USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) out to sea in #7thFleet rare stern shot while underway, click to big up.
Here we see a great stern close-up of the USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19), the 46-year-old lead ship of her class of amphibious command ships and the oldest deployable warship in the fleet. At 20,000-tons, she and her sister USS Mount Whitney, were the same size as the Iwo Jima-class helicopter assault ships of their era but instead of carrying a battalion of Marines along with their landing craft and choppers, they were designed as floating command post with advanced commo and information equipment and dedicated spaces to be used by an amphibious force commander during large-scale (think Inchon) style operations.
As such, she and Mount W (who is the flag of the 6th Fleet at Gaeta, Italy) can carry a flag group of nearly 600.
As current U.S. COMSEVENFLT flagship Blue Ridge with embarked Fleet staff arrived in Manila, Republic of the Philippines for a regularly scheduled port visit March 4. Which, of course, means there are a lot of bluejackets getting drunk to Michael Jackson karaoke in Olongapo City and getting dared to eat balut…among other things.
