Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Suribachi (AE-21), 1956-____.

USS Suribachi, a 17,450-ton ammunition ship, was built at Sparrows Point, Maryland. Commissioned in November 1956, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, frequently deploying to the Mediterranean to provide ammunition and other supplies to ships operating there. In 1963, she was modernized with new "FAST" underway replenishment gear and a helicopter deck, both of which enabled her to supply cargo more rapidly and in a greater variety of conditions. Suribachi made one deployment to the Far East in 1972-73 to support Vietnam operations, and in the Summer of 1990 she steamed to the Persian Gulf area to participate in Operation "Desert Shield". She decommissioned in December 1994 and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register two years later. At the present time she is still in Navy custody, at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This page features all our views of USS Suribachi.

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 97245

USS Suribachi (AE-21)


Photographed in 1957, when she was first commissioned.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97246

USS Suribachi (AE-21)


Photographed by PH2 Tate, 9 July 1962.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 132KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97247

USS Suribachi (AE-21)


Photographed circa the early or middle 1980s.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 545 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97248

USS Suribachi (AE-21)


Coming alongside USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) during underway replenishment operations in the Atlantic, 30 November 1989.
Photographed by PHAA Eric Dove.
Note that Suribachi's guns had been removed at this time.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97249-KN (Color)

USS Suribachi (AE-21)

Transiting the Suez Canal, en route to the Persian Gulf to support Operation "Desert Shield", 8 August 1990.
Photographed by PH3 Frank A. Marquart.
Note ferry crossing, with waiting vehicles, in the center background.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 70143-KN (Color)

Insignia of USS Suribachi (AE-21)

This emblem was received in 1970.
It's design features a depiction of the raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, in February 1945, plus symbols representing the ship's mission of ammunition transporation and delivery.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 128KB; 650 x 675 pixels

Note:
The image shown here has been cropped from the full image, which shows almost the entire wooden plaque upon which the insignia is mounted.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

20 February 2000