In early 2017, SIG Sauer picked up the largest and most important military handgun contract in 30 years and had to meet requirements far more rigorous than previous generations.
The New Hampshire-based company came out on top in the U.S. Army’s $580 million Modular Handgun System award, one that stood to replace the service’s dated M9 (Beretta 92F) and M11 (SIG P228) series 9mm pistols.
The new MHS guns would be the full-sized M17 and the more compact M18, both models of SIG’s P320 series pistol but fitted with different grip modules and barrels.
Then the Navy/Marines and Air Force went with the gun to replace not only the M9 but also the Glock M007 and Colt M45A1 with the former and the M15 .38 K-frame with the latter.
Almost all of the larger M17s have been delivered, with the production of the M18s still underway
With more than 200,000 guns delivered and all four services almost complete with the build-out, while visiting SIG Sauer’s New Hampshire factory recently, I checked out the inspection and certification process to which the military submits each MHS series pistol.
This includes a strict accuracy test, with each pistol required to fire 10 shots into a 2.85-inch circle at 25 meters. For reference, this is about the size of a tennis ball.
The prior standard was 10 shots inside a 9×11 rectangle – an area just larger than a sheet of copy paper.
Once the whole 1982 dustup settled between the UK and Argentina over Falklands, the Brits knew that they had to garrison the disputed islands with more than the barely armed guard ship and a platoon of Royal Marines that tempted the Argentine junta into the initial invasion.
By 1985, RAF Mount Pleasant was opened to establish a regular fighter and transport presence in the Islands as well as serve as the home base for the much-expanded British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI).
Built some 20 miles inland of Stanley, the islands’ largest city (pop 2400) and capital with a co-located Naval base at Mare Harbor, the complex’s garrison included a regular detachment of RAF fighters (four FGR.2 Phantoms bolstered by refuelers and Sea Kings at first, then Tornados, now Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4s assisted by a tanker and A400), a rotating infantry battalion (now a Roulement Infantry Company (RIC)) reinforced by air-defense and engineer assets, and a Navy Atlantic Patrol Tasking that used to be a destroyer or frigate (and is now a 2,000-ton OPV, HMS Medway).
HMS Medway (P223), the current Falklands guard ship, is seen here conducting an exercise with a Merlin HC4 from 845 Naval Air Squadron off the coast of Curaçao in 2021 while on the Caribbean beat. An updated River-class offshore patrol vessel, her main armament is a 30mm chain gun augmented by a few smaller mounts. Crewed by 30-40 personnel, they are economical ships that can embark a Merlin and a reinforced platoon of troops for short periods of time, if needed.MOD Photo Credit: LPhot Joe Cater
The MOD maintains a regular twice-a-week airbridge from RAF Brize Norton to Mount Pleasant Complex, a big change from 1982 when flights had to come commercial via Uraguay or Argentina– no bueno. Other than that, a resupply ship arrives about eight times per year, filled with containers shipped 8,000 miles from the UK.
Still, all in all, the force numbers around 1,200 or so active forces, which is probably large enough that the Argies couldn’t mount an expedition capable of a successful campaign to unseat them, much less defeat a follow-on liberation task force.
The current RIC is C Company ‘The Rabbits’, 1st Batallion, Scots Guards (1 SG)– an outfit with lots of history in the Falklands. The RIC job is sometimes carried out by reserve units rather than active forces. The six operational(ish) C-130H models the Argentine air force owns could conceivably land 360 paratroopers on the island in a single lift, men which could be drawn from the Brigada Paracaidista IV– if they had the air superiority to pull it off, an iffy prospect at best.
Even just four Typhoon FGR4s, seen below over the Falklands last month, are more air power than the Argentines are capable of these days. In times of crisis, another four could be deployed within 96 hours, or at least that is the plan.
Royal Air Force BAE Euro Fighter Typhoon, from 1435 Flt in formation of the back ramp of an Atlas A400M from 1312 Flight during a routine maritime patrol. 1435 Flight holds the Air Defence of British Forces South Atlantic Island, based at Mount Pleasant Camp, Falkland Islands. Made up of 4 BAE Euro Fighter Typhoon FGRs, they hold Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) 24/7, 365 days a year with personnel from RAF Coningsby and RAF Lossiemouth.
