Ex - USS Washtenaw County (LST-1166/MSS-2)

 military, place with historical importance, Landing Ship Tank (LST), United States Navy

USS Washtenaw County was the eleventh Terrebonne Parish Class Tank Landing Ship (LST) built for the US Navy, laid down at the Christy Shipbuilding Yard in Sturgeon Bay, WI in November 1951 and commissioned into service with the US Atlantic Fleet in October 1953. The only ship of the US Navy ever to be named for Washtenaw County, MI, she spent her first five years operating out of Little Creek, VA on routine deployments before she joined several of her sisters and began operations with the US Pacific Fleet in 1958.

Resuming her schedule of routine training and deployments for the next seven years, the Washtenaw County and her crews were called upon in July 1965 to transport men, material and vehicles to the embattled nation of South Vietnam, marking the beginning of what would turn into eight straight years of heavy involvement in the Vietnam War for the ship. Tasked initially with the traditional roles assigned to LSTs, Washtenaw County and several of her sisters were found to be well-suited to operations in the myriad of inland river systems and near-shore waters of South Vietnam, and starting in 1968 she began the first of many deployments to the Mekong Delta to serve as a floating support base to the Mobile Riverine Force. So involved through 1971, the LST shifted her area of operations to support nearshore and Riverine forces conducting "Operation Market Time" along South Vietnam's coastline through the cessation of hostilities, after which she ended her last combat deployment in July 1972 and departed Vietnamese waters on her for Yokosuka.

Refitted at Yokosuka for service as a "Special Device Minesweeper" for operations with Task Force 78 in "Operation End Sweep", the Washtenaw County ended her days as a LST with her February 1973 reactivation as MSS-2 and returned to Vietnam once again in April. Operating with a skeleton volunteer crew, Washtenaw County once again put herself in harm’s way as she demonstrated that the navigable waters of Haiphong Harbor and its tributaries had been cleared by American minesweeping forces by steaming through the channels herself at enough speed to trigger any live pressure, acoustic or magnetic mines lying on the seabed. Having successfully and safely completed her role in "Operation End Sweep" by early July, the Washtenaw County departed Vietnamese waters for the final time and was formally decommissioned at Naval Station Yokosuka in August 1973.

Stripped of her military hardware and offered for sale to commercial buyers, the former Washtenaw County was purchased in late 1973 and began her commercial career as a combination ro-ro/cargo vessel. Sailing under the names Al Manhal 1 and El Centroamericano during her commercial service, the former LST arrived in the Columbia River in October 1980 under tow after suffering engine problems in the open ocean, and after languishing pierside for the next four years while her salvors searched in vain to locate her owners to pay her salvage bill, her hulk was eventually sold to private interests which eventually led the aging ship to her current location where she has been under restoration by the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum/LST-1166 Partners who have stated their intention to make the former LST a museum ship. Stymied by funding troubles and multiple thefts of internal piping and systems at her current berth, the former Wasthenaw County, sole survivor of her class and decorated Vietnam War Veteran, faces an uncertain future.

For her actions in the Vietnam War, Washtenaw County earned 13 battle stars, two Presidential Unit Citations, two Navy Unit Commendations, and four Meritorious Unit Commendations.

www.lst1166.com/
www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/161166.htm