While the Royal Danish Navy was tasked with policing and defending the far-flung colony of Iceland, and, generally, a station ship or patrol boat of some sort was on location since 1859, the locals knew the score.
Denmark was 1,300 miles away and, during the Great War, with the country sandwiched between the Brits and the Germans, only one ship could be spared from the neutrality patrol to police both Iceland and the Faeroes, the 730-ton cutter (Inspektionsskib) Islands Falk (Icelandic Falcon), a humble 13-knotter with a pair of 6-pounders and another pair of 3-pounders.
The Danish Navy’s Helsingør-built Inspektionsskib Islands Falk, all 183 feet of her. Completed in 1907 specifically for colonial service off Iceland, Greenland and the Faeroes, in 1928 she was replaced by the larger “fisheries cruiser” Fylla, the former sloop HMS Asphodel, and reassigned to metropolitan Denmark, where she was captured by the Germans in WWII.
After Iceland gained a measure of self-autonomy in December 1918, Falk (which fired the first 21-shot salute to the new country’s first official flag while tied up at Reykjavik) began spending more time in Greenland and the Faeroes.
Plans were already afoot to get something more local.
In conjunction with local Icelandic philanthropists and the Iceland Fishing Boat Association (Fiskifélag Íslands), the Björgunarfélag Vestmannaeyja, a volunteer uniformed search-and-rescue/salvage organization, was founded in August 1918 and later morphed into ICE-SAR, the national lifesaving organization.
The BV soon set about looking for a blue water vessel to use for local fisheries patrol and as an offshore rescue ship (Björgunarskipið). By August 1919, they had cobbled together enough money (292,385 kroner, mainly from donations and grants from the Icelandic parliament, the Althing) to purchase an aging 190-ton, 115-foot British-built (Edwards Bros) trawler, Thor, which the Danish Navy had used as a survey ship and patrol boat.
Thor in Danish service. She was a steam trawler, built in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1899 and used for oceanographic research in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans between 1903-1914, then as a patrol boat for the Danish Navy during the Great War. Ukendt. Angivet “Efter J. Schmidt”. – Affotografering fra Wolff (1967): Danske ekspeditioner på verdenshavene
With her name retained but Icelandized (Þór) and flying an early Icelandic pennant, she was eventually armed with two surplus M/96 57mm guns obtained from the Danes.
Her crew was volunteers from the BV, with Jóhann P. Jónsson, who had been a wartime officer in the Danish navy, appointed captain.
By late March 1920, Thor was underway and protecting local herring and cod grounds, chasing off her first foreign vessel, a British trawler, two days into her inaugural patrol.
Rescue ship/patrol boat Thor (Þór) in her time with the Björgunarfélag Vestmannaeyja,
She was effective, venturing out for the annual three-month winter season then spending the rest of the year working as a coaster, hauling passengers, goods, and mail around the island in an attempt to offset her costs.
In 1922, she captured 12 Norwegian ships for illegal fishing, to which the local government duly issued fines.
In 1924, she took eight foreign trawlers and a herring ship.
In 1925, two Norwegian herring ships, four Danish draggers, and 10 British trawlers.
Slowly, the Althing was forced to vote for more and more money for Thor, as even a shoestring operation needed, well, shoestrings. By 1926, a resolution was passed to purchase Thor for the token fee of 80,000 kroner, and put her to work in a more official capacity.
Thor’s service led to the formation of a dedicated local force, the Landhelgisgæslan, or Coast Guard, on 1 July 1926. That year, with a crew of her first “regulars,” Thor took 26 illegal fishing boats and raked in 270,000 kroner for the budding country’s coffers.
Thor, between 1926 and 1929, as the first Icelandic cutter. Note her deck guns
Between 1922 and 1926, Thor took a total of 131 ships in territorial waters and was responsible for fines of one million kroner. She searched for lost boats 80 times during this period and towed 40 ships to shore. She also transported passengers, goods, and mail on 73 coastal trips.
While Thor was wrecked in 1929, by that time the LHG had two other purpose-built cutters in operation, the smaller Odin (70-foot, 240hp diesel, one 47mm gun) and the larger Aegir (170-foot, with a 1,800shp diesel and two 75mm guns).
Further, the service has had three different Thors since then, with the current one being the LHG’s flagship.
The second LHG Thor. Built in Stettin, Germany, in 1922 as Senator Schäfer. Arrived in Iceland in 1930 and served with the Coast Guard until 1939. Note the national flash on her bow.
The third Coast Guard ship to bear the name, this Thor was purpose-built for the LHG in 1951, was the flagship of the fleet, and served in all three Cod Wars. She was sold in 1982
The current Icelandic Coast Guard UT 512L-type offshore patrol vessel ICGV Thor (Þór), walking the beat. Note her 40mm Bofors forward. Delivered in 2009, she runs 4,000 tons and is 307 feet in oal.
