page_title: USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)
section_title: 2010s
hierarchical_section_title: USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) / History / 2010s
context_page_description: USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the first of the two Blue Ridge-class amphibious command ships of the United States Navy, and is the flagship of the Seventh Fleet. Her primary role is to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence support to the commander and staff of the United States Seventh Fleet. She is currently forward-deployed to U.S. Navy Fleet Activities, Yokosuka in Japan, and is the third Navy ship named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range of mountains in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. Blue Ridge is the oldest deployable warship of the U.S. Navy, following the decommissioning of USS Denver. Blue Ridge, as the U.S. Navy's active commissioned ship having the longest total period as active, flies the First Navy Jack instead of the Jack of the United States. Blue Ridge is expected to remain in service until 2039.
context_section_description: Blue Ridge was one of several participating in disaster relief in Operation Tomodachi, after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Blue Ridge brought relief supplies from Singapore to Japan but remained in the vicinity of Okinawa where the embarked U.S. Seventh Fleet staff provided command and control for the duration of Operation Tomodachi. The Seventh Fleet Band disembarked from the Blue Ridge in order to provide the Japanese public with concerts dedicated to the victims of the tsunami. On 9 May 2010, sailors from Blue Ridge took part in a Victory Day Parade of the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet in the city of Vladivostok, being assembled on the city square next to French sailors. The officer inspecting the parade greeted the sailors, to which the sailors responded with a Russian-style threefold loud Ura.
  The ship is expected to remain in service until 2039.
caption: The "First Navy Jack"; Blue Ridge flies it in place of the U.S. naval jack as it is the oldest actively commissioned warship in U.S. service.