USS Lassen makes Mayport her new home

Another boost for Naval Station Mayport.

The USS Lassen (DDG 82) will arrive in Jacksonville Monday, formally making Mayport her new home. The USS Lassen and her more than 300 Sailors have spent the past ten years on forward deployment in Japan.

“The Lassen crew, they’re tried and tested,” says Naval Station Mayport Public Affairs Officer Bill Austin.

The ship left Japan in January and served a final patrol with the US 7^th Fleet. Once in Mayport, she will upgrade combat systems as part of a greater modernization.

When considering the recent addition of three ship part of an Amphibious Ready Group- the USS New York, USS Iwo Jima, and USS Fort McHenry- as well as the pending addition of new Littoral Combat Ships, Austin says bringing the USS Lassen to Jacksonville shows the base continues to grow.

“Good news for Mayport, the Mayport family, and the Jacksonville community, so we’re very excited about it,” he says.

The USS Lassen is named for Florida native Lieutenant Clyde Everett Lassen, who earned the Medal of Honor for rescuing two downed aviators in Vietnam.