LHA 7 commissioning at NASP in ’19

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The commissioning ceremony for the Navy’s newest Amphibious Assault Ship, the future USS Tripoli (LHA 7), will be held onboard Naval Air Station Pensacola on a non-specified date in 2019. The ship is currently about two-thirds through the process to activation at Huntington Ingalls’ shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. Tripoli is among the first class of ships designed to support the Marine Corps’ F-35B vertical and/short take-off and landing (V/STOL) fighter jet. A local group is now working to plan the commissioning activities and raise the funds to pay for them. The commissioning ceremony will be paid for by the Navy. The USS Tripoli Commissioning Committee of Pensacola will pay for other portions of a week-long celebration. Committee Chairman, retired aviator Rear Admiral Don Quinn, says the group likely will have to raise as much as $300,000. This will be Pensacola’s sixth commissioning ceremony dating back to USS Mitscher in 1994. The Navy christened Tripoli on Sept. 16 in Pascagoula. (Source: WUWF 12/06/18)