SS ''Twin Falls Victory'', named after

Twin Falls, Idaho Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The city had a population of 51,807 as of the 2020 census. In the Magic Valley region, Twin Falls is the largest city in a radius, and is the regiona ...

, was a

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were sli ...

built for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Converted to a

Missile Range Instrumentation Ship A tracking ship, also called a missile range instrumentation ship or range ship, is a ship equipped with antennas and electronics to support the launching and tracking of missiles and rockets. Since many missile ranges launch over ocean areas for ...

, she was initially operated by the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

as USAF ''Twin Falls Victory'', before coming under

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

control and being named USNS ''Twin Falls'' (T-AGM-11/T-AGS-37). She later had a third career as the

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...

SS ''John W. Brown II''.

History

''Twin Falls Victory'' was laid down under a

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

contract (MCV hull 167) on 27 December 1944 at

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, by the

Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation was a World War II emergency shipyard located along the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon, United States. The shipyard built nearly 600 Liberty and Victory ships between 1941 and 1945 under the Emergency Ship ...

; launched on 6 February 1945; sponsored by Mrs. J. B. Pfietor. The ship was delivered on completion 4 April 1945 to the

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime C ...

(WSA) for operation by McCormick Steamship Company under a general agency agreement. On 24 June 1946 the Isthmian Steamship began operating the ship under a bareboat charter that continued under the

(MC), successor to WSA, until brief operation by General Steamship Corporation between 8 November and layup in the

Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay (the northern portion of the greater San Francisco Bay estuary) in Benicia, California. The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about long and wide. It ...

on 18 November 1948. The ship was briefly activated, operated by various companies under agreements and bareboat charters, placed in reserve fleets at Mobile, Alabama and in the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

. From 1950–1953, ''Twin Falls Victory'' was operated by States Marine Corporation. Between 1953 and 1958 American Export Lines operated the ship.

Korean War

During the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

she participated in the Inchon Landings and

Hungnam Evacuation The Hungnam evacuation' (), also known as the Miracle of Christmas, was the evacuation of United Nations (UN) forces and North Korean civilians from the port of Hungnam, North Korea, between 15 and 24 December 1950 during the Korean War. As part ...

, making her merchant marine crew eligible for the

Korean Service Medal The Korean Service Medal (KSM) is a military award for service in the United States Armed Forces and was established November 8, 1950 by executive order of President Harry Truman. The Korean Service Medal is the primary US military award for s ...

and the

United Nations Service Medal The United Nations Service Medal for Korea (UNKM) is an international military decoration established by the United Nations on December 12, 1950 as the United Nations Service Medal. The decoration was the first international award ever created by t ...

. On 25 February 1958 the ship was laid up with the

National Defense Reserve Fleet The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of ships of the United States of America, mostly merchant vessels, that have been "mothballed" but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during national military emergencies ...

at its berthing area on the James River in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Missile range instrumentation ship

''Twin Falls Victory'', then in the James River reserve fleet, was permanently transferred from the MC to the United States Air Force on 24 March 1960. She was converted in Mobile, Alabama and instrumented to be a missile range instrumentation ship supporting the U.S. Army's

Pershing Missile The MGM-31A Pershing was the missile used in the Pershing 1 and Pershing 1a field artillery missile systems. It was a solid-fueled two-stage theater ballistic missile designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the PGM-11 Redstone missile as ...

Project and served as part of the

Eastern Test Range The Eastern Range (ER) is an American rocket range ( Spaceport) that supports missile and rocket launches from the two major launch heads located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. The range h ...

. The ship was modified by equipping it with special navigation systems, AN/FPS-16 monopulse missile tracking radar, telemetry receiving equipment, AN/SPN-8 splash detection radar, AN/GMD-1A Rawinsonde tracking equipment and a balloon hangar, to house a Kytoon tethered blimp and as a weather balloon inflation shelter. The ship eventually was delivered to the

Atlantic Missile Range The Eastern Range (ER) is an American rocket range (Spaceport) that supports missile and rocket launches from the two major launch heads located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida. The range ha ...

and operated by merchant marine crewmen and contractor technical staff. Pan American World Airways and its subcontractor RCA MTP operated the radar, telemetry, navigation and weather instrumentation aboard the ship. The ship was operated under the name USAF Twin Falls Victory until turned over to MSTS on 1 July 1964 at which time the ship was redesignated T-AGM-11 ''Twin Falls'' and continued to serve as a mobile tracking platform for recording data on

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...

s and

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

s that were out of range of land-based

tracking station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fro ...

s. On 15 May 1963, she was positioned approximately 350 miles (560 km) ESE of

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

(near ) as part of

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

, to track

Gordon Cooper Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human spa ...

's extended MA-9 mission. In August 1964 the USNS Twin Falls sailed from Port Canaveral, FL. After a short stop at Ascension Island the Twin Falls sailed to Cape Town, South Africa, en route to the Indian Ocean to track a scheduled missile launch Plans were in place to resupply in Perth, Australia, but due to missile launch schedule changes, she sailed to Port Louis, Mauritius instead. After leaving Mauritius, the Twin Falls sailed to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, arriving there in Dec 1964. In early Jan 1965 the ship was again anchored at Ascension Island. Her next port-of-call was Trinidad and the next 6 months were spent in the Caribbean Sea area with Trinidad as her home port. In October 1969, the Air Force determined that ''Twin Falls'' was no longer necessary to its mission. Placed in custody of the

Maritime Administration Maritime administrations, or flag state administrations, are the executive arms/state bodies of each government responsible for carrying out the shipping responsibilities of the state, and are tasked to administer national shipping and boating issue ...

(MARAD) on 22 May 1970, she was slated for disposal. On 26 April 1971, the Navy recalled her for "possible use as a survey ship". Presumably this was when she was redesignated T-AGS-37. On 2 November 1972 the ship was transferred on loan to the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and she was struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

on 6 November 1972.

Training ship

On 30 November 1972 the ship was transferred to the New York City Board of Education. Renamed SS ''John W. Brown II'', she served as a training facility for that city's Food and Maritime Trade High School. She was returned to MARAD on 8 June 1982.

Fate

''Twin Falls'' was withdrawn from MARAD on 30 June 1982 by Union Minerals & Alloys Corporation. She was scrapped in 1983. He
builders plate
is on loan from MARAD to Twin Falls County, Idaho, and is on display in the Twin Falls County Courthouse.

External links

NavSource Photos of ''Twin Falls''

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Twin Falls Victory Ships built in Portland, Oregon World War II merchant ships of the United States Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States Ships of the United States Air Force 1945 ships Missile range instrumentation ships of the United States Navy Maritime vessels related to spaceflight