USS Tripoli (LPH-10), an , was laid down on 15 June 1964 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 31 July 1965; sponsored by Jane Cates, the wife of General Clifton B. Cates, former Commandant of the Marine Corps; and commissioned on 6 August 1966 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Tripoli was the second US Navy ship named for the Battle of Derna in 1805. It was the decisive victory of a mercenary army led by a detachment of US Marines and US Army soldiers against the forces of Tripoli during the First Barbary War and was the first recorded land battle of the United States fought overseas.
Following three months fitting out at Philadelphia, the ship put to sea on 6 November 1966, bound for the west coast. She transited the Panama Canal at mid-month and arrived at her home port, San Diego, on 22 November 1966. Final acceptance trials, shakedown training, and post-shakedown availability at Long Beach occupied the warship until she embarked Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron HMH-463, elements of Marine Observation Squadron VMO-6, and some members of the staff of the Commander, Amphibious Squadron 8 on 1 May 1967 and departed San Diego, bound for the western Pacific.
Vietnam Service, 1967–1973 Tripoli served on three deployments to Vietnamese waters during the Vietnam War, participating in numerous operations.
First tour Except for a round-trip voyage to Okinawa early in September, the ship operated out of US Naval Base Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines for the remainder of her deployment. Main propulsion plant problems, however, continued to plague her. On the return trip, the ship went dead in the water not far to the northwest of Subic Bay. went out and towed her into port. After repairs, Tripoli, occupied her remaining time in the Far East with amphibious exercises in the Philippines. On 11 December 1967, relieved her as flagship of TG 76.4, and Tripoli headed for home. Tripoli arrived in San Diego on 23 December 1967 and remained there through the end of the year.
On 22 May 1967, Tripoli arrived in the combat zone off the coast of South Vietnam and disembarked HMH-463 and VMO-6 at Danang on the 23rd and 24th before joining TG 76.5, just then finishing up amphibious landing Operation Belt Tight in the I Corps zone just south of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Vietnam. She headed for the Philippines on 25 May, arrived in Subic Bay on the 27th, and relieved as flagship of Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) Bravo VTG 76.5. In that capacity, she embarked not only the task group commander's staff but also the staff of the Commander, Special Landing Force (SLF) Bravo CTG 79.5, the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, the men and aircraft of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron HMM-164, Surgical Evacuation Team Bravo, and Detachment Bravo of Tactical Squadron (TacRon) 11. On 8 June, she departed Subic Bay for an extended tour of duty in Vietnamese waters.
During its 1967 deployment, Tripoli participated in eight amphibious operations, all conducted along the coast of the I Corps. Her first operation, codenamed Beacon Torch, began on 18 June when US Marines of SLF Bravo were flown into the vicinity of Hoi An, located on the coast midway between the DMZ and the southern limit of I Corps tactical zone. Between 18 June and 2 July, the Marines operated ashore, initially engaging an enemy force of about 100 men. After an air strike broke the enemy resistance, the Marines concluded their mission with a search and destroy sweep to wipe out the remnants of that force. All the while, Tripoli remained offshore providing logistic support, medical evacuation services for casualties and a platform from which to launch air support missions by the embarked Marine attack squadron. On 2 July, she received the special landing force back on board and immediately headed north to the coast of Quảng Trị Province to answer a call for assistance from Marine Corps units near Con Thien, which had suffered heavily from bombardments by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN). The ensuing Operation Beaver Track pitted SLF Bravo against the PAVN troops to relieve the pressure on Marine Corps units based ashore with the III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF). Simultaneously with Operation Beaver Track, SLF "Alfa", embarked on USS Okinawa, went ashore to engage the same enemy force in Operation Bear Claw. The two battalion landing teams joined III MAF Marines based ashore in a week-long struggle, followed by an eight-battalion search and destroy sweep. Throughout the 12 days of "Beaver Track/Bear Claw," Tripoli steamed offshore within easy helicopter range to provide logistical, medical, and ground support. The two landing forces were later credited with a third of the 1,100 PAVN casualties and with no small part in breaking up the PAVN attack.
"Beaver Track/Bear Claw" ended on 14 July, and both battalion landing teams returned to their ships on the 7th. The respite from combat, however, proved brief. At dawn three days later, Tripolis Marines stormed ashore in a combined waterborne-airborne amphibious assault on the exposed seaward flank of the Viet Cong (VC) 806th Battalion near Quảng Trị City. The VC avoided contact with the Marines by retiring hastily to the west, where they were badly mauled by South Vietnamese troops. BLT 2/3 re-embarked in Tripoli on the 27th for another brief rest before the equally brief amphibious Operation Kangaroo Kick, which commenced on 1 August. Tripoli's Marines landed in Quảng Trị Province, north of Hue. Though the operation ended only three days later, the Marines did not re-embark for the voyage to Subic Bay. Instead, they changed operational control to III MAF, while Tripoli and the rest of TG 76.5 spent two weeks at the Philippine naval base for upkeep.
