Embassy staff given a tour of USS Mesa Verde

October 15, 2009

The USS MESA VERDE recently visited Nassau, while docked in port, the crew gave Embassy staff led by Chargè d’Affaires Timothy Zuniga-Brown a tour of the ship.  The Commanding Officer, Larry LeGree is a Surface Warfare Officer.  He received his commission upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1991.

LPD-19 is the first United States warship to bear the name "MESA VERDE."  She is the third of the SAN ANTONIO class of amphibious transport dock ships and is named in recognition of Mesa Verde National Park and World Cultural Heritage Site in Southwestern Colorado.  Congress established Mesa Verde as the first cultural park in the National Park System in 1906 to preserve the notable cliff dwellings of the ancestral Pueblo culture.  The National Park’s centennial celebration took place in 2006, the year before MESA VERDE was delivered to the Navy and became a commissioned ship.

The mission of the USS MESA VERDE is to embark, transport and land elements of the United States Marine Corps and other joint forces ashore by means of landing craft and helicopters.  MESA VERDE’s motto:  COURAGE, TEAMWORK, TRADITION!