By Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. – The future USS Fort Lauderdale, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, will be commissioned, Saturday, July 30 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Capt. James Quaresimo, a 1997 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Jacksonville University, is the commanding officer.
“The commissioning of USS Fort Lauderdale is the result of many years of coordination and hard work by our lawmakers, commissioning committee, civic leaders, contractors, industry specialists, and especially our Sailors,” Quaresimo said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the uniformed men and women who gave a mountain of cold steel form and a heartbeat. And in turn they should be proud of what they’ve done.”
The ship was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, a shipyard located in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
The ship’s naming was in large part the brainchild of the late retired Senior Chief Petty Officer Charles “Chuck” Black, who led a years-long effort to get the U.S. Navy to name a ship USS Fort Lauderdale.
Black, who died at 63 years of age in 2016, served 20 years in the Navy and was involved in several of the annual Broward Navy Day Fleet Week activities at Port Everglades. He served on the Navy League’s national board of directors as well. The Navy announced in March 2016 it would name an amphibious transportation dock vessel for the city that Black gained a great appreciation for after moving to Fort Lauderdale in 2003.
As an amphibious transport dock ship, USS Fort Lauderdale, whose motto is “Together We Fight” is a warship designed to embark, transport and land elements of a landing force for a variety of expeditionary warfare missions.
LPDs are used to transport and land Marines, their equipment, and supplies by embarked Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) or conventional landing craft and amphibious assault vehicles (AAV) augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft (MV 22). These ships support amphibious assault, special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions and serve as secondary aviation platforms for amphibious operations.
