USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20)

Career
Ordered:	10 August 1966
Laid down:	8 January 1969
Launched:	8 January 1970
Commissioned:	16 January 1971
Decommissioned:
Fate:	Actively serving as of 2004
Struck:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	18,400 tons full load
Length:	636.5 feet (194 meters)
Beam:	108 feet (32.9 meters)
Draught:	26.9 feet (8.8 meters)
Propulsion:	Two boilers, one geared turbine
Speed:	23 knots
Range:
Complement:	52 Officers, 790 Enlisted, Ship's Company
Armament:	4 four-inch guns, 1 three-inch (76mm) gun, twelve 21-inch (533mm) torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	All helicopters
Motto:
Homeport:	Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia

The USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20), a Blue Ridge class command ship, is the flagship of the United States Navy's 2nd Fleet.

Originally authorized as AGC‑20, was reclassified LCC‑20 on 1 January 1969, and laid down 6 January by Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia. Mount Whitney is named for the 14,946-foot peak in the Sierra Nevada range in California, the highest point in the United States.

• She carries enough food to feed the crew for 90 days and can transport supplies to support an emergency evacuation of 3,000 people.
• Her distilling units make over 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day
• The first U.S. Navy combatant to permanently accommodate women on board.

Considered by some to be the most sophisticated Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) ship ever commissioned, Mount Whitney incorporates various elements of the most advanced C4I equipment and gives the embarked Joint Task Force Commander the capability to effectively command all units under the command of the Commander, Joint Task Force.

Mount Whitney can receive and transmit large amounts of secure data from any point on earth through HF, UHF, VHF, SHF and EHF communications paths. This technology enables the Joint Intelligence Center and Joint Operations Center to provide the timely intelligence and operational support available in the Navy.

The ship deployed in 1994 to Haiti with Lt. Gen. Hugh Shelton, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, in command of the Joint Task Force that conducted Operation Uphold Democracy. In 1999, Mount Whitney deployed to the Mediterranean as flagship for Commander, 6th Fleet, relieving the command ship USS La Salle. On November 12, 2002, Mount Whitney deployed to the Central Command area of responsibility in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During the deployment the ship embarked elements of the 2nd Marine Division and II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF), based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, under the command of Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler.

External links

• Photos (http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/0120.htm)
• Official Site (http://www.mtwhitney.navy.mil)