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1312 Flight’s sole Airbus Atlas A400M, escorted by the flight’s resident Voyager tanker, recently undertook the regular Operation Austral Endurance, the resupplying of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Team at Sky Blu Field Station with 300 fuel drums. The week-long operation saw the Atlas A400M travel 1,500 miles south to deliver the supplies which were air-dropped into Antarctica by parachute– showing even the small six-aircraft expeditionary force has some reach if needed.
Crews from British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI) have helped deliver 300 drums of fuel by Air Dispatch to Sky Blue DZ, Antarctica using an A400M, supported by a Voyager from Mount Pleasant Complex (MPC), Falklands. Defence support to the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) not only provides an important opportunity to visibly and meaningfully support the UK’s dual mission of science and presence in Antarctica but also enhances BAS capacity. Collectively Defence and BAS underpin British sovereignty in
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Besides the active forces in the Falklands, the islands has some local muscle as well, including the 40-strong Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) of territorials and the 50-meter fisheries patrol vessel MV Lilibet.
Affectionately later known as the “Heinemann’s Hot Rod,” the “Scooter,” and the “Tinkertoy,” the first hand-built prototype XA4D-1 Skyhawk attack aircraft, BuNo 137812, flown by Douglas test pilot Robert Rahn, took to the air at Edwards Air Force Base on 22 June 1954. It had been mocked up in just 18 months.
The Douglas XA4D-1 Skyhawk prototype (U.S. Navy Bureau Number 137812). It first flew on 22 June 1954. (Photo: Douglas Aircraft Co.).
Just short of 25 years later, the last (McDonnell) Douglas Skyhawk, the 158th A-4M model constructed, BuNo 160264 (c/n 14607) was the 2,960th Skyhawk completed, being delivered to the Tomcats” of VMA-331 on 27 February 1979, 44 years ago today. In all, 2,405 single-seaters were completed along with 555 double-seater “T” variants, averaging an aircraft delivered to the military every three days across the production run.
2960th. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation (Photo No. 2011.003.237.035)
Today, the 2,960th is on display at the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum at Miramar, wearing the shown paint scheme. She is one of at least 250 surviving Skyhawks on public display around the world in assorted configurations besides a few active birds with the Argentines and Brazilians or being flown by private aggressor outfits like Draken International.
Glock first announced the .45 ACP-caliber G21 alongside the 10mm G20 and .40 S&W caliber G22 back in 1990, in a host of caliber changes that offered more than the company’s 9mm initial offerings– the G17 and G19. At introduction these were 2nd Generation guns, a series only gently updated from the company’s original debut in the mid-1980s.
I’ve been fooling with the G21 off and on for almost 30 years. My first was a Gen 2 AAZ-serialized G21 that I picked up in 1994, just as the federal AWB and magazine cap kicked in that chopped the standard mag capacity from 13 rounds to just 10. I kept that tough-as-nails .45 through Hurricane Katrina, during which and immediately after it was never far away, and only passed it on to its current owner in 2006, downgrading to a 9mm as my everyday carry.
My first G21, a Gen 2 model, is seen here in a low-res circa-2005 image. It worked when I picked it up 11 years before, ran everything I fed it in the interlude, and it is likely still working wherever it is today. Note back then they didn’t even have thumb grooves or an accessory rail.
Then came the Gen 3 Sport/Service models in 1997, which brought with them recessed thumb rests, finger grooves molded into the frame, and, eventually, an accessory rail.
The Gen 4 G21 arrived in 2011 with the company’s improved RTF-4 texture, interchangeable frame back straps, a reversible enlarged magazine catch, a dual recoil spring assembly, and a new – some would say improved – trigger
And since then, the G21 has been frozen in time, locked in 2011. In the meantime, the company introduced their 5th Generation guns – but only in 9mm (G17, G19, G19X, G26, G34 and G45), .40 S&W (G22, G23 and G27) and .22 LR (G44).
Now, Glock finally reached back and brought the old “large frame” 10mm and .45 full-sized pistols into the present.
