USS Willamette (AO-180)

300px Willamette with USS Duncan (FFG-10) before the jumboization, 1987
Career (USA)
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 Cannons, 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS, 4 × 50 Cal. 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.

History

Commissioning

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]

Namesake

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]

The ship's Shield explained the capability of the ship to supply both types of fuel, for surface ships and for aircraft and was symbolized by the dolphin and eagle’s wing. The arched, wavy bend was a reference to the historic Willamette River in Oregon for which the ship is named.

The ship's Crest represented the flaming torch behind our national bird symbol, the Bald Eagle, was a representation of the words of the ship’s motto: “Fuel for Freedom”.

Operational service

As the ship was built at New Orleans and commissioned at Pearl Harbor, it was necessary to transit the Panama Canal on 24 October 1982. Leaving New Orleans was delayed as the initial fuel load at Avondale had caused the ship to sink into the bottom of the river. Several tugboats were required to pull the ship out of the mud and into the river channel. A month later Willamette visited Portland, Oregon and transited to the ship's namesake, the Willamette River. While mooring at Portland, the ship hit an underwater cement pier containing a main telephone trunk. The phone cable was cut, the cement pier destroyed, and the western half of the city of Portland lost phone services for several days. In addition, the bottom of the ship sustained minor damage, which was visible from the inside of both pump rooms. While leaving the Columbia River a few days later, the handrails on the forward deck were destroyed by rough seas at the Columbia River Bar. The handrails were later replaced with steel plating.

In 1983 Willamette was involved in another incident while departing Pearl Harbor. While being turned in the channel by a tug, the tug's line broke and the Willamette began to drift towards a Los Angeles class submarine. The captain then ordered emergency back full and the ship came to a stop about a meter from the submarine. As the captain did not give the STOP order the ship began to pick up speed in reverse. The captain therefore ordered emergency ahead full, but the ship still backed into the USS Cimarron (AO-177) tied up at a pier. Both ships were only slightly damaged. However, Willamette`s crew then re-christened the ship as "Will-Ram-It".

In April 1984 the Willamette softball team played 95 consecutive hours of softball to break the previous world record of 94 hours and got into the Guinness Book of World Records. Starting on 15 January 1985 the ship deployed on her first WESTPAC (western pacific) cruise and visited Guam, Subic Bay, Hong Kong, Pusan, Korea, Sasebo, Kagoshima, Yokosuka, and Shimoda, Japan.

During a formation steaming exercise on 10 February 1986 about 100 km southwest Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Willamette collided with the repair ship USS Jason (AR-8), killing one of Jason´s crew (CPO Susano R. Valdez) and injuring eight. The collision smashed Willamette's bow from the rail to below the waterline. A large vertical rupture from the deck to waterline on the port side of the Jason forced that ship to be towed back to port by the USS Brunswick (ATS-3). The resultant fires in Willamette’s boatswain’s locker took several hours to extinguish. The smoke was so thick that the crew could not enter the flaming compartment via the hatch. Therefore holes were cut in the deck above so that nozzles could be inserted to extinguish the blaze. Both ships had to be emptied of fuel and needed to be repaired for several months. The Willamette received a new bow section and while in drydock and hull damage sustained during the grounding in the Willamette river was also repaired. As a result of the collision both captains were relieved of command.

File:USS Willamette, Duncan, and Gray 02.jpg

Willamette refuels USS Duncan (FFG-10), USS Gray (FF-1054) follows behind.

In 1987 Willamette undertook a for global circumnavigation and operated under all four numbered fleet commanders. During that cruise the ship crossed the equator for the first time on 6 April 1987. Two years later, on 17 April 1989, the first female sailors embarked on the ship.

Jumboization

To increase the fueled load of the Cimarron-class oilers it was decided in the late 1980s to lengthen the ships. Willamette became the second ship complete the so-called "jumboization" on 27 September 1991. A 35.7 m midbody section was added at about one third from the bow. This midbody increased fuel capacity by 30,000 barrels and added an ordnance cargo capability of 625 tons. The midbody also featured an additional emergency diesel generator and two "Standard Tensioned Replenishment Alongside Method" (STREAM) cargo stations. The new length of the ship was 216.0 m (699 ft 6 in).

Boiler Explosion

On 29 June 1995, while being at Pearl Harbor, seven crewmen were slightly injured from smoke inhalation during a boiler explosion and the resulting self-extinguished fire-ball in the boiler room while being moored. The ship's crew, led by CHENG LT Brian Tansey, quickly responded to the explosion with help from base firefighters, the Honolulu Fire Department, and members from a Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force ship moored nearby.

On 4 June 1998 Willamette made the final port visit to Portland and transit of her namesake river. Half a year later USNS John Ericsson (T-AO-194), the replacement ship for the Willamette arrived in Pearl Harbor. Willamette conducted the final underway replenishment with USS Chosin (CG-65) and USS Lake Erie (CG-70) on 12 February 1999.

Her distinguished, 17-year career took her around the world where she performed underway replenishment (UNREP) and operations under all four (Second, Third, Sixth and Seventh) fleet commanders. During her time in service, she performed more than 1,300 underway replenishments, transferred more than 300 million gallons of fuel and has operated with the navies of Australia, Canada, France, England, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand and Venezuela. Awarded the Navy "E" Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal.

Decommissioning

On 30 April 1999 the ship was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor. Willamette was the last U.S. Navy manned auxiliary oiler assigned to U.S. Pacific Fleet and was the last steam-propelled warship home ported in Pearl Harbor. On 10 June 1999 the ship was towed out of Pearl Harbor en route to the mothball fleet at Suisun Bay, Benecia, California (USA). Two years later, on 28 July 2001 Willamette was disposed of by Navy title transfer to the Maritime Administration to be part of the Naval Defense Reserve Fleet.

References

This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U.S. government publication, is in the public domain. [3]

External links

• navsource.org: AO-180 Willamette
• 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.