Upon commissioning,
Taconic began a long tour of duty with the
Atlantic Fleet. She served alternately as
flagship of the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force and of Amphibious Groups 2 and 4. Between June 1946 and June 1949, she participated in CAMID I, II, and III,
amphibious warfare exercises conducted in the
Chesapeake Bay area and encompassing joint training for
United States Military Academy cadets and
United States Naval Academy midshipmen. Each spring, the amphibious force flagship joined the
Atlantic Fleet maneuvers carried out in the
Caribbean area. In June 1949, following a yard overhaul at
Norfolk, Virginia, she took part in Operation "Diaper," the transportation of Navy men and their dependents from the
Canal Zone to Norfolk.
Taconic remained in active service for 20 more years. During that entire period of time, she retained Norfolk as her home port. In 1951
Taconic was featured as the command ship in the
Richard Widmark film,
The Frogmen. In February–March 1953, she sailed from
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina to
Vieques, Puerto Rico;
Caracas,
Venezuela; and
Trinidad before returning to Camp Lejeune. She participated in numerous exercises both with the
Second and
Sixth fleets, and with units of
North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations. The amphibious force flagship was deployed to the
Mediterranean Sea on eight occasions in those two decades; and, in the summer of 1958 she served as flagship of the Commander, Middle East Force, during the
Lebanon Crisis. In November 1959, she served as communication and support ship to President
Dwight D. Eisenhower during the
Pakistan-
Afghanistan-
India leg of his visit to a number of European and Asian countries. When not deployed with the Sixth Fleet, she operated with the Second Fleet in the western Atlantic and in the Caribbean. The bulk of those operations consisted of exercises; but, on one occasion in March 1957, she carried President Eisenhower's limousines to
Bermuda for his meeting with British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan. In January 1963,
Taconic patrolled the
Haitian coast during political unrest in that country. She returned to the Caribbean area for special duty again in May and June 1965 during similar troubles in the
Dominican Republic. In January 1969, at the beginning of her last year of service,
Taconic was redesignated LCC-17. After 12 months of operations and preparations for decommissioning, the amphibious force
flagship was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 17 December 1969 at Norfolk, Virginia. She was berthed with the
National Defense Reserve Fleet on the James River, Virginia. She was stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1976 and was sold for scrap to the Banty Corp on 6 April 1982. ==References==