USS Willamette (AO-180)
_and_Duncan_(FFG-10).jpg)
Willamette with USS Duncan (FFG-10) before the jumboization, 1987
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Willamette |
| Namesake: | Willamette River |
| Builder: | Avondale Shipyards |
| Laid down: | 4 August 1980 |
| Launched: | 18 July 1981 |
| Commissioned: | 18 December 1982 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 April 1999 |
| Struck: | 30 April 1999 |
| Status: | Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 36,977 tons full load |
| Length: | 700 ft (210 m) |
| Beam: | 88 ft (27 m) |
| Draft: | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam Turbine |
| Speed: | 20 kn (37 km/h) |
| Complement: | 12 officers, 148 enlisted |
| Armament: | 2 × 25 mm guns, 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS, 4 × .50-caliber Machine Guns |
The USS Willamette (AO-180) was the fourth ship in the Cimarron-class of fleet replenishment oilers for the United States Navy in service from 1981 to 1999.
The contract for the Willamette was awarded on 11 April 1978 to Avondale Shipyards Inc in New Orleans. On 18 July 1981, the ship was launched in a unique sideways fashion into the Mississippi River at Avondale Shipyards, Louisiana. Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., USN, Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces, Europe, was the principal speaker at the ceremony and his wife, Shirley Grennell Crowe, was the ship's sponsor. After completion, USS Willamette (AO-180) was commissioned in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the first U.S. Navy ship to be commissioned in Pearl Harbor since 1917. The Willamette replaced the USS Ashtabula (AO-51) in the Pacific Fleet. The ship’s mission was to transport and deliver bulk petroleum products, and limited fleet freight, mail, and personnel to combatant and support ships underway.
Willamette was the first ship of the class to be protected by two MK 15 Phalanx Weapon Systems. Extensive damage control equipment and systems ensure rapid response to control any type of emergency.[1]
The ship was the first in the U.S. Navy to bear the name, and she was named after the Willamette River in Oregon. The name Willamette is of Indian origin, though there is no definitive source. The name is thought to mean "long and beautiful river" or "rain waters along the river". Originally, there was another ship named Willamette but the contract for the construction of that Willamette, a projected screw sloop-of-war of the Contoocook class, was canceled in 1866 before its keel was laid.[2]
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