It is part of the United States Seventh Fleet and the USN's only permanently forward-deployed expeditionary strike group.
It is based at the White Beach Naval Facility at the end of the Katsuren Peninsula in Uruma City, Okinawa, Japan.
1971 – Homeported to Okinawa, Japan 1975 – Rescued more than 100,000 people from Phnom Penh and Saigon (including in Operation Eagle Pull).
Also assisted in recovery of the American-flagged SS Mayaguez after it was hijacked by the Cambodian Khmer Rouge in the Gulf of Thailand.
1999 – Belleau Wood Amphibious Ready Group completed no-notice five-month deployment to Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Fox.
2006 – USS Patriot and embarked Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 5 Detachment (Det) 51 complete Summer Patrol throughout Southeast Asia, participating in Cobra Gold and WP-MCMEX in Malaysia, while making port visits to Brunei, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Task Force 76 units also participated in Operation Sea Angel II, a disaster response mission in the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
2011 – USS Tortuga (LSD-46) assisted in flood relief efforts in Thailand along with elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.