Importantly, it is the first time the G21 is optics-ready, in addition to other Gen 5 enhancements that are long overdue.
This great image shows a Kratzchen-wearing German Lanser in a set of exceptionally well-prepared trenches during the Great War, triumphantly holding some sort of unexploded ordnance as the rest of his company– probably wisely– stands a few paces to the side.
Imperial War Museum image Q 88134, likely a German image captured post-war and archives
Scrolled on the dugout behind the circa 1917 EOD guy is “Rent 95 pfennigs per week” while the ordnance has been variously attributed as a French Mortier (crapouillot) de 58 T N°1 bis while the IWM calls it “an unexploded aircraft bomb which had just been dropped.” As there seems to be a stack of soft evergreen boughs close at hand, perhaps they shielded its fall.
After almost eight years locked in port as part of the Navy’s troubled CG Phased Modernization Plan, the Tico-class Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64) saw blue water again last week on a short cruise under her own steam.
The Bath-built ship, commissioned on 22 June 1991, has been in what would have been described in the old days as “in ordinary” since September 2015 when she shifted homeports from Mayport to Norfolk and entered the CG Mod pipeline.
Gettysburg and sister USS Cowpens started in 2015, followed by USS Vicksburg and USS Chosin in 2016, USS Anzio and USS Cape St. George in 2017, and USS Hue City in 2019.
Each upgrade, originally set for at least 11 cruisers, was set to be accomplished in three phases: tear out, repair, and modernization.
The thing is, it turned out the 25-year-old ships needed a lot more repair than was estimated, particularly with fuel tank issues, hull systems, and piping, then shipyard worker shortages, and finally supply chain issues all dog-piled to stretch the planned multi-month overhaul to multi-year. This was all compounded by the fact that the ships often sat undermanned with just 45 sailor crews for years waiting for the next phase of the program to get started.
“The cruisers right now and the modernization are running 175 to 200 percent above estimated costs, hundreds of days delay. These ships were intended to have a 30-year service life, we’re out to 35,” CNO ADM Mike Gilday told the House Armed Services Committee in 2021.
Speaking of cost, Hue City and Anzio alone were expected to run $1.5 billion each over the course of the CG Mod program, which led the Navy to add them to their “dead pool” of seven cruisers to decommission in FY22. To this was added Vicksburg, even though she was about 85 percent of the way through the CG Mod program meant to extend the life of the ship.
With all that being said, it is nice to see Gettysburg close to being complete. It’s been a long time coming.
Gettysburg in better days, seen here in a yard photo by Bath Iron Works in March 1991 on her builder’s trials. 330-CFD-DN-SC-91-07483
A century ago today, the last American submarine operated by the Russians was put into service.
The 78 assorted Type H (Holland 602) submarines made by Electric Boat in Connecticut, Fore River in Massachusetts, and Canadian Vickers in Montreal, and three British yards (Vickers, Cammell Laird, Armstrong Whitworth, and William Beardmore) then entered service with the U.S. Navy (USS H-1, H-2, and H-3), the Italians, the Royal Navy (and via the Brits on to Chile), and served as Canada’s first submarines.
HMCS CH-14 CH-15 submarines, Canada’s H boats
Added to this were 17 boats ordered by the Tsar’s admiralty for the Imperial Russian Navy in 1916.
The Amerikansky Golland
Dubbed the AG class in Russian service for “Amerikansky Golland,” they were constructed at a temporary yard outside of Vancouver, then disassembled, taken by ship to Vladivostok, then by rail via the Trans-Siberian to either Saint Petersburg on the Baltic or Nikolayev on the Black Sea where they were reassembled and launched by Russian yards.
The Russian Type H boats AG-11, AG-12, AG-15, and AG-16 alongside the submarine tender Oland in Hanko, Finland, circa 1917.
Just 11 were delivered to the Russkies before they dropped out of the war in late 1917, leaving the U.S. Navy to take over the six undelivered boats which were commissioned as USS H-4 through USS H-9.
