USS
Excel
(MSO-439)
Aggressive Class
Minesweeper
- Displacement 775 tons
- Length 172 ft
- Beam
35ft
- Draft 12ft
- Speed 14 kts
- Complement 8 Officers, 70 Enlisted
- Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines
- Two shafts, two controllable pitch
propellers.
- Laid down 9 February 1953 as AM-439
at the
Higgins
Corp., New Orleans, LA
- Launched, 25 September 1953
- Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper
(non-magnetic), MSO-439,
7 February 1955
- Commissioned USS Excel (MSO-439),
24 February 1955
- Decommissioned, 30 September 1992
- Struck from the
Navy Register 28 March 1994
- Laid up in the Reserve Fleet; Sold for
scrap to Crowley Marine in January 2000.
Additional links
for
USS Excel:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/02439.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Excel_(MSO-439)
Dismantling
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/2170/mso439dismantling.html
My Duties with
USS Excel
Apr 1984 - Feb 1986
USS Excel was a reserve
ship. Although her home
port was
listed as Treasure
Island, CA, the ship was berthed at the Naval
Supply Center,
Oakland CA. Because of the size of the ship, the crew stayed
on our own wing of the bachelors quarters on Treasure Island.
I was the only QM aboard and cross trained other crew members to stand
navigation watches. The signalman (SM2) and I shared berthing in
the IFF
room just behind the bridge. It was like having our own private
state
room. The drawback was that it was too close to the
bridge.
Too many
times I was called to the bridge wearing nothing but my skivvies to
solve
some sort of Nav problem. Once, to make
room for the visiting Commodore, a Jr Officer was temporarily
moved
from Officer Country and was billeted with us. The JO
was informed that I was
the
senior man and was entitled to the senior bunk, the SM2 was
second in seniority and the officer was obliged to take the
junior bottom bunk.
Every summer Excel and other minesweepers set out for a summer
cruise. We
went from San Francisco to Hawaii to Adak AK to
Seattle and back to the Bay area, dropping off and picking up reserves
as they performed their annual two week
AcDuTra.
I adapted an AmPhib piloting technique to Mine Field navigation.
For my
innovation I was awarded my first Navy/Marine Corps
Achievement Medal
from MineGru 1.
Nov 1985 Excel went into overhaul at Lake
Union Dry dock, Seattle, WA
Feb 1986 I was relieved by my
good friend QM1 Rick Burris and transfered to NavSta Puget Sound.
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