A new amphibious landing dock ship will be commissioned the USS Green Bay (LPD 20) in Long Beach on January 24. She will become the second San Antonio class ship to be home ported in San Diego. These ships, along with their aircraft and landing craft, are designed to deliver a fully-equipped battalion of 699 Marines. Like most of the ships from San Diego, the Green Bay can be expected to eventually show up at the Naval Weapons Station, Seal Beach to load and off load ammunition and other supplies.

The ship is scheduled to arrive in Long Beach on January 20, with the formal commissioning on Saturday, January 24 at 10:00 am. Over 5,000 invited guests are expected for the event. It's too late to request tickets for the official ceremony, but it should be possible to catch a good view of the ship from on shore.

In a typical Navy commissioning ceremony, the ship's sponsor will break a bottle of champagne across the ship's bow and give the time honored command "Man our ship and bring her to life." At that point, the entire crew will run up the ramp and bring it to life. The commissioning ceremony marks the official naming of the ship. Prior to the commissioning, the ship is referred to as PCU Green Bay. This stands for pre-commissioning unit and is replaced with USS Green Bay only after the official ceremony. This will be the first US Navy commissioning in Long Beach since Naval Station Long beach closed in 1994.

Once commissioning is complete, the ship will conduct sea trials and test its weapons and other on board systems. These tests will include firing the ship's missiles and 30 mm machine guns. The two Mk44 Bushmaster II machine guns are for the ship's defense from surface threats and can fire up to 250 30 mm rounds per minute and are effective up to 2,200 yards. The Green Bay also carries two rolling airframe missile launchers for defense against anti-ship cruse missiles.

The Green Bay, at 684 feet in length, is considerably larger than the 509 feet long destroyers we typically see at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. The Green Bay displaces more than 2.5 times as much as the destroyers and is much wider as well.