USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3)

The Lewis B. Puller class of expeditionary mobile base ships differ from the United States Navy's first two expeditionary transfer dock support vessels, and . These two ships act as floating bases or transfer stations that can be positioned off the target area. Lewis B. Puller and serve as expeditionary mobile bases to support low-intensity missions. This allows more expensive, high-value amphibious warfare ships and surface combatant warships to be re-tasked for more demanding operational missions for the U.S. Navy. These ESB variants operate in the Middle East and the Pacific Ocean. Lewis B. Puller was initially operated by the Military Sealift Command with the prefix "USNS" and a crew of Department of the Navy civilian mariners. She replaced USS Ponce, the U.S. Navy's interim AFSB support ship. Namesake Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3) is the second ship named after Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller. The first was , an . A distinguished combat veteran of the Banana Wars, World War II and the Korean War, Puller is the most decorated individual in the history of the United States Marine Corps. Ship re-designation On 4 September 2015, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced a new ship designator: "E" for expeditionary support. Mobile Landing Platforms (MLPs) will be designated Expeditionary Transfer Docks, or ESDs; and the Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) variant of the MLP will be called Expeditionary Mobile Bases, or ESBs. The new designation followed a 31 August 2015 memorandum sent to Mabus by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert. ==Design features==

The design of Lewis B. Puller is based on the hull of the civilian . Lewis B. Puller is the first non-combatant ship equipped with the Navy's N-30 class passive fire protection system. Embarked aircraft The ship is equipped to support United States Air Force CV-22s on special ops missions. Feasibility tests began in 2014 The testing and certification of MH-53E helicopters for minesweeping operations from ESB support ships began in fiscal year 2016. The F-35B STOVL strike fighter does not fly from ESBs because its exhaust heat might damage the deck, Captain Henry Stevens, the head of NAVSEA's Strategic and Theater Sealift program, said on 16 January 2014. ==History==

Construction The United States Navy ordered T-ESB-3 in February 2012 as part of the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriation for the U.S. Department of Defense via the National Defense Sealift Fund (NDSF). Mrs. Glueck welded her initials onto a steel plate that will be permanently affixed to the ship, remaining a part of Lewis B. Puller throughout her service life. Lewis B. Puller set sail from San Diego to Norfolk via Cape Horn, arriving 13 October 2015 to begin her testing and evaluation phase. The ship is configured for minesweeping support but is also under consideration to support special operations forces (SOF) missions. Lewis B. Puller joined the U.S. Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf in late 2016 or early 2017. On 14 January 2016, the Secretary of the Navy announced that Lewis B. Pullers sister-ship would be named Hershel "Woody" Williams during a ceremony in Charleston, West Virginia. was commissioned on 7 March 2020. Deployment On 10 July 2017, Lewis B. Puller left from Naval Station Norfolk for her first operational deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet's area of operations. The ship is permanently deployed overseas; maintenance, repairs and crew swaps will take place in theater. Commissioning Lewis B. Puller was commissioned on 17 August 2017 at Khalifa bin Salman Port in Al Hidd, Bahrain, with her prefix changing from USNS to USS, becoming the first U.S.-built ship to be commissioned outside the United States. The change was required by the Law of Armed Conflict, which says that only a warship may do certain activities, such as mine-countermeasures and special operations staging. Her hull classification also changed from T-ESB-3 to ESB-3, indicating she was to be crewed by U.S. Navy sailors rather than civilian mariners. In November 2018, a detachment from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15 deployed on Lewis B. Puller for training. In March 2020, United States Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters conducted deck landing qualifications with Lewis B. Puller. While conducting this exercise, on 15 April 2020, 11 Iranian patrol vessels started circling Lewis B. Puller and surrounding US Navy and Coast Guard vessels. The boats got within of the ship and would not leave despite repeated radio warnings and noise makers. The incident lasted for an hour until the Iranian vessels pulled away. Video of the incident was posted by the US Navy. On 1 December 2022, Lewis B. Puller interdicted and boarded the stateless dhow Marwan 1 and seized weapons and ammunition suspected of being smuggled by Iran to Yemen, including over one million rounds of 7.62x54mm ammunition. The ammunition was then later sent by the United States government as aid to Ukraine. On 11 January 2024, Navy SEALs operating from Lewis B. Puller seized Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components from a ship traveling off the coast of Somalia. Two SEALs went missing in the operation, and after eleven days of unsuccessful search and rescue, followed by search and recover, they were presumed dead by the Navy. The dhow was sunk by the US military subsequent to its capture. ==Footnotes==