A great 3~ minute sizzle reel showing some of the LHG’s greatest hits:
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Warship Wednesday 1 July 2026: The Klinker Dinker
Above we see a great period Kodachrome of the well-armed Crosley-class high-speed transport USS Kleinsmith (APD-134)moored next to the Chicago Sun Times building in July 1959 during the celebration of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Laid down in WWII as a destroyer escort but completed as a frogman delivery vehicle, she starred in an iconic movie released some 75 years ago this week on Uncle Sam’s “fin-footed, goggle-eyed, beach-blasting heroes,” before heading off to hold the line in the South China Sea for another 30 years.
The Crosley class
During the early days of WWII, with a dire need for small and fast amphibious warfare vessels, especially in the South Pacific, the Navy quickly converted 32 old flush-deck destroyers left over from the Great War.
Dubbed “Green Dragons,” such conversions meant landing their 4-inch guns, which went on to equip armed merchant ships, as well as their torpedo tubes. Also left behind were half of their boilers, which dropped their speed down to 25 knots. These high-speed transports (APDs) were given a trio of newer high-angle 3-inch/50 guns, one 40 mm AA gun, and five 20 mm AA guns, and the capability to carry up to 300 Marines or soldiers for a brief period. Where torpedo tubes once were, they now carried four 36-foot LCVP landing craft on large davits.
USS Colhoun (APD-2) February 1942. In her Green Dragon configuration 80-G-464374
These converted flush-deckers saw very hard service, with one three out of the four Dragons of TransDiv 12, USS Colhoun (DD-85/APD-2), Gregory (DD-82/APD-3), and Little (DD-79/APD-4), all lost in the Guadalcanal Campaign within a week of each other. The surviving fourth, USS McKean (DD-90/APD-5), was later sunk by a Japanese bomber.
With the concept of destroyer-sized transports vetted and with replacements needed, the Navy soon ordered 99 Buckley– and Rudderow-class destroyer escorts converted as APDs (though five were canceled).
Just under 1,800 tons and 306 feet long, the Rudderows were hardy 23-knot ships that would be classified as sloops or corvettes in other navies, but the term destroyer escort seemed a better fit for the USN and their pair of 5 inch /38 dual purpose mounts, four 40 mm Bofors, ten 20 mm single mount Oerlikons, torpedo tubes and depth charges allowed them to punch out of their weight class. Plus, they could float in just 11 feet of seawater, which meant they could get pretty close into old Hirohito’s backyard.
To maximize their usefulness, these ships were redesigned from the stack back, with the aft 5-incher and torpedo tubes never fitted. This left them with six Bofors in a 3×2 arrangement and six single 20mm mounts along with two stern racks for depth charges. Surface search radar (SA, SF, SL or SU) and a QGA sonar set were standard.
The first Rudderrow APD conversion was USS Crosley (APD-87, ex-DE226) which entered service in October 1944, the leader of what would become a 51-vessel class.
Drink in these images of Crosley-class member USS Joseph M. Auman (APD-117).
Auman carried UDT-7 to the Pacific in late 1945, then was laid up in 1946. In 1963, she was transferred to the Mexican Navy and served as ARM Tehuantupec (H05) until 1989
Their reason for existing was to carry a company-sized element of Marines, UDT teams, Army Rangers, etc., and bring them to the three-fathom line out from the surf, where landing craft would take over and do the rest of the job to get them over-the-beach.
To get their Marines in the water, the Crosleys had four 36-foot LCVP landing craft, each capable of holding 36 men in marching order, able to theoretically land 144 men in a single lift.
A 26-foot whale boat was shoe-horned in to serve as a gig/control vessel. Six 25-man floater nets and eight 25-man balsa wood floats provided emergency accommodations for 350 men should the APD have to be vacated in an emergency, and the boats were not available.
Ship’s crew included a skipper and 10 wardroom officers, 15 CPOs, and 164 crew, all with their own personal gear lockers. Less than luxurious accommodations were provided for 12 “greenside” officers and 150 enlisted, without the aforementioned lockers, as they were supposed to be short-term riders. Total berthing was for 346 souls (24 in officers’ country and 322 assorted enlisted), leaving only six to hot bunk if all the billets were full.
There was also a series of small storage compartments and allotted deck space, designed to carry six 1/4 ton trucks (jeep/GPW equivalent), two M-2-4 1 ton trucks, four ammunition carts, four 75mm M1 pack howitzers, 6,000 cu. ft. of ammo, 3,500 cu. ft. of general cargo (C-rats, etc.), as well as bunker space for 7,000 gallons of mo-gas. With no vehicle deck to speak of and her landing craft in davits, the only way to load these was via the crane on the stern once the Higgins boats were in the water.
The Bethlehem-built Crosley-class high-speed transport USS Scribner (APD-122) underway off Boston on 20 October 1944. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 20L. U.S. National Archives photo BS 76150
Crosley-class high-speed transport USS Scribner (APD-122) underway. She earned a single battle star running UDT divers during the Okinawa campaign, was laid up in 1946, then sold for scrap in 1966. NHHC 19-N-76151
Meet Kleinsmith
Our subject was named after Water Tender First Class Charles Kleinsmith (NSN: 2428775), a regular who enlisted in the Navy just after his 18th birthday in 1922. After service as an engineering rate on the battleships USS Wyoming (BB-32) and Maryland (BB-46), cruisers Milwaukee (CL-5), Cincinnati (CL-6), Portland (CA-33), and Honolulu (CL-48), and the carrier Saratoga (CV-3), he transferred to the new flattop Yorktown (CV-5) on Halloween 1940.