Chile Guacolda class H-class submarines Holland 602, via Jane’s 1946
While most operators of the H-class were not terribly enamored with their boats (the U.S. Navy decommissioned all nine of theirs by 1922, the Brits either gave away most of theirs to allies or relegated them to a training role after 1920 as did the Italians, the Canadians scrapped theirs by 1927, and the Chileans, somewhat of an outlier, kept theirs through WWII) the Russians were forced into keeping theirs operational. Although the five Baltic-assigned AGs were lost during the Great War and the follow-on Russian Civil War, of the six in the Black Sea, AG-22 left with White Russian exiles and never returned while the other four were kept in service.
The last AG on hand, AG-26, was finally finished by the workers at the former Russud factory in Nikolaev (now Mykolaiv) and launched on 23 February 1923, seven years after she was originally constructed in Vancouver.
Renamed Tovarsh Kamenev, then Politrabotnik, and finally A-4, she spent her entire career in the Black Sea and carried out 12 war patrols and three blockade-running missions into besieged Sevastopol during WWII.
AG-26/Tovarsh Kamenev/Politrabotnik/A-4 would only be retired in 1947.
Operating alongside her four sisters, two were lost in combat, but all gave good wartime service– including logging dozens of attacks on Axis shipping assets during the conflict– despite their odd heritage and funky construction process, one that spanned almost 10,000 sea and rail miles from the Pacific Northwest to the Black Sea.
The surviving submarines of the AG type in Odessa in the Coastal Harbor. Late 1920s. By this time, they had been renamed A-1 through A-4.
As noted by Platonov in “Encyclopedia of Soviet submarines 1941-1945“
[T]hese obsolete submarines in every respect took the most active part in the war and even achieved relatively high results, in any case, better than the “little ones”, based on the number of sunken targets per submarine.
A familiar job for any cannon cocker going back to the 1300s for sure.
40 years ago today, 23 February 1983: Members of A Battery, 1/7th Field Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, swab the 20-foot-long 39 caliber M185 Cannon tube of an M109A2 155mm self-propelled howitzer. As was common in the early 1980s, as the Army was switching from the old olive drab OG-107 to the new M81 Woodland “cammies,” there is a mix of both uniforms being used.
An update to the 1960s M109/A1 series guns, the A2 version was much improved from the Vietnam-era models of the SPG, and upped internal shell stowage from 28 to 36 rounds while deleting the rarely-used hull flotation feature. It was by far the most popular model seen in the 1980s.
While the U.S. Army is currently fielding the long-barreled M109A6/A7 Paladin, at least until the M1299 howitzer reaches full-rate production, the Reagan-era M109A2 remains in the arsenals of Austria, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Tunisia.
And their crews probably hate “punching the bore” as well.
A Cold War era classic with smooth lines, a legendary back story, and an exotic-sounding name, Beretta’s Model 71 was definitely a mouse that roared.
Debuted in 1958 as a downsized companion pistol line to complement the recently introduced 9mm Beretta M1951, the company’s 70-series guns would span no less than 14 variants and sub-variants before ending production in the mid-1980s.
Using a fixed barrel and open slide – a hallmark of the M1951 that would later carry on to the 92-series pistols of today – the compact 70-series guns were blowback action pistols with a skeletonized bobbed hammer, a frame-mounted manual safety, and a smooth single-action trigger.
Chambered in .380 ACP, .32 ACP, and .22 LR flavors, they proved a hit both domestically in Italy and on the commercial market. While the Model 70 would see a modicum of Italian police use, such as with the CFS – the federal forestry service – it would be the Model 71 that shined the brightest in the series.
Warship Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023: A Dozen Stars and a Wigwam
U.S. Navy Photo by JOC(AC) Warren Grass. National Archives Catalog #: 80-G-K K-98130
Above we see the unpresuming Navajo/Cherokee/Apache-class fleet tug USS Tawasa (AT-92) departing Subic Bay bound for Haiphong in February 1973 to take part in Operation End Sweep. Don’t let her workaday appearance fool you, launched eight decades ago today– 22 February 1943– she saw more hairy situations than many battleships across her 32-year career and helped boil the sea.
