IwakuniDiver
Contributor
This is bad that even though I served on her for over 2 1/2 years, continue to work for the DoD as a civilian, and try to keep in touch with former shipmates that I completely missed the SINKEX for my former duty station and home. I found out from an email my dad sent.
While I admit that I am deeply saddened by her fate since I have many fond memories serving onboard her in both peacetime and wartime (United Shield in Somalia '95), I am glad to see her on the bottom and not scrapped.
During her SINKEX she was hit by Harpoon Anti-Ship missles and shelled by the USS Mobile Bay for hours and refused to sink. In the end, it took Naval EOD to plant charges on her to send her to the bottom. Not much of a surprise to me really since she showed us on numerous occasions how durable and steadfast of a ship she was.
Just a shame she's too deep to dive so I'll never be able to say goodbye properly.
While I admit that I am deeply saddened by her fate since I have many fond memories serving onboard her in both peacetime and wartime (United Shield in Somalia '95), I am glad to see her on the bottom and not scrapped.
During her SINKEX she was hit by Harpoon Anti-Ship missles and shelled by the USS Mobile Bay for hours and refused to sink. In the end, it took Naval EOD to plant charges on her to send her to the bottom. Not much of a surprise to me really since she showed us on numerous occasions how durable and steadfast of a ship she was.
Just a shame she's too deep to dive so I'll never be able to say goodbye properly.
![lha3sink6.jpg](http://navysite.de/ships/lha-images/lha3sink6.jpg)
![lha3sink7.jpg](http://navysite.de/ships/lha-images/lha3sink7.jpg)
![lha3sink8.jpg](http://navysite.de/ships/lha-images/lha3sink8.jpg)