He earned a Navy Cross, the kind they give your family after, during the Battle of Midway aboard Yorktown, giving his last to fight a fire in Boiler Room No. 1 and assisted in keeping the boiler under steam to keep the ship’s auxiliary power in operation after a Japanese attack that “enabled the fighting carrier to attain the speed necessary for launching planes to oppose a Japanese aerial attack.” Lost in the battle, he is still listed as missing, presumed dead, promoted to Chief Water Tender, posthumously.
Watertender First Class Charles Kleinsmith
The 25th of the 37 destroyer escorts (Yard Nos. 266-303) ordered from the Defoe Shipbuilding Co of Bay City, Michigan, starting in October 1942, the future USS Kleinsmith was laid down as Defoe Hull No. 291 on 30 August 1944, a Rudderow-class destroyer escort (DE-718).
She was launched 27 January 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Mary Agnes Kleinsmith, Charles’s widow.
Note the fella holding on to the bow!
Towed down the Mississippi to New Orleans via the Illinois River and Lakes Michigan and Huron, she finished outfitting there and was commissioned as USS Crosley (APD-87), 12 June 1945, just before what would have been her namesake’s 41st birthday.
The future USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) in the tow of tug John W. Weeks passing downstream on the Illinois River under the Morris Highway Bridge, 23 May 1945. Kleinsmith was in tow down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans for commissioning. War Department US Engineers Office, Chicago, IL. Photo #556 from the collections of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Home of the SS Cobia. Via Navsource
Making future Kleinsmith (APD-134) fast to the Towboat John W. Weeks at the Marseilles Lock on the Illinois River, 23 May 1945. Kleinsmith was in tow down the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans for commissioning. War Department US Engineers Office, Chicago, IL. Photo #564 from the collections of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Home of the SS Cobia. Via Navsource
Her plankowner c/o was LCDR Alden James “Doc” Laborde (USNA 1938). It was the young Louisianan’s third command after being called back from the reserve list in 1942, having been skipper of USS PC-560 and USS Blair (DE 147) on Atlantic duty.
Of note, just two other tin cans were completed by Defoe past Kleinsmith, Hull 292 USS Weiss (DE 719/APD 135) and Hull 293 Carpellotti (DE 720/APD 136), with Hull Nos. 294-303 canceled by the Navy.
War!
Commissioned in the twilight period between VE-Day and VJ-Day, Kleinsmith’s war was short but she still served.
Leaving New Orleans for a shakedown cruise to Guantanamo Bay and post-shakedown availability at Norfolk, she departed the East Coast on 4 August 1945 for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. In post-war interviews with Laborde, he was advised the little APD would be used as a UDT ship for the Operation Olympic Landings in Southern Japan in November, but VJ-Day scrubbed that plan.
After calls at San Diego and Pearl Harbor, she reached Buckner Bay, Okinawa on 1 October and spent the next five months on Occupation duty in Japanese and Chinese waters with Task Group 59.2.
Leaving Sasebo on 21 February 1946, she arrived at San Francisco six weeks later with 118 returning veterans embarked.
With a one-page War History, her crew was eligible for the Navy Occupation Service Medal and China Service Medal (for period 28 September 1945 to 22 February 1946), but Kleinsmith did not rate any battle stars.
None of the 51 Crosley-class APDs were lost in the war, with 34 mothballed in gently used condition by 1947.
One of just 17 Crosleys retained on active duty post-war, Kleinsmith departed the West Coast on 10 April 1946 for the East Coast via the Panama Canal, arriving in Norfolk on 1 May, where she would call home for the rest of her U.S. Navy career.
The 1954 Jane’s entry for the 92 remaining DE-APD conversions still in the U.S. fleet, with the Crosleys (converted Rudderows) lumped in with the Lawrences (converted Buckleys). Most of the ships in both classes were in mothballs at this time:
Cold War
Operating with the UDT frogmen out of Little Creek and assorted East Coast Marine units, Kleinsmith spent the next 14 years on a series of exercises ranging from Puerto Rico (amphibious training at Vieques Island) to Maine (submarine shakedown support), with ship-to-shore, gunfire support, ASW, and antiaircraft drills alternating with seven very real deployments to the Mediterranean during an era where the Soviets were always over the horizon.
USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) during the 1950s with her boats launched. NHHC L45-158.05.02
It was while in the Caribbean on one such exercise that Kleinsmith was tasked with what would be referred to these days as a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) on 24 October 1958 when she rescued 56 U.S. citizens and 3 foreign nationals at Nicaro, Cuba, where they were endangered by military operations ashore between Batista’s Army and Castro’s rebels.
In the summer of 1959 (27 May to 3 August), Kleinsmith became one of the few active duty U.S. warships in modern history to conduct an extended operation on the Great Lakes, transiting the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway.
