United States Navy USS Germantown Retired

USS Germantown (LSD-42) was decommissioned at Naval Base San Diego, her original homeport, on 24 September 2026 after more than 40 years of service, the U.S. Navy said. The Navy's fiscal 2026 inactivation plan had listed the ship for decommissioning by September and retention as a support asset, leaving five other Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships in the fleet, according to Seapower Magazine. Built by Lockheed Shipbuilding in Seattle and commissioned on 8 February 1986, Germantown was the first dock landing ship to conduct Landing Craft Air Cushion operations, spent years forward-deployed at Sasebo, Japan, and served in Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and the 2011 Operation Tomodachi relief effort.