A new type of tug, for a new type of war
With the immense U.S. Naval build-up planned just before WWII broke out, the Navy knew they needed some legitimate ocean-going rescue tugs to be able to accompany the fleet into rough waters and overseas warzones. This led to the radically different Navajo/Cherokee class of 205-foot diesel-electric (a first for the Navy) fleet tugs.
These hardy 1,250-ton ships could pull a broken-down fleet carrier if needed (Tawasa would prove that in 1965) and had long enough sea legs (10,000 miles) due to their economical engines to be able to roam the world. Armed with a 3″/50 caliber popgun as a hood ornament, a matching pair of twin 40mm Bofors, and some 20mm Oerlikons, they could down an enemy aircraft or poke holes in a gunboat if needed.
In all, the Navy commissioned 28 of these tough cookies from 1938 onward, making a splash in Popular Mechanics at the time due to their impressive diesel-electric power plant consisting of a quartet of GM 12-278A diesels driving four GE generators and a trio of GM 3-268A auxiliary services engines, generating 3,600shp.
Their war was hard and dangerous with 3 of the ships (Nauset, Navajo, and Seminole) meeting their end in combat, and the 25 that made it through the crucible going on to serve in other conflicts, and under other flags.
The Cherokee/Navajo class would prove successful enough that 22 follow-on tugs– with the same hull form and engineering plant but with a re-trunked exhaust that shrunk the funnel diameter– of the Abnaki class would be constructed during the war, and two (Wateree, lost in a 1945 typhoon; and Sarsi, sunk by a mine off Korea in 1952) lost in Navy service.
Meet Tawasa
The hero of our story, USS Tawasa (AT-92) was laid down on 22 June 1942 at Portland, Oregon, by the Commercial Iron Works, a small firm that would crank out no less than 188 hulls for Uncle Sam during the conflict ranging from landing craft to escort carriers. Tawasa’s launch date, some 80 years in the rearview, saw her sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Sullivan, the tragic gold star mom of the five lost Sullivan brothers.
The first U.S. Navy vessel named for a Florida branch of mound-building Muskhogean Indians subsequently named the Apalachicola tribe, she commissioned on 17 July 1943, just under 13 months after her first steel was cut.
WWII
Following her shakedown cruise off California, Tawasa was assigned to Service Force, Pacific Fleet, and left Pearl Harbor in early November, bound to spend Thanksgiving 1943 in the Gilbert Islands, which were being taken by Marines.
USS Tawasa (ATF-92) underway, circa 1943-1945, location unknown. David Buell for his father CWO4 Benton E. Buell USN, Ret. USS Tawasa Chief Engineer, 1962-63. Via Navsource http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/39/39092.htm
Christmas saw her in Tarawa and the New Year of 1944 with TF 52 pushing through the Marshall Islands, where she lent a hand in the landings at Kwajalein, Majuro, and Eniwetok, at times pinch-hitting as a destroyer acting as a screening vessel with her overheating and cranky WEA-2 sound equipment in the water. Her ASW armament if she had a contact? Just eight “ashcan” style depth charges on two short gravity racks over her stern.
As noted by DANFS:
Off Kwajalein Atoll on the 31st [of January], Tawasa took soundings enabling Mississippi (BB-41) to approach the shore for close bombardment. The tug then performed salvage, towing, and screening duty until 18 February when she moved to Eniwetok to assist in the assault that was to strike that atoll the next morning. She supported operations until the atoll was secured and remained in the area for almost two months, providing services to American ships using this new base.
Tawasa’s War Diary for 30/31 January 1944:
Continuing with TF52, she would soon be assisting combat-loaded LSTs landing Marines and gear on Saipan in June.
With the Marianas wrapping up, by late July Tawasa would be reassigned from TF52 back to ServRon, South Pacific, and placed on a series of unsung missions. She became particularly adept at pulling LCIs off the beach. Her embarked divers came in handy when it came to recovering lost anchors and chains, along with conducting submerged inspections of recently captured ports and leaky hulls, while her DC teams would often fan out to weld 1/4-inch steel sheeting over holes in the side of battle damaged landing craft. Her 20-ton derrick boom allowed her to salvage all manner of objects from the seafloor. Meanwhile, her sonarmen and radar operators would keep their eyes and ears peeled for interloping enemy aircraft and vessels of all types.
