Mike Weeks wrote:
Yofuri wrote:

Mike Weeks wrote:

Does anyone have any knowledge (general or otherwise) as to when the
USN changed its policy regarding authorizing surface warfare officers
to command the large amphib decks (the LPHs/LHAs/LHDs) ??

I'm thinking it didn't happen until after the 1970s. TIA.

MW


During my time with the gator-freighters in '81-83, all LPH CO's and
XO's were aviators. LHA's had SWO CO's and alternating XO's. TRIPOLI
(LPH-10) had a photo board of their CO's back to commissioning in '64
and they were all aviators.


Thanks Rick. Further digging strongly suggests that only aviators or
NFOs commanded LPHs until the last was decommissioned.

And I found one early example of a SWO commanding an LHA (Saipan), so I
have to assume that was the policy from the get-go when the LHAs came
on-line -- the first in 1976.

MW

Yep, it was interesting duty.

At that time, six LHA/LPH AIMD Officer billets (three on each coast)
were LDO billets; the remainder were Aircraft Maintenance Duty Officer
(AMDO/1520) billets. Life could be real fun for them when the senior
Navy aviator aboard was the OPSO. Things like enforcing hydraulic
contamination standards could result in some real faceoffs with senior
Marine officers.

One of my LHA LDO cohorts had a SWO XO whose pet peeve was finding
telephone lists and other references attached to the pullout writing
board of office desks. Any time he found a desk with a desecrated
pullout board, he pulled it halfway out and bent it double with his knee!

IIRC, every CO of TRIPOLI from 1964 to 1982 went on to two stars with
the exception of CAPT Collie Haynes, a former POW who was in poor health
at the time. It was quite an honor list, including Willie Nyberg,
Julian Lake, Chuck McGrail and others whom I forget. In 1983 TRIPOLI's
mission was changed to Mine Warfare flagship, and it became the "Polish
Minesweeper" of GW1 when a mine blew away a big chunk of the starboard
bow area.

I never found the answer to one curious fact: Aviator XO's and OPSO's
of LHA's and LPH's were not required to be underway qualified.

Rick