In doing so, she was the first naval vessel in several Lake ports in a century or more.
USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) first warship in Ashtabula since 1812. Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 25, 1959
Several images exist of her in Chicago that summer.
USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) moored next to the Sun Time Building at Chicago in July 1959. Kleinsmith was part of the task force that was in Chicago for the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Same as the above
Movie Star
For three weeks in 1951 (15 January to 6 February) the old “Klinker Dinker” stood by at Naval Station Key West to serve as a floating movie set for the Richard Widmark vehicle, The Frogmen.
Highlighting the efforts of Navy UDT men during WWII, many of the extras on the “set” were real UDT men, brought down by Kleinsmith from Little Creek for the occasion, and the film shows some very realistic depictions of period tactics and methods used by these men.
Our little APD shows up in scene after scene.
The film was a major box-office success, ranking 37th among that year’s top earners.
Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it became a cultural phenomenon and is still widely recognized for bringing scuba diving and underwater action to mainstream audiences, clearing the way for a generation of follow-on “dive suit” movies and no doubt driving eager volunteers to The Teams for decades.
The film also enjoyed a wide overseas release.
Under a New Ensign
Several of the Crosleys that had been laid up in 1946 were held in mothballs for 15 years, then transferred aboard to overseas allies looking for a cheap-to-run escort with low mileage.
Crosley herself was stricken from the Naval Register on 1 June 1960, pulled from her rusty berth at Green Cove Springs, and transferred to Ecuador. Likewise, ex-USS Brock, Tollberg, and Ruchamkin were transferred to Colombia in the 1960s. Ex-USS Rednour went to Mexico in 1969 along with Auman. Four others went to South Korea.
In that vein, Kleinsmith was tapped in late 1959 for transfer to the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Military Assistance Program.
To support the handover, in early 1960, the ROCN sent a 20-person team led by LCDR Chen Zhenmin to San Diego or on-board training. Subsequently, her hybrid U.S./ROCN crew sailed the ship to Taiwan in March, arriving at Tsoying on 16 May for a combined decommissioning/handover/commissioning ceremony.
She was named ROCS Tien Shan, which translates to “Heavenly Mountain,” and given pennant APD-815. Assigned to the 212th Destroyer Squadron, she engaged in regular patrol and amphibious warfare exercises for the next seven years.
The 1960 Jane’s entry:
By 1967, the ROCN had seven active ex-USN APDs, all dubbed the Mountain class after Tien Shah (Kleinsmith).
Jane’s for that year:
Others left unclaimed in U.S. service were soon scrapped, while a handful were given an extension to continue to serve a few more years, reclassified as LPRs (amphibious transport, small).
In May 1967, Tien Shah (Kleinsmith) was sent on the fourth Dunmu (Goodwill) voyage under RADM Guo Xunjing. Carrying 4th year naval cadets, she steamed to South Korea, Guam, Okinawa, and the Philippines, returning in August. It was the longest and best-traveled of the ROCN’s Dunmu cruises at the time.
In December 1967, Tien Shah had her pennant changed to APD-215, and she was assigned to the amphibious fleet.
Before 1974, she and most of her sisters picked up a second 5″/38 Mk 12 mount on their stern, taken from a similarly modernized Fletcher-class destroyer which had been given other armament, as well as six 324mm ASW torpedo tubes.
As described in that year’s Jane’s:
She was also later given some modern AA defenses in the form of a RIM-72C Sea Chaparral launcher.
By April 1978, pushing 33 years old, Tien Shah was then reclassed as a patrol frigate (PF-615, later PF-815) and transferred to the 131st Fleet, a coastal defense force tasked with counter-smuggling and fisheries protection.
That saw her armament reduced to just her forward twin 40mm Bofors.
Late in her career as an OPV, with just her forward Bofors.
She would soldier on for another 14 years, carrying pennant LPR-815 for most of that era, and still using the same checkerboard and seahorse crest as Kleinsmith, kept for good luck.
Via Baker, circa 1995 on the class:
Her final skipper passed on an extensive video in English to the APD Association/Kleinsmith Association in 1995 on the occasion of the tin can’s 50th anniversary reunion, including a walk-through of how the vessel looked at the time.
Decommissioned in October 1995 after 50 years of service, she was sold for scrap.
The ROCN ultimately operated 13 Mountain-class frigates/transports, and the last in service, ROCS Shou Shan (PF-837), the ex-Crosley-class USS Kline (APD-120), was put to pasture in May 1997. She was sunk as a target three years later.
Epilogue
Our subject had a remarkable 36 skippers, 25 of those Taiwanese.
Perhaps the most famous of Kleinsmith’s American captains was “Doc” Laborde, her plankowner wartime commander. After leaving the Navy, he designed and built the first submersible offshore drilling rig, Murphy Oil’s Mr. Charlie. He also founded ODECO, Tidewater Marine, Gulf Island Fabrication, and the Almar Foundation. A well-known mover and shaker in Gulf drilling for decades, Laborde passed in New Orleans in 2014, aged 98, and left behind five children, 18 grandchildren, and 35 great-grandchildren.
