Tippecanoe, the thirteenth ship of the Henry J. Kaiser class, was laid down at Avondale Shipyard, Inc., at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 19 November 1990 and launched on 16 May 1992. She entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service under the control of the MSC with a primarily civilian crew on 8 February 1993.[citation needed] Tippecanoe was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce from 16 to 24 October 1999. In January 2005, Tippecanoe was part of the American relief effort in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004.[citation needed]