USS Seattle (AOE-3)
History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Seattle |
Namesake | Seattle, Washington |
Laid down | 1 October 1965 |
Launched | 1 March 1968 |
Commissioned | 5 April 1969 |
Decommissioned | 15 March 2005 |
Stricken | 15 March 2005 |
Motto | "Beans, Bullets & Oil" |
Fate | Scrapped at ESCO Marine, Brownsville, TX. Scrapping complete 26 January 2007 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Sacramento-class fast combat support ship |
Displacement |
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Length | 796 ft (243 m) |
Beam | 107 ft (33 m) |
Draft | 38 ft (12 m) |
Propulsion | 2 × steam turbines, 2 × shafts, 100,000 shp (75 MW) |
Speed | 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)+ |
Capacity |
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Complement | 34 officers and 602 enlisted |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 2 × CH-46A/D Sea Knight helicopters |
The second USS Seattle (AOE-3), a
After fitting out, Seattle departed Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 24 September 1969, en route to Norfolk. Seattle visited Long Beach, San Diego, Acapulco, the Panama Canal, and New Orleans, arriving at Norfolk, her designated home port, on 22 November.
1970
Seattle left home port on 2 January 1970, for Guantanamo Bay and shakedown training. On 13 January, Seattle took attack carrier, America, alongside for refueling. She departed again on 19 January for more exercises and a visit to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before returning to Guantanamo on 26 January.
Following additional exercises and battle problems, Seattle steamed for Mayport, Florida, and thence proceeded to Norfolk, arriving on 12 February.
On 26 February, Seattle was struck by a yard tug, puncturing a tank, and spilling black oil for almost two hours. The oil was quickly skimmed off the water, and no adverse reaction resulted from the mishap.
Seattle departed Norfolk on 27 August for her first overseas deployment. She entered her first European port,
Seattle continued her support of Saratoga in the eastern Mediterranean until 20 October, when she arrived in Athens, Greece.
Leaving Athens on 29 October, Seattle replenished ships until 9 November, when she pulled into Augusta, Sicily, for another one-day fuel lift. She then proceeded to
Seattle departed Taranto on 16 November and continued replenishment of 6th Fleet ships. She spent from 25 November to 1 December in Naples. From 8 to 14 December, she was anchored in Barcelona, Spain; and ended the year at Villefranche, France.
1971
Seattle got underway on 6 January 1971, for operations in the vicinity of southeast Sicily. On 17 January, she anchored in Naples, remaining there until 22 January. She operated in the Ionian Sea, the Algiers-Provencal Basin, and off Barcelona until 20 February, when she got underway for operations en route to Norfolk, arriving on 1 March.
On 10 August, Seattle departed for
On 1 December, Seattle steamed out of
1972–73
Seattle spent the remainder of 1972 at Norfolk and the first six months of 1973 in operations from that port. In June, she began another voyage to the "middle sea." This tour of duty lasted until December, with Seattle arriving in Norfolk on 1 December. Missing is the history 1973 of the USS Seattle AOE-3 in helping resupply the Aircraft Carriers used to resupply the aircraft being flown to Israel. "Stepping Stones" The AOE-3 would steam at a high speed of 27 knots to resupply the US Navy Carrier Groups in the Western Mediterranean Sea, the middle, and Eastern groups. Frequently the Russians would get in the way requiring us to change course, however, one day, the Russian was in the way and he had to move quickly seeing the black smoke coming from our stack. After refueling and rearming the 3 different groups, we would sail to Augusta Bay, Sicily and be refuelled by one of the old slow US Navy Tankers and the 27 knots to the West, Central and East to resupply the Carriers again. We repeated this round-robin refuel and rearm for several hours as the planes flying in from Lajes could not make it all the way to Israel. "Stepping Stones" During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Washington used the Lajes airbase as a stepping stone in mounting an arms airlift to Israel. Lisbon then was hit by the Arab oil embargo.
1990-1999
On the first 48 hrs. after the assault on
Last years
Seattle accompanied the John F. Kennedy carrier battle group on deployment to the Persian Gulf in June 2004. On 12 August 2004, Seattle rescued twelve crew of the Indonesian flagged cargo ship Edha II – delivering the survivors to Umm Qasr Port, Iraq. On 14 December 2004, she returned to Norfolk.
Seattle decommissioned on 15 March 2005.
As of March 2013 the captain's gig of Seattle resides at Nauticus in Norfolk, VA on display at the pier's end.
External links
- Naval Vessel Register entry for Seattle
- combatindex.com: USS Seattle
- united-states-navy.com: USS Seattle
- navsource.org: USS Seattle
- USS Seattle Veteran's Association
- Navy.mil article 2004 Rescue at Sea
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.