USS ''Wahkiakum County'' (LST-1162), previously USS ''LST-1162'', was a

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landing ship tank A Landing Ship, Tank (LST) is a ship first developed during World War II (1939–1945) to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto a low-slope beach with no docks or piers. The shallow d ...

(LST) in commission from 1953 to 1970, and which then saw non-commissioned Military Sealift Command service as USNS ''Wahkiakum County'' (T-LST-1162) from 1972 to 1973.

Construction and commissioning

''Wahkiakum County'' was laid down as USS ''LST-1162'' on 21 July 1952 at

Pascagoula The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an indigenous group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River. The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Choctaw term meaning "bread eater". Choctaw native Am ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation. She was launched on 23 January 1953, sponsored by Mrs. Wilbur G. Dees, and commissioned on 13 August 1953.

Atlantic and Caribbean operations, 1953-1960

Following shakedown in Guantanamo Bay,

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, ''LST-1162'' operated out of the

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Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations ...

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, for the remainder of 1953, conducting local operations out of Little Creek and off the coast of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. In 1954, ''LST-1162'' participated in Atlantic Fleet amphibious maneuvers "NprAmEx" and "LantFlex" and conducted operations with the Operational Development Force out of

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, Florida, testing

antisubmarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations a ...

gear. Later during 1954, ''LST-1162'' visited

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.naval reservists. During March 1955, ''LST-1162'' operated off Bloodsworth Island, conducting gunfire tests and serving as range safety vessel at the Navy's gunnery practice areas there. On 1 July 1955, USS ''LST-1162'' was named USS ''Wahkiakum County'' (LST-1162). For the next five years, ''Wahkiakum County'' pursued a regular schedule of operations off the

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and into the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and

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. She was deployed in the Mediterranean Sea in 1958 and 1959, both from January through June. Operating with the Atlantic Fleet's amphibious force, she served alternatively as a

helicopter carrier A helicopter carrier is a type of aircraft carrier whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters. It has a large flight deck that occupies a substantial part of the deck, which can extend the full length of the ship like of the Royal Navy (RN ...

-— a harbinger of the roles which other ships of her type would perform during the

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; a shore bombardment safety vessel; an afloat gunnery training ship; and a

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

for Navy construction battalions (CB's or "

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") and their equipment.

Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean operations, 1960-1965

At the end of this period, she deployed to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

and operated with the 6th Fleet from May to December 1960. She carried cargo and troops and participated in amphibious exercises with naval units of

North Atlantic Treaty Organization The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermat ...

(NATO) countries in the Mediterranean. ''Wahkiakum County'' underwent a major

overhaul Overhaul may refer to: * The process of overhauling, see ** Maintenance, repair, and overhaul ** Refueling and overhaul (eg. nuclear-powered ships) ** Time between overhauls Time between overhauls (abbreviated as TBO or TBOH) is the manufactu ...

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, Virginia, in 1961, before she resumed active operations with a three-month Caribbean deployment. Transferred to Amphibious Squadron (PhibRon) 12 on 1 July 1961, ''Wahkiakum County'' participated in several amphibious landing exercises and contingency operations over the remainder of the year. During July and September 1961, she transported

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midshipmen A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afric ...

from

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, to Little Creek, Virginia, for annual summer training and began a three-month Caribbean deployment in September 1961. During the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

in the autumn of 1962, ''Wahkiakum County'' embarked the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, and operated in support of the

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...

of Cuba from 24 October 1962 to 7 December 1962. She deployed to the Mediterranean in the spring of 1963, operating with the 6th Fleet Amphibious Task Force, and again to the Caribbean during the spring of 1964.

Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965

On 24 April 1965, supporters of the ousted

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

President Juan Bosch launched a ''coup d'etat'' in

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, which soon degenerated into a civil war, with loyalists battling a rebel group backed by armed civilians. As the fighting threatened Americans there, the

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sent U.S. Marines to protect and evacuate Americans. When it appeared that the revolt had been taken over by

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

's Cubans, the United States intervened with more men —- paratroops of the

82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into hostile areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...

and Marines. During the period from 9 May 1965 to 17 May 1965, ''Wahkiakum County'' operated in support of this evacuation and intervention operation.

Mediterranean and Caribbean operations, 1965-1970

For the remainder of the 1960s and into 1970, ''Wahkiakum County'' operated on regular deployments to the Caribbean and Mediterranean.

Decommissioning and disposal

Decommissioned at the Inactive Ship Facility,

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, on 16 October 1970, ''Wahkiakum County'' was transferred to the

Military Sealift Command The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all U ...

(MSC) at

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on 10 April 1972. Reclassified as a United States Naval Ship (USNS) -- indicating non-commissioned U.S. Navy service with a largely civilian crew—and as T-LST-1162, the now-USNS ''Wahkiakum County'' operated with MSC as a

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

until struck from the

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in 1973; sources disagree on the date on which she was struck, claiming it was either on 11 January 1973 or on 11 November 1973. She was then laid up. ''Wahkiakum County'' was transferred to 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 issu ...

on 29 July 1992, for lay up in the

National Defense Reserve Fleet The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of Ship, ships of the United States, mostly Merchant ship, merchant vessels, that have been Reserve fleet, mothballed but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during nationa ...

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.A possible discrepancy exists between the ''Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships'' and NavSource Online. Both agree the ship was taken out of service and struck in 1973 (although they disagree on the exact date). DANFS says that she then was placed in the

(NDRF) at

, apparently immediately, and then "faded" from NDRF records in 1974. NavSource Online says that she entered the NRDF in 1992, and is silent about her status between 1973 and 1992. She was sold for scrapping on 22 June 2005 to ESCO Marine, Brownsville, Texas, and removed from the Suisun Bay National Defense Reserve Fleet on 24 August 2005. She was subsequently scrapped.

Construction and commissioning

Atlantic and Caribbean operations, 1953-1960

Atlantic, Caribbean, and Mediterranean operations, 1960-1965

Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965

Mediterranean and Caribbean operations, 1965-1970

Decommissioning and disposal

Notes

References

See also