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USNS Flint (T-AE 32)

USNS FLINT was the fifth of the KILAUEA - class ammunition ships and the second ship in the Navy to bear the name of the city in Michigan. On August 4, 1995, FLINT was turned over to MSC Pacific to commence an extensive habitability conversion at Norshipco, Norfolk, VA. As a United States Naval Ship (USNS), Flint was "in service", not commissioned. On March 24, 1997, USNS FLINT commenced ammunition operations in the Pacific. The ship was deactivated on November 8, 2013, and laid up at Beaumont, Tx. On November 24, 2015, she was sold under a domestic sale contract to All Star Metals, LLC. The former FLINT departed the Beaumont Reserve Fleet on December 8, 2015, for dismantling.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS FLINT. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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• Click here to see which USNS FLINT memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

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USS/USNS FLINT Cruise Books:

• WestPac Cruise Book 1981-82
• WestPac Cruise Book 1984

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Accidents aboard USS/USNS FLINT:

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USS/USNS FLINT History:

The contract for USS FLINT's construction was awarded on March 8, 1968, and her keel was laid on August 4, 1969, at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Systems, Inc. She was launched on November 9, 1970, sponsored by Mrs. Donald W. Riegle Jr., wife of Representative Donald W. Riegle Jr. of Michigan, and was commissioned at Charleston Naval Shipyard, South Carolina, on November 20, 1971, with Captain Philip R. Bush in command.

Following commissioning, FLINT transferred from the Atlantic to the Pacific Fleet. During December 1971, she passed through the Panama Canal and proceeded to her new home port at Naval Weapons Station Concord, California. Concord, in the San Francisco Bay area, was one of the Pacific Fleet's principal ammunition storage and loading facilities and remained closely associated with FLINT throughout her commissioned service.

During the opening months of 1972, the ship completed training, qualification and preparations for her first overseas deployment. FLINT departed for the western Pacific on October 13, 1972. Her arrival in Seventh Fleet waters coincided with the final phase of major American combat operations in the Vietnam War. Aircraft carriers operating from the Gulf of Tonkin were conducting intensive strike operations, while cruisers and destroyers continued naval gunfire missions along the Vietnamese coast. These operations consumed substantial quantities of aviation ordnance and naval gunfire ammunition, creating a continuing requirement for ammunition ships capable of sustaining the deployed force.

FLINT entered the Seventh Fleet logistics system and began moving ammunition between forward supply facilities and the ships operating off Vietnam. On January 14, 1973, USS RICHARD E. KRAUS (DD 849) replenished ammunition from FLINT while also receiving fuel and other supplies from separate logistics ships. The destroyer subsequently resumed high-speed nighttime naval gunfire missions against coastal targets in North Vietnam. Replenishments of this type allowed surface combatants to remain close to their assigned operating areas instead of leaving the theater to load ammunition in port.

The Paris Peace Accords were signed on January 27, 1973, and direct American combat operations were subsequently reduced, but FLINT remained in the western Pacific while U.S. naval forces adjusted to the post-cease-fire situation. Her first western Pacific deployment continued until May 10. During the return passage, FLINT was diverted on April 24, 1973, to assist the civilian tug MOHAWK, which had suffered an engine failure while towing a barge across the Pacific. FLINT rendezvoused with the disabled tug on April 26 approximately 100 miles southwest of Wake Island and took MOHAWK under tow. She continued towing the vessel until April 29, when USS ABNAKI (ATF 96) arrived and assumed responsibility for the tow. FLINT then resumed her passage to the United States and completed the deployment on May 10.

Following her return to the West Coast, FLINT resumed ammunition loading, maintenance and Pacific Fleet training. The operational pattern established during this period would continue throughout most of her commissioned career, alternating West Coast upkeep and training with extended western Pacific and Indian Ocean deployments.

By the spring of 1975, FLINT was again operating in Southeast Asian waters as the military position of South Vietnam rapidly deteriorated. North Vietnamese forces were advancing toward Saigon while the United States concentrated naval forces offshore for the evacuation of American citizens and Vietnamese personnel considered at risk. Operation Frequent Wind began on April 29 and continued into April 30, using helicopters to evacuate personnel from Saigon to U.S. Navy ships positioned offshore. FLINT supported the wider logistics and humanitarian effort associated with the evacuation and its aftermath. Refugees arriving aboard American and former South Vietnamese ships required medical treatment, food, water and transportation. A seriously injured refugee aboard USS KIRK (DE 1087) was transported by a helicopter from USS COOK (DE 1083) to FLINT for further medical treatment.

