USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO-193)

USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO-193)
Career (USA)
Name:	USNS Walter S. Diehl
Namesake:	Walter Stuart Diehl (1893-1976), a U.S. Navy officer and American pioneer of aerodynamics and aircraft design
Ordered:	28 June 1985
Builder:	Avondale Shipyard, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana
Laid down:	7 August 1986
Launched:	2 October 1987
Christened:	10 October 1987
In service:	13 September 1988-present
Status:	In active Military Sealift Command service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Henry J. Kaiser-class oiler
Type:	Fleet replenishment oiler
Tonnage:	31,200 deadweight tons
Displacement:	9,500 tons light Full load variously reported as 42,382 tons and 40,700 long tons (41,353 metric tons)
Length:	677 ft (206 m)
Beam:	97 ft 5 in (29.69 m)
Draft:	35 ft (11 m) maximum
Installed power:	16,000 hp (11.9 MW) per shaft 34,442 hp (25.7 MW) total sustained
Propulsion:	Two medium-speed Colt-Pielstick PC4-2/2 10V-570 diesel engines, two shafts, controllable-pitch propellers
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/hr)
Capacity:	178,000 to 180,000 barrels of fuel oil and jet fuel 7,400 square feet dry cargo space; eight 20-foot refrigerated containers with room for 128 pallets
Complement:	103 (18 civilian officers, 1 U.S. Navy officer, 64 merchant seamen, 20 U.S. Navy enlisted personnel)
Armament:	Peacetime: usually none Wartime: probably 2 x 20-mm Phalanx CIWS
Aircraft carried:	None
Aviation facilities:	Helicopter landing platform
Notes:	Five refueling stations Two dry cargo transfer rigs

USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO-193) is a Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler of the United States Navy.

Construction and delivery

Walter S. Diehl, the seventh ship of the Henry J. Kaiser class, was laid down at Avondale Shipyard, Inc., at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 7 August 1986 and launched on 2 October 1987. She entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service under the control of the Military Sealift Command with a primarily civilian crew on 13 September 1988.

Service history

Walter S. Diehl serves in the United States Pacific Fleet, seeing service in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf regions.

On 23 April 2002, Walter S. Diehl was passing through the Strait of Hormuz when six small motorboats sped alongside in an aggressive and threatening manner. Walter S. Diehl fired flares to warn the boats off, but they did not move away. She then opened fire with a .50-caliber (12.7-mm) machine gun and the boats sped off.

References

• This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here.

External links

• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO-193)
• USNS Walter S. Diehl (T-AO 193)
• Wildenberg, Thomas (1996). Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U.S. Navy, 1912-1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/GSBO/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-28.