CHARLESTON LKA 113

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Charleston Class Amphibious Cargo Ship Keel Laid December 5 1966 - Launched December 2 1967 USS CHARLESTON AKA-113 Commissioned Attack Transport (AKA) December 14 1968 USS CHARLESTON LKA-113 Redesignated Amphibious Cargo Ship (LKA) January 1 1969 Decommissioned April 27 1992 Laid up at Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Portsmouth, VA Towed (Date unknown) to Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, PA

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1     (1968)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 2(n+) USS FREMONT APA-44

1967-12-02

Launching

---

 

Locy Type FDC 2(n+)

1972-10-13

First Day in Commission

 

Locy Type 2(n+) (USS)

1972-10-13

As LKA-113
Ship's cachet

 

Locy Type 9ef(n+u) (USS)

1972-10-13

As LKA-113
Ship's cachet

 

Other Information

CHARLESTON earned 1 Battle Star (Vietnam)
* Vietnamese Counteroffensive-Phase VII, April 1971

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons...
Joint Meritorious Unit Award - Navy Battle "E" Ribbon (3) - National Defense Service Medal - Vietnam Service Medal (1) - Humanitarian Service Medal - Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal

NAMESAKE - Named Charleston for Charleston, South Carolina and Charleston, West Virginia

Five ships of the US Navy have honored these cities; USS Charleston (1798 Galley), USS Charleston C-2, USS Charleston C-22, USS Charleston PG-51 and USS Charleston AKA/LKA-113.

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum