USS Anzio

Not to be confused with USS Anzio (CVE-57)

## USS Anzio (CG-68)

Anzio, 2005

**USS *Anzio* (CG-68)** is a *Ticonderoga*-class guided missile cruiser that served in the United States Navy. She was named for the site of a beachhead invasion of Italy by Allied troops from 22 January to 23 May 1944. Her keel was laid down by the Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation at Pascagoula, Mississippi on 21 August 1989. The ship was launched on 2 November 1990, and commissioned on 2 May 1992, under the command of Captain H. Wyman Howard, Jr. *Anzio* was decommissioned on 22 September 2022.

### Etymology

The ship is named for the battle that took place at Anzio, Italy, the site of an Allied amphibious assault during Operation Shingle as part of the Italian Campaign of World War II. One other ship, *Anzio*, an escort carrier decommissioned after World War II, shares her name.

### History

#### 2000s

On 6 April 2000, *Anzio*, along with another cruiser and the aircraft carrier *Dwight D. Eisenhower*, was participating in an exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, about 250 miles (400 km) off the coast of Israel. In an unannounced missile test, the Israel Defense Forces fired a Jericho-1 medium-range ballistic missile from a test facility in Yavne, which landed 40 miles (64 km) from the ship. The missile was detected by the ship's radar, and the crew briefly thought that they were under attack.

On 9 January 2003, *Anzio* was pre-deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ordered first to the eastern Mediterranean Sea for the initial phase of President George W. Bush's Shock and Awe strategy (during which the U.S. Navy deployed to defeat the Iraq military before ground forces were sent in). Once *Anzio* completed her mission in the eastern Mediterranean, she forward-deployed to the Persian Gulf. Once *Anzio* arrived in the Persian Gulf, she had marked her 45th straight day at sea. In the Persian Gulf, *Anzio* continued carrier-flight support operations and coastal surveillance. After President Bush announced major combat had concluded in the Iraq War, on 1 May 2003, *Anzio* was relieved of her duties, returning home on 3 July 2003, after 175 days at sea. In March 2003, she was assigned to Cruiser-Destroyer Group Eight.

In 2004, *Anzio* participated at the annual Fleet Week in New York City. In January 2007, the warship was sent to the coast of Somalia to conduct anti-terrorist operations as part of the USS *Dwight D. Eisenhower* task force.

On 16 February 2007, *Anzio* was awarded the 2006 Battle "E" award.

*Anzio* was anchored and a participant for 'Windjammer Days' in Boothbay Harbor, Maine from 25 to 26 June 2008.

*Anzio* has served as the flagship of the Horn of Africa international anti-piracy Combined Task Force 151. On 15 October 2009 a team from the cruiser working with United States Coast Guard personnel from Maritime Safety and Security Team 91104 seized a skiff carrying an estimated 4 tons of hashish worth an estimated $28 million about 170 nautical miles (310 km) southwest of Salalah, Oman. The boarding team destroyed the drugs by dumping them into the ocean and released the skiff's crew.

#### 2010s

*Anzio* embarked Detachment 2 of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 46 (HSM-46) for operations in 2012.

*Anzio* was tentatively scheduled to be decommissioned and designated for disposal on 31 March 2013. However, *Anzio* was retained under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013.

On 13 January 2016, ten U.S. Navy sailors were picked up by *Anzio* for transport and medical evaluations after being held in Iranian custody. The sailors were captured by Iran on 12 January 2016 after their two naval boats entered Iranian waters. "The evidence suggests that they unintentionally entered the Iranian waters because of the failure of their navigational system," Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif said on Press TV. *Anzio* was also involved in a replenishment at sea operation with HMS *Defender*, USS *Harry S. Truman*, USS *Ramage*, USNS *Pecos*, and USNS *Medgar Evers*.

#### 2020s

In December 2020 the U.S. Navy's Report to Congress on the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels stated that the ship was planned to be placed Out of Commission in Reserve in 2022.

On 22 September 2022, *Anzio* was decommissioned at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia after 30 years of service.