Oak Ridge/Ex-USS Oak Ridge (ARD-19 / ARDM-1)

 military, United States Coast Guard, drydock

USS Oak Ridge is an ARD-18 Class Auxiliary Repair Dock/ARDM-1 Class Medium Auxiliary Repair Dock commissioned into US Navy service in 1944.

Serving in the Phillipine Theatre as a mobile repair drydock for vessels less than 430ft, the Oak Ridge's rear-area operations did not spare her from being kamikazed and heavily damaged in November 1944 at San Pedro Bay. Remaining operational despite her damage, she continued her work until the cessation of hostilities and returned stateside in 1948. Upon her return she served out of Long Beach preparing ships for inactivation until her own decommissioning in 1949. Laid up in Orange, Texas as part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 1960, she was lengthened and modernized to serve the emerging US Nuclear Submarine Fleet and based Norfolk until 1963. Following an upgrade of her cranes and docking cradle systems, she was shifted to the NATO base at Rota, Spain where she serviced US Subs operating in the Med through 1981. Returning to the US once again, the Oak Ridge was put into service at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, and eventually Naval Submarine Base Groton during the next twenty years, before she was formally decomissioned from US Navy service in November 2001.

Officially transferred to the US Coast Guard in February 2002, she continues to serve as a mobile drydock at the Curtis Bay Coast Guard Yard.

www.navsource.org/archives/09/67/6701.htm