USS Emory S. Land AS 39 – History of the U.S. Navy's Submarine Tender & Navy Decals

USS Emory S. Land AS 39 – History, Service Record & Navy Decals

The USS Emory S. Land (AS-39) was the lead ship of the Emory S. Land class of submarine tenders, the most capable and modern submarine tenders ever built for the United States Navy, designed to support the most advanced nuclear attack and ballistic missile submarines of the late Cold War era. Named for Vice Admiral Emory Scott Land, USN — one of the most consequential figures in American naval and maritime history, a man whose contributions to American sea power during World War II were of incalculable strategic importance.

Emory S. Land was a Naval Academy graduate, a naval architect of exceptional ability, and a longtime member of the Navy's General Board before being appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as chairman of the United States Maritime Commission in 1937. When World War II began, Land was appointed administrator of the War Shipping Administration, giving him responsibility for the entire American merchant marine and its wartime shipbuilding program. Under his leadership, the Maritime Commission oversaw the construction of the Liberty ship program — the standardized, mass-produced cargo ships that became the logistical backbone of Allied strategy in World War II. Thousands of Liberty ships were built at an astonishing pace using revolutionary assembly-line techniques pioneered at Henry Kaiser's shipyards — and their ability to deliver men, weapons, ammunition, food, and fuel to every theater of the war faster than German U-boats could sink them was one of the decisive factors in Allied victory. Emory S. Land was the driving force behind that program, earning the nickname “Sea-Going Land” and the enduring recognition as one of the architects of Allied victory at sea. USS Emory S. Land honored that legacy of naval leadership, maritime vision, and logistical mastery throughout her distinguished career.

Keel, Launch & Commissioning

Emory S. Land's keel was laid down on February 1, 1977, at the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company in Seattle, Washington. She was launched on May 4, 1978, and commissioned into the U.S. Navy on July 7, 1979, as the lead ship of the Emory S. Land class under hull designation AS-39.

Class & Design

USS Emory S. Land was the name ship of the most advanced class of submarine tenders ever built for the U.S. Navy — designed to provide comprehensive support to both nuclear fast attack submarines (SSN) and fleet ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), combining and surpassing the specialized capabilities of both the Hunley-class SSBN tenders and the L. Y. Spear-class fast attack tenders into a single, more capable hull.

At approximately 644 feet in length and displacing approximately 23,000 tons fully loaded, she was equipped with the most comprehensive submarine support facilities ever installed in a tender — nuclear propulsion system maintenance shops, advanced weapons handling facilities for both torpedoes and missiles, sophisticated electronics and sonar repair capabilities, computer systems support, and every other technical facility required to fully support the Navy's most advanced submarines, including the Los Angeles-class (SSN-688) fast attack submarines and Ohio-class (SSBN-726) Trident ballistic missile submarines.

Cold War Service

Commissioned in July 1979 — at the height of the late Cold War, as the Reagan administration was beginning the naval buildup that would challenge Soviet sea power across all the world's oceans — USS Emory S. Land was assigned to provide tender support to the Atlantic Fleet's submarine force. Homeported at La Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy, she provided comprehensive basing, maintenance, and support services to Atlantic Fleet nuclear submarines operating in the Mediterranean — one of the most strategically important theaters in the Cold War and the area of operations of the Sixth Fleet's submarine contingent.

La Maddalena was one of the Navy's most critical forward submarine operating bases, providing access to the central Mediterranean and supporting both fast attack submarine intelligence and ASW operations and strategic deterrence in the Mediterranean theater. USS Emory S. Land was the logistical anchor of that forward presence — the tender that kept American submarines in the Mediterranean operational, ready, and capable through the Cold War's final decade.

Later in her career, Emory S. Land was reassigned to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, extending American submarine tender forward presence into one of the most strategically important bodies of water in the world — supporting submarine operations in the Indian Ocean theater and providing the maintenance and logistical foundation for sustained American naval presence across a vast and critical strategic region.

Post-Cold War Service

Following the Cold War's end, USS Emory S. Land continued to provide forward-deployed submarine tender support, adapting to the post-Cold War strategic environment and continuing to sustain American submarine forward presence across her operating areas through the 1990s and into the 21st century.

Legacy

For the sailors and nuclear-trained submarine specialists who served aboard Emory S. Land — the nuclear propulsion technicians, weapons handling specialists, electronics repair professionals, and submarine maintenance experts who kept Atlantic Fleet and forward-deployed submarines battle-ready through decades of Cold War and post-Cold War service — she represents a career at the very forefront of American undersea warfare capability. Named for the man who built the Liberty ships that sustained Allied victory in World War II, USS Emory S. Land sustained the submarines that won the Cold War's undersea competition — a fitting tribute to the admiral whose life was devoted to keeping America's sea power ready, capable, and victorious.

Shop USS Emory S. Land AS 39 Navy Gifts & Decals

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