Tien Shah’s best-known skipper was ROCN VADM Lan Ningli, who has served as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Naval Headquarters, Commander of the 124th Naval Fleet, Director of the Intelligence Division of the General Staff Headquarters, Chief of Staff of the Naval Anti-Submarine Warfare Command, and Director of the Naval Headquarters Intelligence Agency. Retired in 2017 after 40 years of service, he is a noted wargamer and naval pundit.
As for the APD/LPRs left on the U.S. Navy List, there were still at least 23 Buckley (Lawrence) and Crosley-class vessels still around in 1967, with some of the survivors given FRAM updates and others given limited conversions to serve as flagships.
Jane’s for that year, including a good list of disposals and transfers:
However, that would soon come to an end.
In November 1969, USS Beverly W. Reid (APD-119/LPR-119) was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Orange, where she remained inactive, for almost five years before her sale for scrap. She was the last Crosley in U.S. service.
Today, only one Crosley exists, the Colombian Navy’s ARC Cordoba (DT-15), formerly USS Ruchamkin (APD-89). Most of her has been serving as a museum ship at Jaime Duque Park since the 1980s.
USS Ruchamkin (APD-89) ( ARC Córdoba (DT-15)) on display in the Jaime Duque Park, Tocancipá, Colombia. Via Wikicommons.
The ROCN still conducts Dunmu goodwill training cruises, with the latest one seeing three ships crossing the Pacific Ocean and entering the Panama Canal and the Caribbean Sea, sailing 20,000 miles and calling at ports as diverse and far-flung (to Taiwan) as Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Guatemala.
The photo shows three ships of the ROCN Dunmu Goodwill Fleet: from left to right, the Cheng Kung-class guided-missile frigate ROCS Yueh Fei (PFG-1106), the oiler and ammunition supply ship Pan Shih (AOE-532), and the Kang Ding-class guided-missile frigate Di Hua (PFG-1206), docked at the Port Zante pier in St. Kitts and Nevis, April 2026.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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Some 50 years ago today. A full half-century, “an old ship with a young crew” calls at a lost colony, “all’s forgiven.”
The pride of the Royal Navy, the Audacious-class aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (R09)entering Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 30 June 1976, with the crew eager to commemorate the Bicentennial of the United States. The historic ship’s visit and life aboard were featured in the popular 1976 BBC documentary series “Sailor.”
Arrayed aboard are FG.1 Phantoms of 892 NAS, Buccaneers of 809 NAS, Gannets of 849B NAS, Sea Kings of 824 NAS. A Wessex SAR from the Ships Flight is also on deck.
Shipping back to Plymouth, her Bicentennial deployment logged some 37,850nm and became the cover of her crew book.
All would be gone just three years later when Ark Royal decommissioned, the last full-sized British carrier to “cat and trap” conventional aircraft.
U.S. Pacific Fleet oiler USS Hassayampa (AO 145) refuels two ships simultaneously while underway at sea. To the right is the attack carrier USS Hancock (CVA 19), and on the left the destroyer USS McKean (DD 784) on Yankee Station during Vietnam at a time when the fleet had some 100 fleet oilers on the Naval List. NHHC L45-121.03.01
During the naval build-up for World War II, Maritime Commission standard T2 and T3 tankers were converted to US Navy oilers (AO)s with relative ease. By the time VJ-Day came, this fleet included 35 large (22,000-ton) T3 Cimarron-class, and 60 even larger 25,000-ton Kennebec/Suamico/Mission Buenaventura-class T2 oilers.
And that’s not even including tankers requisitioned from trade, and older Kanawha/Patoka/Kaweah class oilers left over from the circa 1917 expansion.
That’s well over 100 large tankers in haze grey.
And Nimitz needed every single one.
It is no secret that the lack of oilers to send to the Southwest Pacific in 1942 led Nimitz to hold back his *numerous available battleships from the opening acts of the Guadalcanal campaign for lack of bunker fuel to feed them. *(USS Maryland, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania were only lightly damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor and rejoined the Pacific fleet relatively quickly after, while USS Idaho, Mississippi, and New Mexico were also available, but largely spent 1942 on the West Coast and Eastern Pacific.)
The saga of the oiler USS Neosho (AO-23) from Pearl Harbor to the Coral Sea, during which Admiral Cox referred to her as a “critical strategic asset,” is legend. Further, the ship that took her name after she was sunk, USS Neosho (AO-48), well earned her 13 battle stars for World War II service.
The Navy well remembered the tanker lessons of WWII throughout the Cold War and kept many of the AOs from that era on the payroll for as long as their engines held out– even buying a dozen more T2s from the commercial market after the 1956 Suez crisis pointed the way.
Even with all of the old tankers soldiering on, the Navy still invested millions into six 38,000-ton Neosho-class oilers in the 1950s, eight 40,000-ton Wichita-class AORs, and four massive 54,000-ton Sacramento-class AOEs in the 1960s, even while the Navy began cranking out nuclear-powered carriers, cruisers, and destroyer leaders.
To keep the fleet in fuel as the older T2/T3s began to retire in the 1980s, a new breed of Cimarron-class AOs and fast Supply-class AOEs were ordered.
