USS Wasatch (AGC-9)
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| History | |
|---|---|
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| Name: | USS Wasatch |
| Builder: | North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Wilmington, North Carolina |
| Laid down: | 7 August 1943 |
| Launched: | 8 October 1943 |
| Acquired: | 31 December 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 20 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 August 1946 |
| Struck: | 1 January 1960 |
| Honours and awards: |
5 battle stars |
| Fate: | Scrapped |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mount McKinley-class Amphibious Command Ship |
| Displacement: | 12,750 long tons (12,955 t) |
| Length: | 459 ft 2 in (139.95 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft (19 m) |
| Draft: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Speed: | 16.4 knots (30.4 km/h; 18.9 mph) |
| Complement: | 612 |
| Armament: |
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USS Wasatch (AGC-9) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named after a mountain chain in northern Utah. She was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.
The ship was laid down as Fleetwing under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1349) on 7 August 1943 at Wilmington, N.C., by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company; launched on 8 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. P. A. Wilson; and acquired by the Navy on 31 December 1943 for conversion to an amphibious command ship. Renamed Wasatch and designated AGC-9, the ship was converted for naval use at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Va., and commissioned there on 20 May 1944, Capt. Alford M. Granum in command.
Following sea trials in Chesapeake Bay, Wasatch sailed for the Pacific on 26 June in company with USS Stafford (DE-411) and USS La Prade (DE-409), and transited the Panama Canal on 3 July, bound for New Guinea. The ship reached Milne Bay at 17:25 on 31 July and ten days later, embarked Rear Admiral William Fechteler from USS Blue Ridge (AGC-2). On 7 September, Rear Admiral Daniel E. "Uncle Dan" Barbey, who commanded Task Force (TF) 76, embarked in Wasatch; and the ship got underway for Aitape to join other units of the Morotai-bound task force.
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