About 250 Marines returned to California following two months at sea aboard the Navy's newest amphibious assault ship as it reached its homeport in San Diego.
Members of Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force — South arrived in California aboard the amphibious ship America on Monday. The Marines, along with about 1,100 sailors on board, were the first to test the capabilities of the new ship. It's the first in its class that replaces the outdated Tarawa-class amphibs.
The ship, which is too wide to transit through the Panama Canal, cruised from Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and around South America in a goodwill tour with a handful of port calls and exercises for the sailors and Marines aboard and the country's with allies.
Marines and sailors used the trip to qualify on some of the ship's systems, operate aircraft, and to meet and train with officials and counterparts from Colombia, Brazil, Chile and Peru along the way.
The America stopped off the Peruvian coast on Aug. 31, before completing the final leg of its transit to San Diego. While there, about 30 Marines from SPMAGTF-South, went ashore to work with Peruvian marines, training in combat lifesaving, martial arts, marksmanship and explosive ordinance disposal.
Marines and sailors also used the time underway to train on the new ship and its embarked aircraft. Marines had CH-46E Sea Knights and four MV-22B Ospreys aboard; it was the first time the latter operated in South America. Aircrews flew Marines from SPMAGTF-South and equipment ashore, an evolution that gave both aviators and sailors on the flight deck experience at sea.
Unlike it's predecessors, the America was built without a well deck. It uses that space for aviation fuel and a larger hangar in order to maintain aircraft and focus on aviation missions. The ship will be ceremoniously christened in San Francisco on Oct. 11.