By 1995, with block obsolescence catching up and the Cold War over, the Navy’s armed grey-hulled oiler fleet had dwindled to a still very respectable 13 Cimmaron and Wichita class AO/AORs, eight Sacramento and Supply class AOEs, and 16 further new 50,000-ton gas turbine-powered AOE(V) class ships planned. Added to this were 16 42,000-ton Henry J. Kaiser-class T-AOs operated by the Military Sealift Command with primarily civilian crews. That’s a hard 30-40 tankers, bube.
Since then, the follow-on AOE(V) class never materialized, the remaining Cimmaron, Sacramento, and Wichita class replenishment ships have been put to pasture, and everything else has long ago been transferred to the MSC. Today, the MSC only has 20 tankers: four new John Lewis-class T-AOs, two aging fast T-AOEs (Supply and Arctic), and 14 assorted Kaisers.
Well, enter the rented tanker turned fleet oiler.
The 58,000-ton MSC chartered Motor Tanker Empire State was built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego with MARAD funds and officially entered service under a long-term charter agreement in October 2010. She even has a DANFS page.
Empire State is one of 10 U.S.-flagged chartered commercial tankers in MSC’s inventory. They are not USNS grey hulls, but fly normal “bright” commercial livery and have MT designations with an MSC hull number, for instance, MT Empire State (T-AOT 5193).
MT Empire State (T-AOT 5193) 101007-N-IS698-0001
While usually used to shuttle fuel to overseas bases, Empire State last year notably conducted an underway replenishment at sea with the big deck phib USS Tripoli (LHA-7). During the evolution, the two ships remained on station side-by-side at 12-15 knots for 40 minutes with wet lines attached, transferring F-76 diesel ship fuel.
Military Sealift Command’s chartered Motor Tanker Ship Empire State and U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA-7) conduct the first Consolidated Replenishment at Sea (CONSOL) between Tripoli and a tanker ship, 9 June 2025. MSC Photo 250530-N-WD133-4432 by Sarah Cannon
Before that, at RIMPAC ’22, another contract tanker, MT Maersk Perry, transferred JP-5 and diesel to the three MSC fleet auxillaries: USNS Henry J Kaiser (T-AO 187), Pecos (T-AO 197), and Washington Chambers(T-AKE 11), during CONSOLS-at-sea.
Note these contract announcements on Wednesday, basically laying out a process to rent-an-oiler for at $100 million a pop from now through 2031. Emphasis mine.
Federated Maritime LLC, Boca Raton, Florida, is awarded a $21,557,995 firm-fixed-price contract with pass through reimbursable elements (N3220526C1244), for time charter of one clean, Coast Guard approved, upon delivery U.S. flag or foreign flag to be reflagged prior to delivery, double hull tanker with an inert gas system and segregated ballast tanks that is capable of carrying a minimum of 240,000 barrels of clean petroleum products (intention JP5, JP8, JAA, or F76) within the vessel’s natural segregation in designated cargo tanks with double valve isolation. This contract includes a 12-month base period with three one-year option periods, and one 11-month option which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $97,749,572. The contract will be for worldwide performance, with intentions to operate in the Western Pacific. The contract is expected to be completed if all options are exercised by May 2031. Transportation Working Capital Funds in the amount of $21,557,995 are obligated for fiscal 2026 and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as full and open competition with proposals solicited via the Governmentwide point of entry and nine offers were received. Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
U.S. Marine Management LLC, Norfolk, Virginia, is awarded a $16,607,500 firm-fixed-price contract with pass through reimbursable elements (N3220526C1243), for time charter of one clean, Coast Guard approved, upon delivery U.S. flag or foreign flag to be reflagged prior to delivery, double hull tanker with an Inert Gas System and Segregated Ballast Tanks that is capable of carrying a minimum of 240,000 barrels of clean petroleum products (intention JP5, JP8, JAA, or F76) within the vessel’s natural segregation in designated cargo tanks with double valve isolation. This contract includes a 12-month base period with three one-year option periods, and one 11-month option which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $97,138,351. The contract will be for worldwide performance, with intentions to operate in the Western Pacific. The contract is expected to be completed if all options are exercised by May 2031. Transportation Working Capital Funds in the amount of $16,607,500 are obligated for fiscal 2026 and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as full and open competition with proposals solicited via the Governmentwide point of entry and nine offers were received. Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
A great view of LT(j.g.) H.C. Arnold of Attack Squadron (VA) 83 “Rampagers” taxiing his cutting-edge Chance-Vought F7U-3M Cutlass toward the port steam catapult on board the Essex-class attack carrier USS Intrepid (CVA 11) during flight operations 22 June 1956. This was during Carrier Air Group Eight’s (CVG-8) 1956 Mediterranean cruise (12 March to 5 September) aboard Intrepid after the carrier had received her SCB-27C conversion to better operate jets.