Following the evacuation of Saigon, approximately thirty former Republic of Vietnam Navy vessels, together with fishing vessels and other craft carrying thousands of refugees, assembled near Con Son Island. The United States organized an escort to bring the vessels and their passengers safely to the Philippines. FLINT participated in this subsequent refugee and former South Vietnamese fleet movement, associated with Operation New Life. Other American ships involved included KIRK, COOK, USS DENVER (LPD 9), USS BARBOUR COUNTY (LST 1195), USS TUSCALOOSA (LST 1187), USS DELIVER (ARS 23), USS MOBILE (LKA 115), USS VEGA (AF 59), USS ABNAKI and USNS LIPAN (T-ATF 85). Moving at the speed of the slower refugee vessels, the convoy reached Subic Bay, Philippines, on May 7, 1975. Approximately 30,000 evacuees were carried aboard the former South Vietnamese naval vessels and accompanying craft.

Following the end of the Vietnam War, FLINT returned to the recurring Pacific Fleet cycle of ammunition loading, exercises, maintenance and western Pacific deployments. On June 9, 1976, FLINT collided with USS WABASH (AOR 5) approximately 900 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii while the two ships were conducting a towing exercise. No casualties were reported. Both ships were able to continue toward the western Pacific, although WABASH subsequently underwent damage and voyage repairs at Subic Bay.

FLINT was again operating with Pacific Fleet carrier forces during 1978. On May 4 and May 5, she conducted ammunition replenishment operations with USS CONSTELLATION (CV 64). Another vertical replenishment with CONSTELLATION followed on November 16.

During the same year, FLINT became involved in a major rescue operation in the South China Sea. On October 28, 1978, the Philippine vessel SAN JOSE II was lost near Palawan Island. FLINT rescued 86 people from the vessel, adding a humanitarian mission to an otherwise conventional western Pacific logistics deployment. After returning to the United States, FLINT continued training and readiness work. From August 20 through August 24, 1979, she conducted ammunition-ship qualification training with USS KANSAS CITY (AOR 3). Such exercises maintained proficiency in connected and vertical replenishment procedures before future overseas assignments.

The strategic focus of Pacific Fleet operations increasingly extended toward the Indian Ocean around the end of the decade. The Iranian Revolution, the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War produced a requirement for sustained American carrier operations considerably farther west than the traditional western Pacific operating areas. During a 1981-1982 western Pacific and Indian Ocean deployment, FLINT continued ammunition support for Pacific Fleet forces operating across the South China Sea, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean regions. Her duties remained centered on loading ordnance at established logistics bases and distributing it to carrier battle groups and surface combatants at sea.

FLINT continued this pattern through the first half of the 1980s. In 1984, she deployed as part of the battle group centered on USS ENTERPRISE (CVN 65). ENTERPRISE departed Alameda on May 30, accompanied by a force that included USS ARKANSAS (CGN 41), USS JOUETT (CG 29), USS KINKAID (DD 965), USS LEFTWICH (DD 984), USS MAHLON S. TISDALE (FFG 27), USS BREWTON (FF 1086), USS ROBERT E. PEARY (FF 1073), USS SACRAMENTO (AOE 1) and FLINT.

During the central Pacific portion of the deployment, the force participated in Rim of the Pacific Exercise 1984. The multinational exercise brought together American, Australian, Canadian, Japanese and New Zealand forces and involved dozens of ships and submarines together with land-based and carrier aircraft. The ENTERPRISE group subsequently continued into the western Pacific and Indian Ocean. FLINT provided the specialized ammunition component of the group's logistics system while the carrier force operated far from West Coast bases.

FLINT remained extensively involved in carrier ammunition support during the later 1980s. A 1986-1987 cruise book documents another deployment. During 1988, FLINT repeatedly supported USS CARL VINSON (CVN 70). The carrier's command records document both underway ammunition transfers and vertical replenishments with FLINT as the carrier moved through its training and operational cycle.

In 1989, FLINT participated in PacEx 89, a large Pacific Fleet exercise conducted from September 5 through October 19. FLINT operated with Battle Group Delta, centered on USS CONSTELLATION. Other ships associated with the force included USS VALLEY FORGE (CG 50), USS JOHN YOUNG (DD 973), USS FANNING (FF 1076), USS KNOX (FF 1052), USS ROARK (FF 1053), USS GRAY (FF 1054), USS LANG (FF 1060) and USS KANSAS CITY.

On October 17, 1989, while PacEx 89 was nearing completion, the Loma Prieta earthquake caused extensive destruction throughout the San Francisco Bay area. U.S. Navy helicopter units quickly became involved in relief activity. Helicopters operated from FLINT and KANSAS CITY, transporting food, water and other relief supplies to affected areas. The operation temporarily placed the ammunition ship in a humanitarian-support role close to her home-port region.

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, leading to the rapid buildup of American and coalition forces in Southwest Asia under Operation Desert Shield. Official Navy records place FLINT in the Desert Shield operating area from August 5 through November 4, 1990. Her arrival only days after the invasion placed her within the logistics organization supporting the initial deployment and buildup of American naval forces. FLINT supplied ammunition and maintained afloat ordnance stocks for forces operating in and around the Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern region during the Desert Shield period. Her documented deployment in the area ended before the January 1991 opening of the Operation Desert Storm combat phase.

