On April 12, 2019, the Navy announced that LPD 29 would be named Richard M. McCool Jr. in honor of Medal of Honor Recipient U.S. Navy Captain Richard Miles McCool Jr. The keel laying ceremony was held at Huntington Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi on April 12, 2019. McCool was delivered to the U.S. Navy April 11, 2024. The ship commissioned in Pensacola, Florida on September 7, 2024, and arrived at her homeport of Naval Station Norfolk on October 4, 2024, following a brief underway period.