USS Ozark (LSV-2)

Edit links
Coordinates: 29°55.101′N 86°34.952′W / 29.918350°N 86.582533°W / 29.918350; -86.582533
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Ozark.
USS Ozark on 16 September 1944
History
United States
NameUSS Ozark
NamesakeAn Indian tribe of the Quapaw confederacy living in Missouri and Arkansas
Orderedas Mine Layer CM-7
BuilderWillamette Iron and Steel Corp, Portland, Oregon
Laid down12 July 1941
Launched15 June 1942
Sponsored byMrs. A. J. Byrholdt
Commissioned23 September 1944
Decommissioned1 April 1974
Stricken1 April 1974
IdentificationLSV-2
Honors and
awards		Battle stars:
Presidential Unit Citation
FateSunk as a target off Destin, Florida 1981
General characteristics
Class and type
vehicle landing ship
Displacement
  • 5,875 tons (dockside)
  • 9,040 tons (fully loaded)
Length453 ft 0 in (138.07 m)
Beam60 ft 2 in (18.34 m)
Draft20 ft 0 in (6.10 m)
PropulsionFour Combustion Engineering 2-drum boilers, two General Electric geared turbines, two shafts
Speed20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Boats & landing
craft carried
  • 31 DUKWs plus LCVPs (LSV configuration)
  • 20 36 ft (11 m) MSLs (MCS configuration)
Troops868 officers and enlisted (LSV configuration)
Complement400+ officers and enlisted men
Armament
  • 2 x single
    5 in (130 mm)
    /38 dual-purpose gun mounts
  • 4 x twin
    40 mm
    guns
  • 20 x single 20 mm guns
Aircraft carriedTwo helicopters (MCS configuration)

USS Ozark (LSV–2/CM-7/AP-107/MCS-2) was a Catskill-class vehicle landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for the native American Ozark tribe of the Quapaw confederacy, she was the third U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.

Constructed in Oregon

Originally laid down as CM–7 by the Willamette Iron and Steel Corporation of

launched on 15 June 1942; sponsored by Mrs. A. J. Byrholdt. Ozark, a $12,500,000 vessel, and her sister Catskill, were the largest naval vessels constructed in the Columbia River area to that time.[1] The ship was redesignated AP–107 on 1 May 1943 and again redesignated LSV–2 on 21 April 1944. The vessel was commissioned
on 23 September 1944.

Although in the midst of fighting WWII, it appears the ship never was actually completed and delivered to the USN and remained at her builder's yard during the period from her launch until her 1944 commissioning as an LSV.

World War II service

Philippine operations

Following

Task Group
79.1.

On 9 January, S-Day for the Lingayen invasion, Ozark supplied 15 DUKWs carrying two battalions of supporting artillery, which were landed before noon.[2]

Iwo Jima operations

Subsequent to that successful operation, she steamed for the

Marianas where she joined Transport Squadron 15 at Saipan for the invasion of Iwo Jima
. She landed three waves of troops there 19 February 1945 and continued logistic support to the beach until 27 February.

Supporting Okinawa operations

After transporting wounded

Okinawa
. She landed her troops and equipment on Okinawa 1 April and again remained to lend logistic support to beach operations until departing 10 April for Guam.

End-of-war operations

With the

Pacific near, Ozark was chosen to transport select occupational units to Japan. In an operation that took two days working around the clock, 911 officers and men were transferred to her at sea by breeches buoy from 9 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 2 cruisers, and 6 destroyers
.

Ozark entered

Barrow, Alaska 31 January 1946 where she was placed in upkeep status. She commenced pre-inactivation overhaul in Orange, Texas
14 March and decommissioned 29 June.

Operating as MCS-2

Ozark's hull classification was changed 7 February 1955 from LSV–2 to MCS–2. Struck from the

Maritime Administration and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and berthed at Beaumont, Texas
.

USS Ozark at sea on 31 August 1966

She was reacquired by the Navy 19 June 1963 for conversion to a mine countermeasures support ship under project SCB 123 by the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation and reinstated on the Naval Register 1 October 1963. Recommissioned USS Ozark (MCS-2) on 24 June 1966 (complete with the ship's bell from the second Ozark (BM-7)) she was assigned to MinRon 8, homeported in Charleston, South Carolina where she became flagship for Commander, Mine Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

After shakedown and intensive training at

countermeasures
training in the Charleston area early in 1967.

USS Ozark as a target ship, aground near Perdido Key in 1979

After a cruise to several western

Mediterranean 18 November 1968. Returning to Charleston 14 February 1969 she began material maintenance and upkeep followed by periodic deployment to the West Indies and the South Atlantic Ocean. Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 1 April 1974, she was towed to a location south of Destin, Florida and anchored there while being used as a target by the Air Force from Eglin Air Force Base. Ozark was hit multiple times with large practice (non-explosive) bombs but was not sunk. In September 1979, Ozark was ripped loose from her anchorage by Hurricane Frederic and driven onto the beach near Perdido Key, Florida. Naval units from Norfolk, Virginia, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Hawthorne, Nevada
, participated in a salvage effort that began in October 1979.

Sinking

This photo shows Ozark listing at 16 degrees to starboard 12 hours before she sank.
F-4 Phantom II from Eglin Air Force Base in 1981. The missile's warhead entered on her starboard side approximately 13 feet (4.0 m) above the waterline, went through two decks, and exploded above the hull, leaving a hole approximately 3 feet (0.91 m) in diameter in her hull. The hole in the bottom of the ship was not noticed until the next day when U.S. Air Force personnel and Hughes Missile Systems Company engineers entered the ship for damage assessment. By this time, she was listing 16 degrees and all personnel were ordered off the ship. The wreck currently lies upright and intact in the Gulf of Mexico in approximately 330 feet (100 m) of water, 28 to 30 miles (45 to 48 km) due south of Destin at 29°55.101′N 86°34.952′W / 29.918350°N 86.582533°W / 29.918350; -86.582533.[3]

Honors and awards

Ozark earned three

Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation Badge for service in World War II
.

Citations

  1. ^ Wire service, "Cruiser-Minelayer Launched in Oregon", San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 17 June 1942, Volume 48, page 3.
  2. ^ Morison, Samuel Eliot, "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII: The Liberation of the Philippines - Luzon, Mindanao, the Visayas 1944-1945", Little Brown and Company, Boston, 1959, 1989, Library of Congress card number 47-1571, page 127.
  3. ^ Allen, Tony (1 February 2015). "Shipwrecks of Florida". Electric Blue Fishing. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Ozark_(LSV-2)&oldid=1208414329"