USS Nereus (AS-17)
USS Nereus in 1945
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Nereus (AS-17) |
Namesake | Nereus |
Builder | Mare Island Navy Yard |
Laid down | 12 October 1943 |
Launched | 12 February 1945 |
Commissioned | 27 October 1945 |
Decommissioned | 27 October 1971 |
Fate | Scrapped, 2012 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Fulton-class submarine tender |
Displacement |
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Length | 529 ft 6 in (161.39 m) |
Beam | 73 ft 4 in (22.35 m) |
Draft | 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) |
Speed | 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
Complement | 1,217 |
Armament |
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USS Nereus (AS-17) was a Fulton-class submarine tender in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1971. She was scrapped in 2012.
History
According to
1945–1960
After shakedown in the fall of 1945, the new
After leaving Sasebo, she then proceeded to Subic Bay with stops in Nagasaki and Manila. At Subic, the crew loaded torpedoes for transport back to the US.
Soon underway for home, she arrived in
Following along the International Date Line, the ships of Operation Blue Nose sighted pack ice on the morning of 1 August 1947. After reaching 72’15’ north latitude, the ships continued independently along the ice pack to determine its shape.
Before returning to her home port of San Diego, Nereus visited
Starting in 1948 Nereus was primarily engaged in submarine repair and services at San Diego. On 24 April, Vice Admiral George D. Murray, Task Fleet commander, using Nereus as his flagship, announced six days of combat training exercises to take place the following week between San Diego and San Pedro. He expected to hoist his flag aboard cruiser Saint Paul for the exercises, involving 20,000 men, 30 ships and hundreds of planes. “The fleet will concentrate on testing new weapons and techniques, Murray said.”[1]
During the next two decades, Nereus made occasional cruises to Pearl Harbor; to Acapulco, Mexico; and various west coast ports. In 1948 she was camera-ship photographing the sinking of cruiser Salt Lake City (CA-25) some 130 miles off the west coast. In the spring of 1955, she accompanied submarines Tunny (SSG-282), Carbonero (SS-337) and Cusk (SS-348) to Pearl Harbor and acted as observer ship and advance base headquarters during the first firing of operational missiles from submarines.
1960–1971
In November 1960
Nereus entered the U.S. Naval Shipyard at Mare Island on 1 November for overhaul until 7 April 1967. Following refresher training she reported to ComSubFlot 1 for duty on 11 May. That month she visited Acapulco, Mexico, and became flagship for ComSubFlot 1 and ComSubRon 5. In the fall of 1967, UNIVAC 1500 data processing equipment was installed to speed the tender operations. Into 1970 the tender served the submarines of the Pacific Fleet keeping them at peak readiness.
Nereus was later decommissioned in 1971,[2] and, as of July 2012, it was to leave the Maritime Administration’s Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay to be broken apart at ESCO Marine Inc. in Brownsville, Texas (USA), after being scrubbed of marine growth & loose exterior paint in the dry docks of Allied Defense Recycling (California Dry Dock Solutions) at Mare Island.[3]
Awards
- Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
- World War II Victory Medal
- Navy Occupation Medal
- National Defense Service Medal with star
References
- ^ Associated Press, “Air, Sea Attack On South Coast,” The San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, San Bernardino, California, Sunday 25 April 1948, Volume 1, Number 54, page 5.
- ^ USS Nereus (AS 17)
- ^ "Beniciaherald.me".
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.