USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) is the lead ship of the two Blue Ridge–class command ships of the United States Navy, and is the command ship of the United States Seventh Fleet. Her primary role is to provide command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) support to the commander and staff of the United States Seventh Fleet. She is currently forward-deployed to U.S. Navy Fleet Activities, Yokosuka in Japan, and is the third Navy ship named after the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range of mountains in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. Blue Ridge is the oldest deployable warship of the U.S. Navy, following the decommissioning of USS Denver (LPD-9) in Pearl Harbor on 14 August 2014.
USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) was put "in commission special" on 14 November 1970, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as an Amphibious Command and Control (LCC) ship, with Captain Kent J. Carroll (Vice Admiral Carroll, Ret.) as the Commanding Officer. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Gretchen Byrd, wife of the U. S. Senator from Virginia, Harry F. Byrd, Jr.. The principal speaker at the ceremony was the Honorable John W. Warner, Under Secretary of the Navy and later Senator from Virginia.