Following this deployment, FLINT returned to Pacific Fleet operations. A cruise book documents another deployment in 1992. In July 1992, Lieutenant Commander Michelle Howard reported aboard FLINT as first lieutenant. Howard later became the first woman in U.S. Navy history to attain the rank of four-star admiral and eventually served as Vice Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-U.S. Naval Forces Africa.

A serious shipboard accident occurred on October 7, 1993. A maintenance petty officer was killed while attempting to ride a cargo elevator from a lower level to the main deck. The incident led to an investigation and an admiral's mast. Commander Patrick J. Sharrett, FLINT's commanding officer, accepted responsibility for the sailor's death and was subsequently relieved of command by Commander Logistics Group One.

FLINT remained operational through 1994 and into 1995 while the Navy continued restructuring its combat logistics force. The service was progressively transferring older ammunition ships and other auxiliaries from commissioned Navy operation to Military Sealift Command, where civilian mariners could operate them with smaller Navy military departments. On August 4, 1995, USS FLINT was decommissioned at Naval Air Station Alameda, California, after almost twenty-four years of commissioned service. On the same date, she was transferred to Military Sealift Command and placed in service as USNS FLINT (T-AE 32).

The transfer changed the ship's manning and administrative status but not her basic mission. Civilian mariners became responsible for navigation, engineering and general ship operation, while Navy personnel remained aboard for functions connected with ammunition handling, communications, aviation and other military requirements. Following transfer to Military Sealift Command, FLINT underwent an extensive habitability conversion at Norfolk before returning to full operational use. On March 24, 1997, USNS FLINT resumed ammunition operations in the Pacific. Unlike some other older auxiliaries that spent substantial periods in reduced operating status after transfer to Military Sealift Command, FLINT continued to be used as an active fleet ammunition ship.

During the later 1990s, she moved ammunition between Pacific logistics facilities and deployed naval forces. The continuing requirement for her services reflected the period between the transfer of the older specialized ammunition ships to civilian operation and the later introduction of the LEWIS AND CLARK-class dry cargo/ammunition ships designed to combine ammunition and stores functions.

The terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, brought FLINT into another period of intensive operations. USS KITTY HAWK (CV 63), forward-deployed at Yokosuka, Japan, was rapidly returned to sea and prepared for use as an afloat forward staging base for special operations forces preparing for operations in Afghanistan. During sea trials and exercises in the Philippine Sea from September 21 through September 29, 2001, KITTY HAWK rendezvoused twice with FLINT. The carrier also received fuel from USNS RAPPAHANNOCK (T-AO 204). These logistics evolutions helped prepare KITTY HAWK for its rapid movement toward the Indian Ocean. The carrier departed the western Pacific on October 1 and reached the North Arabian Sea area later that month, where it supported Operation Enduring Freedom.

FLINT was also assigned to the logistics organization supporting another carrier group involved in the Afghanistan campaign. USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN 74) departed San Diego on November 12, 2001, several weeks ahead of its original schedule to relieve USS CARL VINSON. FLINT and USNS CONCORD (T-AFS 5) were attached as additional logistics ships supporting the deployment.

FLINT continued supporting forces engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom during 2002. On February 23, USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) transferred ammunition to FLINT while deployed in support of operations over Afghanistan. On March 2, 2002, USS DECATUR (DDG 73) escorted FLINT during a transit of the Strait of Hormuz.

FLINT also participated in the Navy's transition to the MH-60S helicopter for vertical replenishment. The new helicopter increasingly replaced the CH-46 Sea Knight during logistics operations, while FLINT's flight deck and ammunition-transfer mission remained essentially unchanged.

During September 2002, FLINT loaded the Tailored Fleet Issue Load for the KITTY HAWK Strike Group. The load consisted of ordnance selected for the strike group's anticipated training and contingency requirements. As tensions between the United States and Iraq increased, FLINT remained integrated into the western Pacific and Middle Eastern ammunition-support system. Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003. KITTY HAWK operated in the Arabian Gulf and launched combat sorties over Iraq, generating substantial demand for aviation ordnance. FLINT supplied ammunition to the deployed force during the campaign.

On April 11, 2003, an MH-60S Sea Hawk from Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5 transferred ordnance from FLINT during a vertical replenishment with KITTY HAWK in the Arabian Gulf. FLINT remained in the Seventh Fleet logistics system after the principal combat phase and continued supporting the carrier group during subsequent operations and exercises. The resulting deployment became exceptionally long. By the spring of 2004, FLINT had been away from her normal U.S. operating area for approximately twenty months. During the final three months alone, she steamed more than 19,000 nautical miles, moved more than 6,000 pallets of ordnance and completed more than twenty replenishments at sea.

