{| {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United States |Ship flag= |Ship name=USS Butte |Ship namesake=Butte, Montana |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered=30 March 1965 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=21 July 1966 |Ship launched=9 August 1967 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned=14 December 1968 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned=3 June 1996 |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=Transferred to the MSC |Ship out of service=24 May 2004 |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck=24 May 2004 |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport=*Norfolk, Virginia (original) Naval Weapons Station Earle (last) |Ship identification= |Ship motto="We keep the guns loaded" |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sunk as a target 3 July 2006 |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} |} The second USS Butte (AE-27) was a in the United States Navy. She was laid down 21 July 1966 by General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division at Quincy, Massachusetts, and was christened and launched 9 August 1967. She was commissioned on 14 December 1968 in the Boston Naval Shipyard and assigned to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, originally homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. Service history During the crisis in Jordan in 1970, Butte was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation for her peacekeeping role in that operation. From December 1972 to July 1973 she operated in the Tonkin Gulf and was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal with one battle star. Shortly after getting underway from Norfolk on 3 September 1974, Butte suffered a major fire in the main switchboard, disrupting all ship support electrical supply. She was towed back to the naval base for repairs which included replacing the switchboard. In July 1978, Buttes homeport was temporarily shifted to Brooklyn, New York, where she underwent a major overhaul. In June 1979, her homeport then became Naval Weapons Station Earle, New Jersey. Butte was awarded the Navy Expeditionary Medal for a 1981 Indian Ocean deployment which also took her to the Mediterranean. A 1983 deployment took Butte to the shores of Beirut, Lebanon, where she was awarded the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for her support of U.S. Embassies overseas, including those in Beirut, Lebanon, and Tunis, Tunisia. During a 1984-85 Mediterranean deployment, she was rated as best ship in Service Squadron Two and, in May 1985, was awarded the Battle Efficiency "E" in Engineering, Damage Control, Command Control and Communications,