The nose of the Cutlass sat over 14 feet high by nature of its nine-foot-long nose strut. What could go wrong? By Photographer’s Mate First Class Wilcox, NARA K-20587 via NHHC
An expanded shot of the same aircraft from the same cruise (NNAM 1996.253.7207.015)
According to Baugher, Arnold’s Cutlass, Modex E-308, BuNo 129733, was struck off at NAF Litchfield Park less than two years after the above image.
Why?
Sure, the F7U-3 was one of the Navy’s first swept-wing, afterburner-equipped jets. Further, the 3M variant shown above was retrofitted to be missile-capable and carried up to four early AAM-N-2 Sparrow I air-to-air beam-riding missiles. In fact, VA-83’s 1956 Med cruise, seen above, was the first Navy squadron to deploy operationally overseas with missiles.
While subsonic (around Mach 0.9) at sea level, it could get supersonic on dives and could carry up to 2,000 pounds of ordnance (as much as the vaunted SBD Dauntless of a decade prior) in addition to its four forward-firing 20mm cannons.
However, the aircraft’s puny engines (two 4,600-lb thrust J46-WE-8A turbojets) and funky “tailless” characteristics earned it the nicknames the “Ensign Eliminator” and “Gutless Cutlass” after no less than 78 of the 320 airframes delivered were lost in accidents during its short eight-year operating period with seven fleet (VA) and one test (VX) squadrons. It was just too underpowered to muscle the 16-ton aircraft around the sky, especially in tricky carrier ops, earning it a well-earned reputation as a widowmaker.
These included an epic crack-up on USS Hancock that was caught on film and used in TV and film footage for generations.
The aircraft was replaced by the much better liked (and supersonic) F-8 Crusader, which remained in service with the Navy and Marines for over 30 years.
Painting, Acrylic on Illustration Board, by Joseph Binder, C. 1960, Unframed Dimensions 26H X 20W. Naval History and Heritage Command Accession #: 68-084-A-07
Step back into the Cold War and the defense of West Germany with the Army University Press’s latest (free) publication, the 422-page Lariat Advance: Insights from the Cold War for the 21st Century, edited by Gregory Fontenot and James P. “Pat” O’Neal.
Don’t let anyone tell you that a revolver is too slow. Besides blisteringly fast Single-Action shooters like Bob Munden and the iconic Jerry Miculek, there’s the M39 cannon.
We stumbled upon a great static training layout for the gun system of an F-101 Voodoo fighter at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Arizona while visiting the amazing facility.
That gun?
The M39 autocannon.
The system.
What could go wrong? (All photos unless noted: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
It had a single barrel with a five-chamber cylinder that revolved at the six o’clock position parallel to the bore. Think S&W J-Frame on steroids with rounds that were more the size of a Red Bull can rather than .38 Specials.
Note the revolving cylinder, about the size of a desk garbage can.
Gas-operated with a piston that ejected the spent casing from one of the cylinder’s chambers while a spring-loaded rammer slid a new cartridge into an open chamber on each right-hand rotation, the gun was capable of firing 1,500 rounds per minute.
20mm shells were fed via a link-less hopper system from the magazine down to the loading drum behind the cylinder.
Then you have all of the assorted relays, solenoids, gun camera, sight, and spaghetti wiring to link it all together and make it work. Remember, this system first flew in combat in 1952, just five years after the transistor was invented, and back when a big-screen TV had a 17-inch screen.
And it is all connected back to the stick in the cockpit. Flip the switch. Press the button. Briefly. Get out of the way of the debris.
Backstory
The M39 had its roots in an experimental German Mauser 20mm MG213C revolving cannon design following World War II. To the victors go the spoils, boys!. A captured gun (No. V6/10) was rebuilt by the U.S. Naval Gun Factory in 1946, and a second, third, and fourth rebuild, all with evolving modifications, became the experimental U.S. T74 cannon.
These images of the MG213 and T74 via Chinn.
Via The Machine Gun History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons by Lt. Col. George M. Chinn, USMC, Prepared for the Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951, unclassified July 1970 (Public domain)
Via The Machine Gun History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons by Lt. Col. George M. Chinn, USMC, Prepared for the Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951, unclassified July 1970 (Public domain)
Via The Machine Gun History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons by Lt. Col. George M. Chinn, USMC, Prepared for the Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951, unclassified July 1970 (Public domain)
Via The Machine Gun History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons by Lt. Col. George M. Chinn, USMC, Prepared for the Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951, unclassified July 1970 (Public domain)
Via The Machine Gun History, Evolution, and Development of Manual, Automatic, and Airborne Repeating Weapons by Lt. Col. George M. Chinn, USMC, Prepared for the Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951, unclassified July 1970 (Public domain)
The American M39 first flew in combat during the latter part of the Korean War as the T160 gun system in the “GunVal” program, which saw four such guns installed in modified F-86F Sabres. The guns had 460 rounds of ammunition, enough for about 4.5 seconds of fire. Each gun weighed 162 pounds.
The system, as installed on a Gun Evaluation (GunVal) F-86F-2, in 1952:
(Graphic: August 1953 USAF Air Proving Ground Command report, declassified in 1979)
Vetted in combat, the guns were then first installed in production fighters starting in 1954 with the improved F-86H, which carried four M39s with 600 rounds of ammunition.
