Wreck of USS/USNS Concord (T-AFS-5)

 military, shipwreck, United States Navy

Laid down at the NASSCO Shipyard in San Diego in March 1966 as the fifth member of the Mars Class of Combat Stores Ships, USS Concord commissioned into US Navy service and was assigned to the US Atlantic Fleet.

After transiting the Panama Canal and arriving at Norfolk, Concord and her crews began a regular series of deployments in support of US and NATO operations the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea which would come to define the ship's US Navy career. Throughout the Cold War, Concord and her crews were nearly always at sea supplying US and Allied vessels, leading many of her crew to speculate that AFS stood for "Always F###### Steaming". The end of the Cold War and the subsequent elimination of the threat posed by the Soviet Navy led to sweeping fleetwide changes in the US Navy, one of which was the decommissioning of USS Concord for her transfer to the civilian Military Sealift Command, an event which took place in a joint ceremony on October 15th, 1992.

Activated with the Military Sealift Command, Concord returned to the Pacific Ocean where she joined four of her sisterships in the MSC's Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force Far East, based out of Guam and Sasebo. Continuing her role of supply vessel to ships of the US Navy and its Allies, the Concord and her crews served for a further seventeen years before her advancing age and operational limitations when compared to modern auxiliary vessels coming into service led to her deactivation from MSC service in August 2008.

Placed into Category X Reserve at NISMF Pearl Harbor following her deactivation, the Concord was stripped of reusable materials through 2010 and subsequently listed on the Navy's target ship roster. Following environmental remediation and preparation operations lasting until 2012, the Concord was finally towed out of Pearl Harbor to this location roughly 61 miles Northeast of Kauai where she was set adrift for use as a target. Coming into the periscope of the Canadian Submarine HMCS Victoria (SSk-876) shortly after 1300hrs on July 18th, 2012, the Ex-USNS Concord was struck by a single Mark 48 torpedo in her bow at 1351hrs. Settling by the bow over the next three hours, Concord finally gave out and sank bow-first at this location at 1612hrs in 15,392ft of water.

www.navsource.org/archives/09/52/5205.htm