Tripoli returned to the Vietnamese coast near Huế on the 20th and backloaded SLF Bravo in time for the Marines to participate in Operation Belt Drive. On 27 August, the battalion landing team once more went ashore, via both helicopter and landing craft, in Quang Tri Province. PAVN/VC resistance proved slight; and, after a three-day sweep of the Hai Lang forest, the Marines reembarked in Tripoli on 5 September. That same day, suffered a hit from enemy guns on Cape Lay, North Vietnam. Tripoli, located not far away, went to her assistance and evacuated 12 casualties by helicopter for treatment on board the ship. On the 17th, because her entire complement of CH-46A Sea Knight helicopters had been grounded, Tripoli launched the first all-boat landing from an LPH. In spite of swells high, a rain squall, 30- to winds, and visibility frequently less than , the boat landings for Operation Fortress Sentry came off almost without a hitch. Ashore near the Cua Viet River some south of the DMZ, the Marines moved inland, but encountered no enemy resistance until the 23d. Then, artillery and air support quickly extinguished the PAVN's will to fight, and the operation was terminated on the 25th. The Marines reembarked between 25 September and 27 September, and the task group headed back to Subic Bay for six days in port. Tripoli returned to Vietnam at Danang early in October and loaded 39 defective CH-46A helicopters for transportation to Okinawa, where their tail pylons were to be replaced. Shortly after she departed Danang on 7 October, her lookout spied an Air Force F-105 Thunderchief, which crashed into the sea about ahead. One of her helicopters flew to the scene, rescued the pilot, and returned him to the ship for medical treatment. Not long thereafter, her lookouts caught sight of a second survivor of the crash. By the time her helicopter arrived on the scene, an Air Force chopper had already picked up the man. Tripoli's helicopter assisted in the operation by taking on board the Air Force crewman who had jumped in to assist the survivor into the lift harness.
Tripoli returned from the Ryukyus Islands (Japan) to Vietnamese waters at mid-month. On the 17th, CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters carried the battalion landing team to a point south of Phu Bai Combat Base in Thừa Thiên Province. The following day, the Marines changed operational control to III MAF ashore for a search and destroy sweep along Route 1. Meanwhile, Tripoli supplied logistic support until she cleared Vietnamese waters on 1 November, bound for Okinawa with another 18 defective CH-46A helicopters. After brief stops at Okinawa and Subic Bay, the ship returned to Danang on 10 November. After re-embarking SLF "Bravo," she prepared for her last amphibious operation of the deployment, Operation Badger Hunt. On the 14th, the landing force was lifted some inland to the area near An Hoa Combat Base in Quảng Nam Province. After silencing sporadic enemy resistance near the landing site, Tripoli's Marines joined elements of the shore-based 7th Marines in a successful search-and-destroy operation. Tripoli supported the landing force through the end of the operation on the 27th, when the Marines returned to the ship. She entered Danang on the 29th and began transferring the Marines of the battalion landing team and their supporting elements to . The next day, 30 November, Valley Forge relieved Tripoli as flagship, TG 76.5; and Tripoli got underway to return to the United States via Okinawa and Yokosuka, Japan. She arrived in San Diego on 23 December 1967, and began post-deployment standdown.
Tripoli completed a restricted availability at Long Beach between late January and the end of March 1968. During the first three weeks of April, she conducted a series of individual ship exercises and then rounded out the month with amphibious training. From 6 to 17 May, the ship conducted refresher training and then returned to San Diego to prepare for her second WestPac deployment. On 12 June 1968, the ship stood out of San Diego on her way to the Far East. She stopped briefly at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and at Okinawa before arriving at Subic Bay on 1 July. Between the 2nd and the 5th, she embarked the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, HMM-265, Detachment Bravo of TacRon 13 and other supporting units of the ARG "Bravo." On the 6th, she departed Subic Bay and arrived the following day in the Vietnam combat zone.
Second tour Tripoli's second tour of duty closely followed the pattern of the first. During the next seven months, she patrolled the coast of South Vietnam near the I Corps tactical in a position to launch her landing contingent quickly whenever they were needed by Marine Corps, Army and South Vietnamese forces operating ashore. The first of her eight amphibious operations came the day after she arrived in the combat zone. Following preliminary naval bombardment, Operation Eager Yankee opened with a combined airborne and waterborne assault. The Marines of SLF Bravo went ashore about east of Phu Bai Combat Base. They then wheeled right and pressed north toward a known VC haven. The VC avoided contact; and, on the 16th, the Marines joined shore-based forces in Operation Houston IV. That operation ended on 22 July, and the battalion landing team returned to the ship the same day.