The circa 1955 F-86H Sabre at Pima. Note the two forward cannon slots by the air intake. Two more are on the other side of the fuselage, leaving the pilot sitting over four 20mm cannons and 600 rounds of ammo. This particular F-86 remained in the New Jersey Air National Guard until 1965, when it was sent to the boneyard.
Ultimately, more than 35,000 M39s would be produced, and it was the standard gun not only for the F-86H but also the F-100 Super Sabre, F-101A/C Voodoo, and F-5/E Freedom Fighter/Tiger fighters, as well as the B-57B bomber.
While made by several companies over the course of two decades, the primary vendor for production was Pontiac. Yes, the car company.
While replaced in U.S. service with the six-barreled M61 Vulcan Gatling Gun, which fires the same ammunition up to four times faster while offering more longevity (M39s had to have their single barrel replaced after just 4,000 rounds), the old cannon is still in use with a few remaining F-5E operators, such as Brazil, South Korea, and Thailand.
Plus, the Philippine Air Force has recycled M39s out of old F-5s for use as towed ground support weapons, which is just awesome.
Remember, at heart, it is just a big wheel gun! (Photos: Philippine Air Force).
Some 70 years ago this week, the 968-foot Midway-class super carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), isseen being pushed out by tugs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 6 June 1956, offering a good view of her new hurricane bow and a trio of 5″/54 Mark 16 guns on her starboard sponsons.
USS_Franklin D.Roosevelt (CVA-42) in June 1956 NARA 7578590
As noted by DANFS
Workers at Puget Sound fitted Franklin D. Roosevelt with an angled flight deck, two C-11-1 and one C-11-2 steam catapults, a mirror landing system, a hurricane bow, and AN/SPS-8 height finding and AN/SPS-12 air search radars on a new mast, as part of a SCB-110 reconstruction plan. Workers also removed some of her 5-inch guns [6 out of 18], and the added measures increased her standard displacement to 51,000 tons. Franklin D. Roosevelt was recommissioned at the shipyard on 6 April 1956, Capt. John T. Hayward in command. The carrier returned to sea and on 16 June arrived at San Francisco to load stores for her voyage around the Horn to Mayport, Fla., and arrived at her new home port on 8 August.
The ship emerged from the yard work with an entirely new silhouette, and her angled flight deck is clearly visible in this port-bow image taken sometime after her recommissioning on 6 April 1956. (Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph UA 543.03)
Commissioned after construction at Newport News as CVB-42 on 27 October 1945– some eight weeks after VJ Day– she conducted her shakedown in the Caribbean before completing one North Atlantic and six Mediterranean deployments before her decommissioning for the SCB-110 modernization. Her original WWII construction had only lasted 696 days while her Cold War reconstruction took 761.
Transitioning back to the East Coast, FDR would complete a further 17 deployments including an emergency cruise (November-December 1956) to the Suez, a South Atlantic goodwill cruise, 14 Med cruises under Sixth Fleet orders including during the 1967 and 1973 wars, an emergency sortie to the Caribbean in November 1961 during the crisis in the Dominican Republic, and a 21 June 1966 – 21 February 1967 Vietnam cruise.
USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42) underway in the Gulf of Tonkin, during her Vietnam War combat deployment, 19 October 1966. A UH-2 Seasprite helicopter of HC-2 is in flight at left while F-4B Phantoms, A-4C/Es Skyhawks, KA-3Bs, and RF-8As are on deck. Photographed by PH1 Hendricks. USN 1120428
Frankie was the first post-WWII super carrier decommissioned, on 1 October 1977, having completed 30 years of service, not counting her yard conversion period. She earned one battle star for her Vietnam War service, where her air wing (CVW-1) conducted over 7,000 combat sorties in 95 days on Yankee Station.
After covering the “Crazy Y” during the Falklands last week, where she was the oldest of two dozen RN frigates and destroyers in the liberation task force, here is a glimpse back to when she was young, new, and beautiful.
Check out these images of the 6th Frigate Squadron off Malta in November 1961, steaming for a photoex after spending a year deployed to the Med, prior to leaving for home. They include HMS Yarmouth (F 101), HMS Blackpool (F 77), and HMS Llandaff (F 61). At the time, Yarmouth was just 20 months old, commissioned in March 1960, and had spent most of those forward deployed.
IWM A 34560
IWM A 34559
IWM HU 130051
Both Yarmouth and Blackpool were Type 12 anti-submarine frigates, with the latter being a Whitby-class vessel commissioned in 1958. LLandaff was a Salisbury-class radar picket (AD in British parlance), commissioned the same year as Blackpool.
The squadron was commanded at the time by Capt. Henry R. Hewlett aboard Yarmouth, his flagship, before he was appointed Director, Maritime Tactical School. Note the “6” squadron flagship marker on Yarmouth’s funnel. IWM (MH 27578)
Yarmouth would survive them all in RN service, with Llandaff transferred to the Bangladeshi Navy in December 1976 as BNS Umar Farooq (later scrapped in 2016), while Blackpool, leased to the Royal New Zealand Navy, was scrapped in 1978.
