USS Fresno was the 4th ship in the Newport class tank landing ships. Fresno was named for a city and county in California. She was laid down on 16 December 1967 at San Diego, California, by the National Steel & Shipbuilding Company; launched on 28 September 1968; sponsored by Mrs. Marilyn Hyde (wife of the mayor of Fresno); and commissioned on 22 November 1969 with Commander Stanislaus J. Sowinski in command.
Assigned to the Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet, and homeported at San Diego, California, Fresno alternated amphibious training operations along the west coast of the United States with regular, extended deployments to the western Pacific. She continued this regimen into 1990. Fresno saw extensive service during the latter stages of the Vietnam War. Fresno was decommissioned in 1993 and berthed at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In 2009, along with Racine, Fresno was reported to be sold to the Peruvian Navy. However, this Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case was never executed and the ship remained under the control of the U.S. Navy following its decommissioning.