During KITTY HAWK's 2004 western Pacific spring deployment, FLINT served as the strike group's station ammunition ship. Before leaving the Seventh Fleet area, a large-scale redistribution of ammunition took place among the remaining KILAUEA-class vessels. Over a five-day period, FLINT transferred almost 4,000 ordnance loads to USNS KISKA (T-AE 35) and received almost 1,500 loads from USNS SHASTA (T-AE 33). On May 16, 2004, FLINT departed the Seventh Fleet area after approximately twenty months of forward operations and proceeded toward the Third Fleet area.

FLINT continued high-tempo Pacific operations during the following years. On November 11, 2005, SHASTA, FLINT and KISKA operated together in the Sea of Japan following a cross-deck evolution involving approximately 1,500 pallets of ammunition. The three ammunition ships were operating as part of Task Force 73, the Seventh Fleet logistics organization.

On November 29, 2005, an MH-60S helicopter transferred supplies from FLINT to USS KITTY HAWK during a vertical replenishment in the western Pacific.

On May 29, 2006, FLINT and USNS YUKON (T-AO 202) participated in a coordinated replenishment with KITTY HAWK. The evolution demonstrated the complementary roles of the specialized logistics ships, with fuel and ammunition being transferred as part of the carrier's continuing western Pacific operations. FLINT remained actively employed with major Pacific carrier forces during 2007. On April 6, she worked with USS RONALD REAGAN (CVN 76) during an ammunition evolution in the South China Sea. RONALD REAGAN was completing a short-notice western Pacific surge deployment, and embarked helicopters moved ordnance between the carrier and FLINT while ammunition inventories were redistributed.

On May 2, 2007, FLINT arrived at Naval Station Everett, Washington, after a Seventh Fleet deployment during which she had supported three carrier strike groups. Later that summer, FLINT carried an unusual addition to her normal ammunition cargo. On July 20 and July 21, approximately 3,000 cases of donated microwave popcorn, comprising roughly 250,000 individual bags, were loaded at Naval Magazine Indian Island, Washington, for distribution to deployed sailors and Marines under the privately supported "Operation Popcorn" program. More than 2,500 cases were already aboard during the first documented phase of the loading operation. FLINT subsequently transported the cargo westward together with her regular military load, with portions passed to other Military Sealift Command vessels for further distribution.

Beginning on August 18, 2007, USS JOHN C. STENNIS conducted a weapons offload to FLINT during a two-day evolution as the carrier returned from a western Pacific deployment. Helicopters from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 8 participated in moving ordnance between the ships.

On January 9, 2008, FLINT operated alongside USS RONALD REAGAN during an ordnance onload in the Pacific. The continuing use of a ship whose basic design dated from the 1960s reflected the Navy's continuing need for specialized ammunition capacity while newer multi-product logistics ships were entering service. On May 13, 2009, USS JOHN C. STENNIS conducted another ammunition offload with FLINT during a western Pacific deployment. MH-60S helicopters from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8 transferred ammunition between the carrier and the ammunition ship.

By 2010, the Navy was progressively replacing the remaining KILAUEA-class ammunition ships with LEWIS AND CLARK-class dry cargo/ammunition ships. FLINT nevertheless remained operational beyond several earlier projected retirement dates. On November 15, 2010, FLINT was at Manama, Bahrain, where Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby, Commander Military Sealift Command, visited the ship. Her presence there confirmed her continuing role in the Fifth Fleet logistics system during the final years of her career.

FLINT remained operational in the Middle East during 2012. On March 26, she was alongside at Mina Salman Port, Bahrain, while personnel from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 and Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 2 conducted limpet-mine training in the vicinity of the ship. The participating units were deployed in support of maritime security and theater-security-cooperation activity in the Fifth Fleet area.

Even in 2013 FLINT was still carrying out active fleet-support missions. On March 17, an MH-60R Sea Hawk from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 75 transferred cargo between USS STOCKDALE (DDG 106) and FLINT during a vertical replenishment in the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility. STOCKDALE was deployed for maritime security operations, theater security cooperation and missions connected with Operation Enduring Freedom. The March 2013 replenishment occurred more than forty-one years after FLINT had originally entered commissioned Navy service and only months before her final retirement.

USNS FLINT was deactivated by Military Sealift Command and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on November 8, 2013. She was subsequently transferred to the Maritime Administration's Beaumont Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas, although the Navy initially retained title to the vessel. On May 8, 2014, the Maritime Administration formally acquired title to FLINT and placed her in non-retention status, making the former ammunition ship available for final disposal. On November 24, 2015, she was sold under a domestic sale contract to All Star Metals, LLC. The former FLINT departed the Beaumont Reserve Fleet on December 8, 2015, for dismantling.

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