USS Point Defiance (LSD-31) was a of the United States Navy. She was named for Point Defiance, a location in Pierce County, Washington, the site of a military reservation established by the U.S. Government in 1866. She was the second ship assigned that name. The construction of the first ship, Point Defiance (LSD-23), was canceled on 17 August 1945. Point Defiance (LSD–31) was laid down on 23 November 1953 by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, Miss.; launched on 28 September 1954, sponsored by Mrs. Arthur D. Struble; and commissioned on 31 March 1955. Service history 1955–1962 Following shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, the new dock landing ship arrived Long Beach, California, in July 1955 and joined Amphibious Squadron 7, Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet. After two deployments to the western Pacific, Point Defiance became one of the first rocket-launching surface ships to support the 1958 International Geophysical Year Solar Eclipse Expedition to the South Pacific. Launchers on deck fired eight Nike-Asp sounding rockets to collect scientific data during the eclipse. In May 1959 Point Defiance participated in the large scale and highly successful amphibious "Operation Twin Peaks" off Oceanside, California In February 1960 Point Defiance made her third cruise to the western Pacific, participating in "Operation Blue Star", a combined amphibious operation with Chinese Nationalist Forces. In June 1960 she participated in "Operation Sea Hawk", a combined amphibious landing with Republic of Korea forces and returned to Long Beach in July. She operated off the West Coast during most of 1961, and made a brief cruise to Pearl Harbor and Okinawa. Point Defiance departed Long Beach for the western Pacific in January 1962. In May she landed Marines at Bangkok, Thailand. In October she transited the Panama Canal and steamed to the Caribbean ready to act if needed during the Cuban Quarantine. 1963–2011 In early 1963 Point Defiance carried bathyscaphe Trieste from San Diego through the Panama Canal to Boston for deep search operations into the cause of the loss of the nuclear submarine . In September Point Defiance was on her way to the western Pacific again. In October she steamed to Vietnam to safeguard U.S. interests, and in November participated in another combined amphibious operation with the Republic of China. From April to September 1964, Point Defiance operated in the eastern Pacific, then underwent overhaul. She departed for the western Pacific on 27 April 1965 and off-loaded men and