USS Waldo County ( LST - 1163 ) USS " Waldo County " ( LST - 1163 ) , previously USS " LST - 1163 " , was a United States Navy landing ship tank ( LST ) in commission from 1953 to 1970 , and which then saw non - commissioned Military Sealift Command service as USNS " Waldo County " ( T - LST - 1163 ) from 1972 to 1973 . Construction and commissioning . " Waldo County " was laid down as USS " LST - 1163 " on 4 August 1952 at Pascagoula , Mississippi , by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation . She was launched on 17 March 1953 , sponsored by Mrs . C . Richard Shaeffner , and commissioned on 17 September 1953 with Lieutenant Commander Robert H . Steinkellner in command . Operations in U . S . waters and Caribbean 1953 – 1955 . " LST - 1163 " departed Pascagoula on 14 October 1953 and steamed via Key West , Florida , Florida ; Port Everglades , Florida ; and Charleston , South Carolina , to her permanent home port , Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek , in Virginia Beach , Virginia . She arrived at Little Creek on 25 October 1953 . Exercises and shakedown training occupied the remainder of 1953 and the first few months of 1954 . On 14 June 1954 , " LST - 1163 " departed Little Creek for Morehead City , North Carolina , to embark United States Marines for amphibious exercises . She arrived at Morehead City on the 15 June 1954 , loaded troops and equipment , and got underway on 16 June 1954 for Vieques Island , located near Puerto Rico in the West Indies . " LST - 1163 " reached Vieques Island on 21 June 1954 and conducted amphibious training until 1 July 1954 , when she headed back to Little Creek . She arrived at Little Creek on 5 July 1954 and remained there eight days before entering the Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Portsmouth , Virginia , on 13 July 1954 . She left the shipyard on 6 August 1954 and returned to Little Creek to resume duty with the Amphibious Force , United States Atlantic Fleet . For the remainder of the year , " LST - 1163 " conducted a series of amphibious exercises , mostly at Vieques Island , but she also participated in one cold - weather exercise at Hamilton Inlet on the coast of Labrador in Newfoundland , Canada , in November 1954 . On 18 January 1955 , " LST - 1163 " entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , for her first major overhaul . She emerged from the yard , revitalized , on 20 May 1955 and resumed duty with the Amphibious Force . On 1 July 1955 , " LST - 1163 " was renamed USS " Waldo County " ( LST - 1163 ) . Through the summer of 1955 , " Waldo County " remained close to or in Little Creek . First Mediterranean deployment 1955 – 1956 . On 24 August 1955 , " Waldo County " departed the Norfolk , Virginia , area for her first overseas deployment . After stops at Bordeaux in France , Port Lyautey in Morocco , and at Gibraltar , she joined the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean late in September 1955 . For the next four months , she ranged the length and breadth of the Mediterranean Sea conducting Sixth Fleet amphibious exercises and making port visits . On 25 January 1956 , she departed Port Lyautey on her way home . She returned to Norfolk on 6 February 1956 and resumed operations with the United States Second Fleet . Operations 1956 – 1970 . In her first two years of active service , " Waldo County " established a pattern of operations which endured until the end of 1964 . She alternated five Mediterranean deployments with periods of duty out of Little Creek conducting amphibious training at such places as Vieques Island , Onslow Beach in North Carolina , and at various locations in the Canadian Maritime Provinces . During her second Mediterranean deployment , which lasted from August 1957 to February 1958 , she acted as a unit of a contingency force established in the eastern Mediterranean during civil unrest in Lebanon . In 1959 the Waldo County made her first and only Top Secret Mission . A Top Secret crypto message ordered her and two sister ship LST ' s to proceed from Little Creek to Quantico Marine Base for further orders . At Quantico the LST ' s on - loaded two battalions of South Vietnamese marines and US Marine trainers and proceeded to the Caribbean to hold amphibious landing exercises for several weeks . At the conclusion the Marines were dropped off at Camp Lejeune . Not too many years later the U . S . was deeply involved in the Vietnam war . The remaining three deployments were more routine in nature , consisting only of training missions and port visits . Between her third and fourth deployments to the Sixth Fleet , she earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal in November and December 1961 when she cruised Cuban waters as a part of another contingency force established in response to a wave of what the United States considered to be terrorist actions by the Cuban government following the abortive April 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba . Otherwise , the periods between deployments consisted entirely of routine Second Fleet operations , primarily amphibious training missions at the previously named locations . " Waldo County " returned to Little Creek from her fifth and last Mediterranean cruise on 17 November 1964 . At that point , she began a new phase of her career . No longer did she deploy to the Sixth Fleet . For the remaining six years of her active career , she confined her operations to the United States East Coast and the West Indies . The ubiquitous amphibious exercises predominated , but , on two occasions , she did perform special missions . In May and June 1965 , she again earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal when she joined another contingency force in the West Indies during a period of extreme internal unrest in the Dominican Republic quelled by the intervention of forces of the Organization of American States . In 1966 , she qualified for that award again by returning to the Dominican Republic once more . From that time on , " Waldo County " broke her routine of U . S . East Coast – West Indies operations only one time . In January 1970 , she steamed to the Panama Canal and transited it for a brief series of landing exercises on the Pacific Ocean side of the Panamanian Isthmus . She retransited the canal on 2 February 1970 and resumed operations in the West Indies . Normal operations occupied her time until September 1970 , at which time she began preparations for inactivation . Decommissioning , reserve , and Military Sealift Command service 1970 – 1973 . " Waldo County " was decommissioned on 21 December 1970 and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange Texas . She remained there until May 1972 , at which time she was reactivated for non - commissioned service as a cargo ship with a civil service crew with the Military Sealift Command ( MSC ) as the United States Naval Ship USNS " Waldo County " ( T - LST - 1163 ) . She operated under MSC control for about 18 months before being sticken from the Navy List on 1 November 1973 . Layup and transfer to Peru . " Waldo County " name was stricken from the Navy List on 1 November 1973 , and she was transferred to the Maritime Administration for layup in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay at Benicia , California . On 7 August 1984 , " Waldo County " and three of her sister ships – USS " Traverse County " ( LST - 1160 ) , USS " Walworth County " ( LST - 1164 ) , and USS " Washoe County " ( LST - 1165 ) – were leased to Peru , and " Waldo County " was commissioned into service in the Peruvian Navy as " Pisco " ( BAP - 142 ) on 4 March 1985 . Peru renewed the lease on all four ships in August 1989 and August 1994 , and the United States sold all four outright to Peru on 26 April 1999 under the Security Assistance Program ; all four were struck from the U . S . Naval Register on the day of the sale .