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USS Mars (AFS-1)

USS Mars (AFS-1)
History
Name: USS Mars
Namesake: The borough of Mars in Butler County, Pennsylvania
Builder: National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, California
Laid down: 5 May 1962
Launched: 15 June 1963
Commissioned: 1 December 1963
Decommissioned: 19 February 1998
Struck: 24 May 2004
Honors and
awards:		 Navy Unit Commendation and 11 campaign stars (Vietnam)
Fate: Sunk as a target, 15 July 2006
General characteristics
Class and type: Mars-class combat stores ship
Displacement:
  • 9,200 long tons (9,300 t) (light)
  • 15,900–18,663 long tons (16,155–18,962 t) (full load)
Length: 581 ft (177 m)
Beam: 79 ft (24 m)
Draft: 27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h)
Complement: 486
Armament:
  • 4 × 3"/50 caliber guns (2x2) (originally 6)
  • Chaff launchers
  • 4 × M240G 7.62×51 mm medium machine guns or M249 5.56×45 mm light MG
  • 1 M2 12.7×99 mm heavy machine gun when security detachment is embarked
Aircraft carried: 2 × CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters

USS Mars (AFS‑1), the third United States Navy ship to bear the name, was laid down by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California, on 5 May 1962; launched on 15 June 1963, sponsored by Mrs. Clyde Doyle, widow of Representative Clyde Doyle of California; and commissioned at Long Beach Naval Shipyard on 21 December 1963, with Captain Russel C. Medley in command.

Mars was the first of a new class that was intended to replace three types of supply ships: the AF (Store Ship), AKS (Stores Issue Ship), and AVS (Aviation Supply Ship). Two innovations were Boeing UH‑46 helicopters and an automatic highline shuttle transfer system to make a rapid transfer of supplies possible. To speed replenishment processing, Mars became the first ship in the Pacific Fleet to be equipped with a UNIVAC 1104 computer system.

Assigned to Service Squadron 1 (ServRon 1), Mars left San Diego on 16 March 1964 for Acapulco, Mexico, for shakedown, returning to San Diego on Easter Sunday. On 1 September she departed for the western Pacific, arriving at Yokosuka, Japan, on the 23rd. With Yokosuka as home port, the combat storeship operated from the Philippines to the South China Sea through the rest of the year.


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