Career
Ordered:	10 August 1966
Laid down:	8 January 1969
Launched:	8 January 1970
Commissioned:	16 January 1971
Decommissioned:
Fate:	Active in service as of 2005.
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	18,400 tons full load
Length:	636.5 ft (194 m)
Beam:	108 ft (32.9 m)
Draught:	26.9 ft (8.8 m)
Propulsion:	Two boilers, one geared turbine
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	52 Officers, 790 Enlisted, Ship's Company
Armament:	4 × 4 in (104 mm) guns, 1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun, 12 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Aircraft:	All helicopters
Motto:
Homeport:	Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia

The USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20), a Blue Ridge class command ship, is on her way to become the flagship of the United States Navy's 6th Fleet after serving for years as 2nd Fleet's command ship.

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. The ship is named for Mount Whitney, the 14,946-foot peak in the Sierra Nevada range in California, the highest point in the lower 48 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 US gallons (400 m³) 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.

From October 2004, the ship was largely taken over by the Military Sealift Command. It remained a commissioned warship in the United States Navy, but most of its Navy crew was replaced by civilian Military Sealift Command personnel. The size of its complement shrank from 600 sailors to 157 sailors and 143 civilians.

In January 2005, Mount Whitney left Norfolk for Gaeta, Italy where she will be the 6th Fleet command ship.

External links

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