25-04-2025
WAVY Navy Ship Salute: USS Arlington
WAVY's Navy Ship Salute is a feature on WAVY News 10 Today. Each month, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, WAVY-TV 10 will profile a different ship based at the world's largest Navy base: Naval Station Norfolk. The series aims to better introduce our viewers to some of the largest floating taxpayer assets there are, as well as life aboard a U.S. Navy ship.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — USS Arlington (LPD-24) is an amphibious transport dock commissioned in 2013. She returned to the piers after about 18 months in the shipyard. Now her crew is undergoing training for whatever comes next.
The crew welcomed us from the pier with help from Arly the Eagle, the ship mascot.
'So Arlington's an amphibious warfare ship,' Capt. Ian Scaliatine said. 'We're designed to carry Marines and put them ashore in really bad places to do great things for the United States. And we're just currently going through that training right now.'
She is named after Arlington County, commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks at the Pentagon. Inside their ship museum, steel from the site of the attack is on display. Nearby, they have the U.S. flag flown during the mission to take out Osama Bin Laden. Beneath it sits a large card signed by the family members and first responders who were there that day. They got to ride this ship with her crew last week.
'It was beyond humbling because they would keep coming up and thanking us for our service, but yet we looked to them for inspiration,' Scaliatine said.
Below deck, they showcased the complex process of starting the ship. This is not your average car ignition. They also demonstrated one of their baton exercises, used to defend the ship from attackers. You can watch both in our video coverage.
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