave and then took little further part in the evolution. At the mission's conclusion, she reembarked the marines on 18 March and headed for Syracuse, Sicily, where her crew enjoyed a week of liberty.