Amphibious transport dock USS Green Bay (LPD 20) has water under the keel once again after successfully completing a dry dock period at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego, March 10.
During an extensive eight-hour evolution that took place at night, the dry dock was flooded and Green Bay safely exited the NASSCO facility to begin its next maintenance period at the BAE shipyard also in San Diego.
This evolution marks a major milestone and the completion of eight months of Green Bay’s year-long maintenance availability as it moves into the third and final stage of the refurbishment and upgrade process.
Green Bay was assisted by a series of tugboats during its transit out of the dry dock and to the pier at the BAE facility. The tugs were especially important pulling out of the dry dock because they had to maneuver Green Bay since the ship was not under its own power.
Work on board Green Bay will continue at the BAE facility as the ship prepares to become operationally ready for a scheduled homeport shift to Sasebo, Japan early next year. Green Bay will be the first San Antonio-class LPD to be forward deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility.
Sailors aboard the ship said they have seen great progress during the maintenance availability and most divisions only have 25 percent of their workload left to complete.
[mappress] March 13, 2014