USS Acadia (AD-42)
Acadia (top) and Fresno (LST-1182) in 1982
|
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Name: | USS Acadia |
| Ordered: | 11 March 1976 |
| Builder: | National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego |
| Laid down: | 14 February 1978 |
| Launched: | 28 July 1979 |
| Commissioned: | 6 June 1981 |
| Decommissioned: | 16 December 1994 |
| Struck: | 13 December 2007 |
| Fate: | Sunk September 2010 during Valiant Shield |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Yellowstone-class destroyer tender |
| Displacement: | 21,916 long tons (22,268 t) |
| Length: | 641 ft 10 in (195.63 m) |
| Beam: | 85 ft (26 m) |
| Draft: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 boilers, steam turbines, single shaft, 20,000 shp (14,914 kW) |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement: |
|
| Armament: |
|
| Aircraft carried: | None |
| Aviation facilities: | Helo deck/platform and hangar aft, no Helo-det complement assigned. Enabling "fly-away" repair team support, as well as resupply and emergency airlifts. |
USS Acadia (AD-42) was a Yellowstone-class destroyer tender in the service of the United States Navy, named after Acadia National Park. She was inactive and in reserve after her 1994 decommissioning at Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under Maintenance Category B, until sunk off Guam during a live fire training exercise Valiant Shield on 20 September 2010. She was the first ship to house a wartime mixed sex crew and was unofficially nicknamed 'The Love Boat' in the 1991 Persian Gulf War after 36 women (10% of women in crew) became pregnant during deployment.
She was ordered on 11 March 1976, laid down on 14 February 1978 at San Diego by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, launched on 28 July 1979, sponsored by Mrs. Clarence R. Bryan, wife of Vice Admiral Bryan, and commissioned on 6 June 1981 with Capt. Brenton P. Hardy in command.
Acadia completed her outfitting at her builders yard on 6 July and then made the brief trip to the Naval Station, San Diego. After a month clearing details and getting ready, the destroyer tender embarked upon her shakedown cruise on 7 August. That voyage took her to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and back to San Diego where she arrived on 28 August. When the ship returned to her home port, her crew concentrated their efforts on honing their skills as repairmen; and, except for a few brief periods at sea for underway training and propulsion plant certification, Acadia spent the rest of the year in port at San Diego.
The destroyer tender began 1982 as a fully operational mobile repair facility of the Pacific Fleet. She provided her services at San Diego until the beginning of February when she moved to the Naval Air Station, Alameda. At the end of the month, she steamed back to San Diego. Late in May, the ship embarked Naval Academy and NROTC midshipmen for their summer training cruise. On 14 June, Acadia stood out of San Diego on her way to Hawaii. The destroyer tender repaired ships of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor from 22 June to 25 July. Returning to San Diego in August, she spent the remainder of the year in the immediate vicinity of her home port. Though she put to sea occasionally for training purposes, the majority of the time, she was in San Diego doing repair work for the fleet.
...
Wikipedia