Ex-USNS Assertive (T-AGOS-9) (Seattle, Washington)

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The ninth of eighteen Stalwart Class Ocean Surveillance Ships built for the US Navy and operated by the Military Sealift Command, USNS Assertive was laid down at the Tacoma Boatbuiling Shipyard in June of 1985 and activated for service in September of 1986. Spending the next eight years actively engaged in tracking Soviet Submarines and other clandestine tasks, the end of the Cold War left the Assertive and her crews largely without a primary mission. Nevertheless, the MSC found ample taskings for the Assertive in the years subsequent to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ship continued to operate with the MSC's Pacific Special Mission Support Force through the late 1990's before being deactivated and placed into reserve in the early 2000's.

Stricken from the Naval Register in March of 2004, the Assertive was transferred to the operational control of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which intended to covert the ship into an Oceanographic Research Vessel in FY2007 to replacing the aging NOAAS David Starr Jordan (R444). However a major fire at NOAA's Lake Union pier facility in June of 2006 badly damaged the layberthed vessel, leading NOAA to cancel its planned conversion and offer the ship for resale. Transferred to MARAD in 2007, the ship was then transferred in December of 2008 to the Seattle Maritime Academy for use as a training vessel however funding for the requisite overhauls and repairs never materialized, and as of 2014 the ship has been listed for sale on an "as is, where is" basis by several brokers.

www.navsource.org/archives/09/66/6609.htm
www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/AGOS9.htm