USS Savannah (AOR-4)

1970–1974

After shakedown out of Guantanamo Bay, Savannah proceeded to her homeport at Norfolk, Virginia. Arriving on 12 May, she completed post-shakedown availability on 9 August, and prepared for deployment to the Mediterranean.

Savannah (AOR-4) left Norfolk on 20 September.^[1] En route to Rota, Spain, she refueled ships taking part in a Caribbean exercise. After reporting to the 6th Fleet on 8 October, Savannah operated in Task Group 60.1. By the end of the year, she had replenished 178 ships.

Savannah continued to operate with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean until early March 1972. On 9 March, she headed west for Norfolk and arrived there eight days later. Her stay in the United States, however, was cut short by the exigencies of the Vietnam War. On 25 April, she left the Chesapeake Bay and, four days later, transited the Panama Canal. Savannah arrived in Subic Bay, Philippines, on 20 May and began a five-month tour replenishing the fleet along the coast of Vietnam. She made six line swings to the Gulf of Tonkin during this time. Each swing was punctuated by a 4–6-day load out period in Subic Bay.

Savannah departed Subic Bay on 5 November, bound for Norfolk. She transited the Panama Canal on 4 December and arrived at Norfolk on the 8th. Savannah operated out of Norfolk, along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean, for almost all of 1973. On 3 December 1973, she again headed eastward to join the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. From 12 December until late May 1974, she supported units of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. On 3 June 1974, she returned to Norfolk.

1974–1995

Savannah was back in the Med in 1975 supporting the USS John F Kennedy (CV-67).

From December 1976 to August 1977 the ship was laid up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, for restructuring of her aft section. The 3"/50 calibre dual mounts were replaced by hangars for a pair of CH-46D Sea Knight helicopters. The ship visited the Brooklyn Navy Yard again in 1980–1981, which saw the installation of a Sea Sparrow missile system and Phalanx CIWS.

In 1982, Savannah underwent her second major overhaul from 2 March to 15 December. After exiting the shipyard she steamed into the Caribbean, where she served as a drone launch platform in April 1982. On 10 December, Savannah resumed her support of 6th Fleet vessels in the Mediterranean. She subsequently transited the Suez Canal on 31 January 1983 and conducted operations in the Indian Ocean from 4 February to 26 April. The Navy Expeditionary Medal she earned for Lebanon reflects operations she conducted in support of the Multinational Force in Lebanon during this period.^[2] Savannah spent the remainder of the 1980s alternating deployments off the Atlantic coast with Mediterranean voyages.

The year 1990 saw one of Savannah's most lengthy deployments in support of the 6th Fleet. On 8 March she steamed out of Norfolk en route to Rota, Spain. From 14 June to 2 August, Savannah participated in Operation Sharp Edge, the non-combatant evacuation operation of American citizens and foreign nationals from Liberia during the First Liberian Civil War.^[3] She subsequently supported the build-up of American forces in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.^[4]

From 2 December 1991 to 6 June 1992 the ship deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean with the USS America (CV-66) carrier group.^[5]

From 11 August 1993 to 5 February 1994 the ship deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, including a trip with the USS America carrier group through the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean on 1 November 1993 in support of U.N. efforts in Somalia.^[6]