Dahl (T-AKR-312)
1998–
First U.S. Navy ship named in honor of Specialist 4th Class Larry G. Dahl who was a U. S. Army soldier killed in action during the Vietnam War, and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions near An Khe, Binh Dinh Provice, Vietnam on 23 February 1971.
Born in 1949, Larry G. Dahl enlisted in the Army at Portland, Or. in 1969 and served in the 359th Transportation Company, 27th Transportation Battalion, U.S. Army Support Command. On 23 February 1971, Dahl was serving as a machine gunner on a gun truck near An Khe, Binh Dinh Province. The vehicle in which Dahl was riding was sent with two other gun trucks to assist in the defense of a convoy that had been ambushed by an enemy force. The gun trucks entered the battle zone and engaged the attacking enemy troops with a heavy volume of machine gun fire, causing a large number of casualties. After a brief period of intense fighting the attack subsided. As the gun trucks were preparing to return to their normal escort duties, an enemy hand grenade was thrown into the one in which he was riding. Instantly realizing the great danger, Dahl called a warning to his companions and threw himself directly onto the grenade. He saved the lives of the other members of the truck crew while sacrificing his own.
Dahl was interred at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon.
(T-AKR-312: displacement 62,644; length 950'; beam 106'; draft 34'; speed 24 knots; complement 30 civilian and 5 active duty; class Watson)
Dahl (T-AKR-312) was laid down on 12 November 1997 at San Diego, Ca., by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company.; and launched on 2 October 1998. She entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service with the Military Sealift Command (MSC) with a primarily civilian crew on 13 July 1999. A non-combatant Large, Medium-Speed, Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) vessel, Dahl and other ships of her class are used to pre-position tanks, trucks, various wheeled vehicles and supplies needed to support an army heavy brigade. She is assigned to Afloat Prepositioning Ship Squadron Four.
From 20-28 October 2014 Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3 and the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) participated in Navy-Marine Corps joint exercise Pacific Horizon 2015. It was a scenario-driven, simulation-supported, crisis response exercise designed to improve 1st MEBs and ESG-3s interoperability and to strengthen Navy-Marine Corps relations by conducting an in-stream Maritime Prepositioning Force offload of equipment by providing host country civil-military security assistance and by conducting infrastructure restoration support.
The exercise consisted of sailors and marines using ship-to-shore techniques to ferry tactical vehicles and supplies from MSC ships to the shore. It employed the latest technologies and operational techniques in order to accomplish its prescribed goals.
The mobile landing platform Montford Point (T-MLP-1) and Dahl staged in several nautical miles offshore and acted as a mobile supply and vehicle depot to ferry materials by Air Cushion Landing Craft (LCAC) to the beach. Five LCACs traveled back and forth from the carrying vehicles and supplies supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
Detailed history under construction.
Paul J. Marcello
21 December 2015
