Operation Steel Pike was the largest peacetime amphibious landing exercise in history, conducted by the United States Navy and Marine Corps and taking place on the coast of Spain in October to November 1964.
22-812: USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) was a Thomaston -class dock landing ship of the United States Navy . She was named for Spiegel Grove , the home and estate in Fremont, Ohio , of Rutherford B. Hayes , the 19th President of the United States. Spiegel Grove was laid down on 7 September 1954, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Mississippi, launched on 10 November 1955. She was sponsored by Mrs. Webb C. Hayes and commissioned on 8 June 1956. Spiegel Grove sailed for Hampton Roads and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia , on 7 July 1956. She headed for
44-752: A midshipman cruise to England and Denmark in 1970. On 22 July 1974, she participated in the evacuation of American citizens from Cyprus along with several other ships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. She repeated this service in 1976, this time in Lebanon, during " Operation Fluid Drive ." In 1983, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit participated in Eastern Wind in August 1987 in
66-453: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Operation Steel Pike The operation involved 84 naval ships and 28,000 Marines of the 2nd Marine Division , and was commanded by Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. and Lieutenant general James P. Berkeley . The director of control group during for exercise was Brigadier general John C. Miller Jr. In the opening hour of the landing, two helicopters collided in mid-air, resulting in
88-513: The 6th Marines for a tour with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean . She returned to Norfolk on 3 June and operated along the east coast for the remainder of the year. In November, she transported 364 Army troops to Labrador . In January 1958, the LSD (dock landing ship) was deployed with her squadron to the 6th Fleet on an extended tour which did not end until 6 October. On 22 October, Spiegel Grove
110-655: The Florida Keys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary . For a scuba diver, it is 510 feet (160 m) long and 84 feet (26 m) wide; it is said that one can dive this wreck 100 times and still never see it in its entirety. Her top deck is about 60 feet (18 m) below the water's surface. The vessel's hull, which is a labyrinth inside, is as much as 135 feet (41 m) under water, and silt can get kicked up and reduce visibility inside to almost zero, which can cause disorientation. The depth of
132-463: The Guantanamo Bay area on her shakedown cruise on 26 July 1956 and returned on 15 September. The ship was in the yard during October 1956, participating in amphibious exercises the following month off Onslow Beach , North Carolina. On 9 January 1957, Spiegel Grove , with other ships of Transport Amphibious Squadron 4 (TransPhibRon 4), sailed from Morehead City, North Carolina , with elements of
154-581: The United States Navy in the 1950s. The class is named after a town of Thomaston, Maine , which was the home of General Henry Knox , the first Secretary of War to serve under the United States Constitution. The Thomaston class was the third class of U.S. Navy dock landing ships. The class was designed under project SCB 75 and approved in the early 1950s. Compared to the Ashland and Casa Grande -class dock landing ships of World War II ,
176-526: The Caribbean from July to September with PhibRon 8 . The landing ship spent the greater part of her active service participating in amphibious exercises along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. She was deployed to the 6th Fleet from January to June 1964; 3 November 1966 to 11 May 1967; and from 17 April to 9 October 1971. She participated in " Operation Steel Pike I" off Spain in October 1964 and made
198-637: The Caribbean. In May, she took part in operations supporting Malcolm Scott Carpenter 's manned space flight in Mercury-Atlas 7 . In July and August, she returned to the Caribbean for " Phibulex 2-62 ." On 1 December 1962, a tender availability period was begun to prepare the ship for " Solant Amity IV ". The LSD loaded supplies during January 1963 and sailed, on 15 February for her second good-will tour which lasted until late May. The ship steamed over 21,000 nautical miles (39,000 km) and visited nine countries before returning home. Spiegel Grove next deployed to
220-698: The area of Gee Salay, Somalia . At sea, Spiegel Grove , USS Saginaw , and USS La Moure County functioned as the Amphibious Squadron 32 /Commander Task Unit 76.8.2 from 2–9 August 1987. Spiegel Grove was decommissioned 2 October 1989 and her name struck from the Navy list on 13 December 1989. The vessel was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration in the James River "mothball" fleet. In 1998, title passed to
242-458: The deaths of nine Marines and causing injuries to 13 others. Another Marine was crushed to death by a tank while asleep in his sleeping bag. During the trip over the ships were divided into three convoys sailing under war time conditions with ASW escorts. There were many civilian ships contracted to the Navy to transport military personnel and cargo to the landing area. Once the ships were anchored in place
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#1732859146576264-575: The dock. Originally, all ships were armed with eight 3"/50 caliber gun Mark 33 twin mounts. The number was later reduced. Spiegel Grove was a trial ship for the Jeff(A) and Jeff(B) landing craft in the mid-1980s. Jeff(B) was then developed into the Landing Craft Air Cushion . All ships were decommissioned by the U.S. Navy between 1983 and 1990, Alamo and Hermitage were sold to Brazil in 1989–1990. This United States Navy article
286-477: The ex- Spiegel Grove settled too soon and suddenly started rolling to her starboard side, forcing workers to abandon ship – and their equipment. She sank several hours ahead of schedule, ending up upside-down on the sea bottom and leaving her bow protruding slightly out of the ocean and her stern resting on the ocean floor. On 10–11 June 2002, at an additional cost of $ 250,000, the ship was rolled onto her starboard side by Resolve Marine Group , which pumped air into
308-616: The four-month cruise, the ships visited Gambia, Durban , the Malagasy Republic , the Seychelles Islands, Zanzibar , Kenya, the Union of South Africa , Togo, and Gabon before returning home on 8 September. She then entered Horne Brothers Shipyard , Newport News, Virginia , for an overhaul that was not completed until early January 1962. Spiegel Grove conducted refresher training and then spent March and April in amphibious exercises in
330-461: The landings began. There were two or three days of landing men and equipment ashore, then one day of rest for the landing craft. After that, the task force started back loading men and equipment onto the ships. When it was finished, the ships departed for liberty to different ports: the USS Okinawa to La Pallice and La Rochelle, France, and to Plymouth, England. Additional notes by a Marine veteran of
352-585: The operation: The units, including both ground and aviation conducted joint wargame exercises with NATO allies in Spain. During the deployment the Marines were visited by Commandant of the Marines Corps, General Wallace M. Greene . The Gen RM Blatchford took Marines to liberty call in the canary Islands. This United States Marine Corps article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This naval article
374-451: The port side hull tanks to displace at least 2,000 tons of water. Air bags with 350-400 tons of buoyancy and the assistance of two tugboats were also necessary. On 26 June 2002 the wreck was finally opened to recreational divers. In the next week, over a thousand divers visited the site. There were 50,000 dives annually to the ship during just its first two years. The ex- Spiegel Grove is located on Dixie Shoal , 6 miles (10 km) off
396-511: The ship could be sunk as an artificial reef and tourist attraction for divers. Red tape and financial problems delayed the sinking of USS Spiegel Grove for several years, but the ship was finally moved from Virginia to Florida in May 2002. The total preparation and reefing cost was $ 1 million. The ship sank prematurely on 17 May 2002. During the planned sinking , volunteer work crews dropped her 12-ton anchors and flooded her ballast tanks with water. But
418-441: The ships of this class were about a third larger and five knots faster. The class was designed to be able to transport: The dock was covered by removable segments that were able to carry the weight of two medium helicopters. Both cranes could lift weights of up to 50 tons. The machinery spaces were located underneath the dock, in contrast to the earlier Ashland class, where the machinery spaces were located to port and starboard of
440-589: The state of Florida, with the plan of sinking the hull to make an artificial reef off Key Largo . To achieve this, the EPA had to increase the acceptable amount of PCB (a toxic chemical substance) remaining in future wrecks from 2 ppm to 50 ppm. On 13 June 2001, Spiegel Grove was transferred to the State of Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, Key Largo, Fla., by the Maritime Administration , so that
462-499: The wreck requires that divers have an advanced certification. In July 2005, Hurricane Dennis shifted the Spiegel Grove onto her keel, right-side-up, which was the position originally intended when she was sunk. [REDACTED] Media related to USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) at Wikimedia Commons Cave dive sites: Thomaston-class dock landing ship The Thomaston class was a class of eight dock landing ships built for
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#1732859146576484-569: Was assigned to PhibRon 10 , the new Fast Squadron. The years 1959 and 1960 saw the LSD participating in numerous operations along the east coast and in the Caribbean . Spiegel Grove stood out of Norfolk in April 1961 with Task Force 88 (TF 88) for " Solant Amity II ," a good will tour to the African coast. The force carried tons of medical supplies, food, disaster supplies, toys, books, and seed. During
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