The Japanese surrender found our tug in Guadalcanal, where she had just transported military passengers from the Russell Islands. Post VJ-Day, she remained forward deployed except for a trip stateside to California and would operate in Chinese and Japanese waters well into 1947.
In the end, Tawasa would earn three battle stars for her WWII service.
Korea
While a wide variety of brand new ships wound up in mothballs in the days after WWII– some being towed to red lead row right from the builders’ yards– these fleet tugs remained on active service. No rest for the working man.
The Cherokee class fleet tugs listed in the 1946 Jane’s, Tawasa included. Note that the list includes the Abnaki-class half-sisters as well.
Alternating between Alaska and Guam in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Tawasa was deployed to the 7th Fleet to serve in the Korea conflict, assigned alternatively to the ports of Cho Do, Sokcho, and Chinghai while under the control of TF 92 from July 1952 through January 1953. In this, she added two further battle stars to her salad bar.
Returning stateside, she spent six months in overhaul at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. When she emerged in November 1953, a terrific series of images were captured of her for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships files, detailing her radar (SO-4), radio, and overall fit. If you are a modeler looking for shots of a 1950s Cherokee class tug, the National Archives has you covered with this series:
Note that she still carries her WWII twin Bofors mounts. 19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145199
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145203
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145715
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145197
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145716
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145717
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145201
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145714
Note the two bridge wing 20mm single Oerlikons. These would be replaced by M2 .50 cals by Vietnam while the Bofors would be deleted about the same time. 19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145202
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145200
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145198
19-NN-ATF 92 Tawasa-145713
Wigwam
Fielded in 1952 without full-scale war shot tests, the 500-pound Mark 90 “Betty” nuclear depth charge was seen as an ace-in-the-hole against rapidly growing fleets of schnorkel-equipped Soviet Whiskey-class submarines, of which Moscow ordered a staggering 215 in four different versions (Projects 613, 640, 644, and 665) between 1949 and 1958.
Carrying a W7 Thor tactical fission bomb with a theoretical yield of up to 30 kilotons– twice the force of the Hiroshima bomb– it was thought that a single Betty dropped via a patrol plane would be enough to clear out a whole nest of Whiskeys.
Conducted in May 1955 some 500 miles southwest of San Diego in water 16,000 feet deep, Tawasa tugged a Betty as part of a six-mile long towline that included a trio of identical white-painted 4/5-scale submarine hulls (704 tons, 140 foot long with a 20-foot beam complete with correct bulkhead spacings to spec and 1-inch HST steel hull plating) dubbed “Squaws” which were filled with instruments.
The three Squaw submarine mock-ups generally mimicked the same hull construction techniques as seen on the Navy’s SS-563 (post-war Tang) class diesel GUPPY boats, which were at least as strong if not stronger than Soviet Whiskey boats. The targets were fitted with extensive seismography instruments at 52 locations spread throughout their compartments.
With the Squaws submerged at a depth of 250-290 feet at three different distances from the device, the Betty was rigged some 2,000 feet under the keel of its support barge and the Wigwam task force beat feet to observe from five miles away.
The resulting “hot” bubble from the submerged blast grew to over 4,600 feet across when it broke the surface and rose some 1,900 feet above the water at its height.
Squaw 12, the closest to the device, simply disappeared.
Here is the view from five miles out. Hydrophones at Point Sur, Hawaii heard the “thump” of Wigwam from 2,500 miles away. NARA 374-ANT-30-30-DPY-11-20
The external pressures applied to the three SQUAW targets in Operation Wigwam were measured with pressure gages, and the deformations of the hull were measured with strain and displacement gages. The results indicate that SQUAW-12 was at a horizontal range of 5150 ft and a depth of 290 ft the peak shock pressure at the hull was about 850 psi and the target was destroyed, probably within 10 msec. SQUAW-13 was at a horizontal range of 7200 ft and a depth of 260 ft the peak dynamic pressure at the hull was about 615 psi, and the hull was probably near collapse but did not rupture. The estimation is that the lethal horizontal range of the SQUAW target under the Wigwam test conditions is about 7000 ft for a depth of 250 ft and about 4500 ft for a depth of 70 ft.
