USS Essex

USS Essex (LHD-2) is a United States Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ship built at what is now Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and commissioned on 17 October 1992. It is the fifth ship named for Essex County, Massachusetts. Essex served as the command ship for Expeditionary Strike Group Seven until replaced by USS Bonhomme Richard on 23 April 2012. On November 30, 2015, USS Essex and the Essex Amphibious Ready Group, embarked with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit entered the United States Third Fleet Area of operations (AOO), returning from a deployment that spread across the 5th, 6th and 7th AOO's.