USS Tortuga (LSD 46) arrived on March 31 after completing an 11,000-mile voyage across two oceans and transiting the Panama Canal for a scheduled hull swap with USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43). Tortuga is the sixth Whidbey Island-class ship and will join Commander, Task Force (CTF) 76, serving as an integral part of the Navy’s Forward Deployed Expeditionary Strike Group (FD-ESG) and Forward Deployed Amphibious Ready Group (ARG). “We are very excited to be here in Sasebo. For many of us, this is our first time in Japan,” said Cmdr. Mark H. Scovill, Tortuga’s commanding officer. Hull swap, or ship rotation, is part of the Navy’s long-range plan to routinely replace older ships assigned to the Navy’s Forward Deployed Naval Force (FDNF) with newer or more capable ships.