Even though at least 362 personnel of the task force’s 6,732 men embarked– clad just in working gear with no flash or NBC protection– would have mildly dirty dosimeters after the event, and contaminated water was found at several depths during the weeks following the test, it was judged that Betty was safe-ish enough to be used under certain conditions, and was more than capable of sinking an enemy sub (or three) within a two-mile radius of its impact if used correctly.
This 11-minute film covers the test in great detail, including Tawasa and her six-mile squaw-laden towline.
Betty would remain in service until 1960 when it was replaced by the multipurpose B57 nuclear bomb during the mid-1960s. In its depth charge variant, the hydrostatic fuzed B57 had a selectable yield up to 10 kt– only about one-third of the Wigwam device– and could be dropped by P-3s, S-3s, and SH-3s as well as the short-lived Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH). It was thought that in most scenarios, the B57 depth charge would only be dialed in at 5 kt. It would finally be withdrawn in 1993.
Anyway, back to our ship.
Vietnam
Dusting off and cleaning up post-Wigwam, Tawasa would continue to serve with the 7th Fleet on WestPac deployments, including four to Vietnam (May-Oct 1968, April-Sept 1969, May-Sept 1970, and Feb-June 1972). For this, she would earn seven Vietnam-era campaign stars.
Her most notable moments during this era included the largest operational tow made by a solo tug of the Pacific Fleet: 33,946 tons, when she pulled the decommissioned USS Bunker Hill (AVT-9) from San Francisco to San Diego, and coming to the rescue of the shattered destroyer USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754) which had been sheered in two by the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne during Southeast Asian Treaty Organization exercises in the South China Sea.
Tawasa took the remaining stern section in tow and returned it to Subic Bay.
2 June 1969 SH-3 helicopters from USS Kearsarge (CVS-33) join search and rescue operations over the stern section of USS Frank E. Evans, as USS Everett F. Larson (DD-830) stands ready to offer assistance (at right). NH 98649
She closed out her Vietnam service with Operation End Sweep off Haiphong in 1973. During the six months of End Sweep, 10 ocean minesweepers, 9 amphibious ships, 6 fleet tugs, 3 salvage ships, and 19 destroyer types operated in RADM Brian McCauley’s Task Force 78, sweeping hundreds of the aircraft-laid mines.
By 1973, she was one of 25 of her class still in Navy service but her days were numbered.
Jane’s 1973-74 listing, in which the class is dubbed the Apache class. Note that the list includes the Abnaki-class half-sisters as well.
Epilogue
With a final scoresheet that would include three battle stars for World War II service, two for Korea, and seven for Vietnam, Tawasa was decommissioned and struck from the Navy list on April Fool’s Day 1975. She was sold for scrapping the following August.
There has not been a second Tawasa on the Navy List.
As for the rest of her sisters, many continued in U.S. Navy service until as late as the 1970s when they were either sunk as targets or scrapped. A number went as military aid to overseas allies in Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and elsewhere. One sister, USS Apache (ATF-67) who served as the support tender for the bathysphere Trieste, was transferred in 1974 to Taiwan and continues to serve as ROCS Ta Wan (ATF-551). Added to this is USS Pinto (AT-90), which has been in Peru as BAP Guardian Rios (ARB-123), and USS Sioux (AT-75), which lingers as the Turkish Navy’s Gazal (A-587).
The final Abnaki-class half-sister in the Navy’s inventory, ex-USS Paiute (ATF-159), was stricken in 1995 after 44 years of service spanning WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the First Gulf War, then scrapped in October 2003 at Portsmouth.
The legacy of U.S. Navy fleet tugs is kept alive by NAFTS, the National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors. The only Navy tug museum ship is the former ATA-170-class auxiliary tug USS Wampanoag/USCG Comanche, which will be opened to the public in the coming months.
When it comes to Betty, the National Museum of the U.S. Navy has an inert casing on display, noting, “After tests at sea and in the Nevada desert, the Navy soon determined that the Mk 90 was not a practical weapon and retired the system in 1959.”
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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