Task Force 61 Task Force 61 ( CTF - 61 ) is a task force of the United States Navy that today denotes what used to be designated the Mediterranean Amphibious Ready Group ( MARG ) of the United States Sixth Fleet . It is composed of approximately three Amphibious assault ship s , but in 2008 is designated the Expeditionary Strike Group that includes their embarked landing craft . From these ships , United States Marine Corps ground forces can move ashore by sea and air in amphibious assault or emergency evacuation missions . Once ashore , the ships of Task Force 61 are able to logistically support the ground forces , until the objective of the landing has been accomplished . The TF 61 designation has been used by the United States Navy since World War II . World War II . Task Force 61 seems to have first been formed in advance of the Guadalcanal Campaign of 1942 . Admiral Ghormley , Commander , South Pacific Area , issued his Operation Plan No . 1 - 42 on 16 July 1942 . It was to govern the execution of Task One which was to be divided into three phases . The first would be a rehearsal in the Fiji Islands ; the second would be the seizure and occupation of Tulagi and Guadalcanal ( Operation Watchtower ) . Additionally , the task force executed Operation Cleanslate on the Russell Islands in August 1942 . The projected occupation of Ndeni in the Santa Cruz Islands would be the third and final phase . Operation Plan No . 1 - 42 organized two forces , Task Forces 61 and 63 . The Expeditionary Force of eighty - two ships ( designated as Task Force 61 ) , was to be commanded by Vice - Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher , and included the amphibious force of Task Group 61 . 2 under Rear Admiral R . K Turner , escorted by the vessels of Task Group 61 . 1 Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes . The main landing force was to be the 1st Marine Division . Later , in October 1942 , the Task Force , now under Rear Admiral Thomas C . Kinkaid , confronted a force directed by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the same area . In late October , the Task Force consisted of the " USS Enterprise " , " USS South Dakota " , the cruisers " USS Portland " and " USS San Juan " , and eight destroyers . The Task Force formed one of the two U . S . carrier groups that took part in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands . As such it represented the combined command of Task Force 11 , Task Force 16 and Task Force 18 . Task Force 61 was dissolved in the Pacific Theater and became Task Group 92 . 4 while TF - 61 was reactivated in the Atlantic under the Royal Navy command , and participated in convoy escort duties , although initially it included US Navy Destroyer Division 60 , Destroyer Escort Division 5 , and a number of United States Coast Guard and Free French Navy vessels . In May 1944 it included HMS Queen Elizabeth , FS Richelieu , HMS Cumberland , the Royal Netherlands Navy light cruiser HNLMS Tromp ( 1937 ) , 21st Carrier Squadron , and HM Destroyers Saumarez , Vigilant , Verulam , Nubian and Tartar . Cold War . The TF 61 designation has been used in the Mediterranean since the late 1940s . In the early 1960s the Task Force included rotation of Amphibious Squadron Six CTF USS Casa Grande ( LSD - 13 ) , and Amphibious Squadron Four CTF USS Fremont ( APA - 44 ) . On 22 July 1974 , 466 foreign nationals were air - lifted via helicopter to the of Task Force 61 for transport to Beirut , Lebanon . U . S . naval forces in the area remained on high state of readiness through 2 September 1974 as the situation on Cyprus began to stabilize . In 1982 , during the Multi - National Force deployment to Lebanon , the Commander , Amphibious Task Force ( CTF 61 ) was designated Commander , U . S . Forces Lebanon . Fiction literature . Task Force 61 is the subject of several military fiction novels by David Poyer .