USS Arlington (LPD-24)

USS Arlington (LPD-24), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, is the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Arlington County, Virginia, the location of the Pentagon and the crash site of American Airlines Flight 77 during the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. Like her sister ships, USS New York (LPD-21) and USS Somerset (LPD-25), she is named in commemoration of the attacks. Steel taken from the Pentagon after the attacks is displayed aboard in the ship's museum.

Construction
Arlington's keel was laid down on 26 May 2008, at Northrop Grumman's Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Builder's Trials of the ship started on 21 August 2012. These were completed on 30 August 2012. She completed Navy acceptance sea trials on 2 November 2012. The US Navy formally accepted the ship on 7 December 2012. Arlington arrived at her homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia on 22 March 2013 in preparation for commissioning. Officially, she was commissioned on 8 February 2013, but her ceremonial commissioning occurred on 6 April 2013 at Naval Station Norfolk. Originally scheduled as the third ship of the San Antonio class, she was the eighth to be commissioned. Mrs. Joyce Rumsfeld, wife of former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, is the ship's sponsor.

Operational history
In August 2013, Arlington conducted trials with NASA's Orion spacecraft.

In October 2015, Arlington embarked upon her maiden deployment to the 5th and 6th Fleet Areas of Responsibility as part of the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) Amphibious Ready Group, along with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. During the deployment, Arlington transited 36,740 nautical miles and conducted port visits in Lisbon, Portugal, Souda Bay, Greece, Eilate, Israel, Aqaba, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. and Marseille, France.

According to the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group & 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit's post-deployment brief (UNCLASS), activities included Maritime Security Operations & MSO Patrol along with FICE in support of JCPC (Joint Combined Planning Cell) Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which coordinated coalition support against the Iranian backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Additionally, Arlington provided assistance to a disabled vessel while transiting the Gulf of Aden 23rd December, 2015. Embarked personnel included the Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 26, Fox Company and Echo Battery, Battalion Landing Team 2/6, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU). In March 2016 Battery E, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 26th MEU disembarked Arlington to provide counter battery support during Operation Inherent Resolve.

In May 2019 she was deployed to the Persian Gulf due to reported concerns about Iranian activities. In April 2022 Arlington was deployed to Icelandic waters to take part in the NATO exercise Northern Viking 2022.