USS Neosho (AO-143)
USNS Neosho (T-AO-143) in 1985
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Neosho |
| Builder: | Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts |
| Laid down: | 2 September 1952 |
| Launched: | 10 November 1953 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Philipps |
| Commissioned: | 24 September 1954 |
| Decommissioned: | 25 May 1978 |
| In service: | 25 May 1978 |
| Out of service: | 1992 |
| Reclassified: | T-AO-143, 1978 |
| Struck: | 16 February 1994 |
| Motto: | "Lifeblood of the Fleet" |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 2 February 2005 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Neosho-class oiler |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 655 ft (200 m) |
| Beam: | 86 ft (26 m) |
| Draft: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Capacity: | 180,000 bbl (29,000 m3) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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USS Neosho (AO-143) was the lead ship of her class of fleet oilers of the United States Navy, in service from 1954 to the early 1990s.
The fourth Neosho was laid down 15 August 1952 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts, and named Neosho on 29 September 1953. She was launched on 10 November 1953, sponsored by Mrs. Phillips, wife of Rear Admiral John S. Phillips, the last commanding officer of the USS Neosho (AO-23), which survived the Attack on Pearl Harbor and was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea. AO-143 was commissioned on 24 September 1954, Captain Norman E. Smith in command.
Neosho was the first of a class of U.S. Navy fleet oilers designed to combine speed and large cargo capacity for underway replenishment. She entered service at Norfolk, Virginia, in the Atlantic Fleet on 8 December 1954. A unit of Service Forces, Atlantic Fleet, she operated along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean until 7 September 1955, when she got underway for her first Mediterranean deployment.
After that initial deployment, Neosho rotated regularly between the United States Sixth Fleet and the United States Second Fleet. During her second 6th Fleet deployment in autumn 1956, she supported units of the Sixth Fleet as they stood by in case they were called on to intervene in the Suez Crisis and the tense period which followed.
In August–September 1958 she joined Task Force 88 for Operation Argus, making three nuclear weapons tests in the South Atlantic. Her commanding officer served as Commander Task Group 88.3, the Mobile Logistics Group, consisted of: Neosho, equipped with USAF MSQ-1 radar and communication vans, USS Salamonie (AO-26), and assigned destroyers.
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