EL PASO LKA 117

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 22 October 1968 as Attack Cargo Ship (AKA-117) Redesignated Amphibious Cargo Ship (LKA-117) 1 January 1969 Launched 17 May 1969 USS EL PASO LKA-117 Commissioned 17 January 1970 - Decommissioned 21 April 1994 Assigned to Military Sealift Command (MSC) 1995 Moved to Bethlehem Steel Shipyard, Sparrows Pt., MD for conversion Conversion cancelled, moved to Philadelphia Placed Out of Service 23 October 1996 Laid up at NISMF 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 name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). 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. USS El Paso LKA-117 Covers Page 1     (1969-1994)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. 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	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 2et(n+u) USS Alstede AF-48

1969-05-17

N/A

Launching, cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson

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Locy Type FDC 2(n+) (USS)

1970-01-17

First Day of Commissioning, cachet by Tazewell G. Nicholson

 

Locy Type FDC 2(n+) (USS)

1970-01-17

First Day of Commissioning, cachet by Morris W. Beck

 

Locy Type 2t(n+u) (USS)

1979-09-19

Note:

 

Locy Type 2-1(n+) (USS)

1990-01-17

Note:

 

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

1981-06-14

Official mail, from the George Marcincin collection.

 

Locy Type 9-2t(n+) USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. E-43

1990-01-17

Notes:

 

Locy Type LDC 2-1(n+)

1994-04-21

Last Day of Commissioning, ship's cachet.

 

Locy Type LDC 9-2t(n+) USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. E-43a

1994-04-21

Last Day of Commissioning, ship's cachet.

 

Other Information

USS EL PASO earned the following awards during her Naval career - Joint Meritorious Unit Award - Navy Battle "E" Ribbon (3) - Navy Expeditionary Medal (2) - National Defense Service Medal - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (5) - Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbon.

NAMESAKE - A city in Texas.

Two ships of the US Navy have been named EL PASO - USS El Paso PF-41 and USS El Paso LKA-117.

 

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