Step Aboard The USS Kearsarge (LHD3), The U.S Navy Workhorse That Takes Marines To War

USS Kearsarge (LHD3) is the third Waspclass amphibious assault ship of the United States Navy named in honor of USS Kearsarge, a sloopofwar that gained fame hunting Confederate raiders during the American Civil War. The sloop was named for Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire. She is the fifth ship to be so named as such, but fourth overall, as the third was renamed the Hornet (CV12), after the first Hornet (CV8) was sunk, and served during the remainder of World War 2.

Kearsarge is capable of amphibious assault, advance force and special purpose operations, as well as noncombatant evacuation and other humanitarian missions. Since her commissioning, she has performed these missions all over the world, including evacuating noncombatants from Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 31 May 1997 and rescuing Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady from Serbcontrolled territory in Bosnia on 8 June 1995.

Operation Noble Obelisk was the evacuation of civilians from Sierra Leone in 1997 undertaken by USS Kearsarge. More than 400 Americans and more than 3000 thirdcountry nationals were taken aboard Kearsarge over 4 days. Additionally, Kearsarge is fully equipped with stateoftheart command and control (C&C) systems for flagship command duty, and her medical facilities are second in capability only to the Navy's hospital ships, USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy. These facilities allowed Kearsarge to serve a dual role during the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a platform for bombing missions against Yugoslav forces in Operation Allied Force, and as a treatment facility for Albanian refugees in Operation Shining Hope.

In US Navy history, just four ships have borne the name Kearsarge. The first, a Civil War sloop, sank the CSS Alabama off the coast of France in 1864. The next one, a battleship, sailed around the world with Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. The third, an aircraft carrier, recovered astronauts from the sea during Project Mercury, the US’s first humanspaceflight program.

The current USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship that docked in New York City for Fleet Week, has a lower profile, but it is no less essential to the fleet. “We have a very special mission as opposed to your other ships of the Navy,” Lt. J.G. Christian Sedarski, a deckdivision officer on the Kearsarge, told Business Insider. “Sometimes we will conduct firings on the beaches and that kind of thing, but we are strictly landing and bringing back Marines from the beach.” “So the way I like to explain it is, we are a glorified hotel with a F150 flatbed,” he added. It also has extensive medical facilities, capable of taking in wounded troops as well as survivors of natural disasters. Its ability to hold 600 patients makes it second to only the Navy’s readyreserve hospital ships in medical capacity.

USS Kearsarge has been awarded the Golden Anchor for Retention Excellence, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Service Award, the CNO Environmental Safety Award, the Admiral Flatley Memorial Award (aviation safety), SECNAV Energy Award (2002), Department of Energy (DOE) Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) Mobility Energy Efficiency Award (2002), the Chief of Naval Operations Safety Award and the Commander Naval Surface Force Atlantic Safety Award. Additionally, Kearsarge has qualified for the following medals and unit awards: Combat Action Ribbon, Humanitarian award, Navy Unit Commendation (three awards), Meritorious Unit Commendation (one award), Battle Efficiency "E" Award (seven awards), National Defense Service Medal (two awards), Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal (with bronze star), Armed Forces Service Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (five awards), and the NATO Medal.

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