USS ''Green Bay'' (LPD-20) is a . She is the second ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

to be named for the city and bay of

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the head of Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the F ...

. The contract to build her was awarded to

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS) was formerly a sector or division of Northrop Grumman Corporation which was responsible for building small and medium shipping products. It was merged with another sector of Northrop Grumman, Northrop Grumman ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, on 30 May 2000 and her

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

on 11 August 2003. ''Green Bay'' was christened on 15 July 2006 and commissioned on 24 January 2009. Rose Magnus, the wife of Assistant

Commandant of the Marine Corps Commandant of the Marine Corps may refer to: * Commandant of the Marine Corps (Indonesia) * Commandant of the Netherlands Marine Corps * Commandant of the Philippine Marine Corps * Commandant of the Republic of Korea Marine Corps * Commandant of th ...

General

Robert Magnus Robert Magnus (born April 28, 1947) is a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general who served as the 30th Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps from September 8, 2005, to July 2, 2008. He retired from active duty on July 17, 2008, ...

, served as the ship's sponsor. ''Green Bay'' is assigned to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and her home port was

Naval Base San Diego Naval Base San Diego is a United States Navy base in San Diego, California. It is the world's second largest surface ship naval base. Naval Base San Diego is the principal homeport of the United States Pacific Fleet, consisting of over 50 ships ...

, until 2015 when she was forward deployed to

United States Fleet Activities Sasebo U.S. Fleet Activities Sasebo is a United States Navy base, in Sasebo, Japan, on the island of Kyūshū. It provides facilities for the logistic support of forward-deployed units and visiting operating forces of the United States Pacific Fleet a ...

in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan. This deployment ended in 2024. The ship's name has resulted in a close connection to the people of

, and their professional football team, the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

. The ship's flight deck is named "Lambeau Field" after the name of the Packers' stadium. Green Bay businesses and residents presented the ship with a truckload of Packerland memorabilia for her 2009 commissioning.

AV-8B Harrier testing

In 2009, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 31 (VX-31) and ''Green Bay'' tested the feasibility of using the ''San Antonio''-class LPDs for AV-8B Harrier IIs

V/STOL A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to takeoff and landing, take-off or land vertically or on short runways. VTOL, Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do ...

attack aircraft in emergency situations. The AV-8Bs were used in numerous tests for the ''San Antonio''-class's aviation certification, as well testing the effect of exhaust heat on the flight deck.

Service history

The ship went on her first deployment in February 2011 with the three-ship

Amphibious Ready Group An amphibious ready group (ARG) of the United States Navy consists of a naval element—a group of warships known as an Amphibious Task Force (ATF)—and a landing force (LF) of U.S. Marines (and occasionally U.S. Army soldiers), in total abo ...

. The group, comprising 4,000 sailors and Marines from the

13th Marine Expeditionary Unit The 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (13th MEU) is one of seven Marine Expeditionary Units currently in existence in the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Expeditionary Unit is a Marine Air Ground Task Force with a strength of about 2,200 pe ...

, deployed for seven months to the United States Fifth and

Seventh Fleet The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of th ...

areas in the Asian region. In March 2011, ''Green Bay'' was scheduled to assisted in

Operation Tomodachi was a United States Armed Forces (especially United States Forces Japan, U.S. Forces Japan) assistance operation to support Japan in Emergency management, disaster relief following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The operation took pl ...

, the relief efforts after the massive

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

struck Japan. She was instead rerouted into

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used by the U.S. government for both the first stage (2001–2014) of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response ...

areas and never made it to Japan. In May 2013, ''Green Bay'' returned from an eight-month deployment to the Middle East and Asia as part of the Amphibious Ready Group, along with the

15th Marine Expeditionary Unit The 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (15th MEU) is one of seven such units currently in existence in the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is a Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) with a strength of about 2,200 pe ...

. In January 2015, ''Green Bay'' was forward deployed to the 7th Fleet replacing in the Amphibious Ready Group homeported at

. On 5 August 2017, a U.S. Marine Corps

MV-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport aircraft, military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed ...

struck ''Green Bay'' after taking off from USS ''Bonhomme Richard''. The aircraft then crashed in

Shoalwater Bay Shoalwater Bay is a large bay on the Capricorn Coast of Central Queensland, Australia 100 km north of the coastal town of Yeppoon and 628 km north-north-west of the state capital, Brisbane. Since 1966, the land surrounding Shoalwater B ...

on the east coast of Australia. 23 personnel were rescued, with three confirmed dead. In May 2022, ''Green Bay'' was a part of the Amphibious Ready Group in Sasebo. On December 9, 2024, ''Green Bay'' was reassigned to San Diego for its new homeport. This shift complies with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), requiring that U.S. Navy ships not be permanently forward deployed to Japan for more than 10 years.

References

This article contains information from the

Naval Vessel Registry The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

and various other U.S. Navy Web sites.

External links

USS ''Green Bay'' official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green Bay (Lpd-20) San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks Ships built in Bridge City, Louisiana 2006 ships