Vietnam War-era oiler to depart from Benicia on final voyage

A Mare Island company has secured two upcoming mothballed ship cleaning contracts, before the vessels take their final voyages for scrapping in Texas.

The former USS Wabash is scheduled to be tugged from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet early Wednesday morning to Allied Defense Recycling on Mare Island.

Preparation work is set to begin around 7 a.m., with the ship leaving the fleet around 9 a.m. and arriving at Mare Island around 11 a.m.

The Wabash, the 38th obsolete ship to leave the fleet in a mass ship cleanup effort since 2009, served as a Wichita-class U.S. Navy replenishment oiler from its 1970 construction in Quincy, Mass., to 1994.

The vessel served in the Philippines and Vietnam, with 46 supply replenishments conducted while it and its designation ship were underway in 1972 alone.

The Wabash was decommissioned in 1994 and came to rest at the Suisun Bay fleet in 1997.

Originally, the ship, along with upcoming Roanoke, was set for external hull cleaning and repair at BAE Systems San Francisco Shipyard.

However, an emergency repair job in San Francisco gave Mare Island Ship Yard LLC, formerly known as Allied Defense Recycling, a chance to nab the contract, said the shipyard's Suzanne Castleman. Esco Marine, in Brownsville, Texas, will be the Wabash's final destination.

Source: times herald online.

http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_21986423/vietnam-war-era-oiler-depart-from-benicia-final

USS Wabash

USS Wabash AOR 5 Details:

Laid down, 1 January 1970, at General Dynamics Corp., Qunicy, MA.

Launched, 1 February 1971

Commissioned USS Wabash (AOR-5), 20 November 1971

Decommissioned, 30 September 1994

Struck from the Naval Register, 8 April 1997

Title transfer to MARAD, 18 December 1998

Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA.

Final Disposition, fate unknown

USS Wabash

Specifications:

Displacement 14,048 t.(lt) 39,790 t.(fl)

Length 659'

Beam 96'

Draft 37' (max.)

Speed 20 kts.

Complement 34 Officers, 463 Enlisted

Armament two Phalanx Close-In-Weapons System (CIWS), Sparrow Missile System (NSSMS)

Aircraft two CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters

Propulsion three boilers, two steam turbines, twin shafts, 32,000shp

Source: http://www.usswabash.com/