History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | USS Wasatch |
Namesake | Wasatch Range in Utah |
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 |
Stricken | 1 January 1960 |
Honours and awards | 5 battle stars |
Fate | Scrapped 1960 |
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 a cargo ship and converted into 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, a type C2-S-AJ1 cargo vessel, under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1349) on 7 August 1943 at Wilmington, N.C., by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company. Fleetwing was 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.