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USNS Shughart (T-AKR 295)

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Built as commercial container ship LAURA MAERSK in Denmark in 1980, the ship was lengthened by Hyundai in 1987 and in the mid-1990s, the Navy purchased the LAURA MAERSK. The ship subsequently underwent conversion to a large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship (LMSR) at NASSCO and was delivered to the Military Sealift Command in 1996 where the ship entered service as USNS SHUGHART becoming the first ship in the Navy named after US Army Sergeant First Class Randall D. Shughart. The USNS SHUGHART was operated by civilian mariners from Bay Ship Management, Inc. under US Navy Military Sealift Command charter. In March 2022, USNS SHUGHART was towed to Beaumont, Tx., to join the Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force. On March 21, 2023, the ship was stricken from the Navy list with the title transfer to MARAD, becoming MV SHUGHART (T-AKR 295). SHUGHART is now awaiting final disposal.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Name:

USNS SHUGHART is named in honor of US Army Sergeant First Class Randall D. Shughart of Newville, PA, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Mogadishu, Somalia, on October 3, 1993.

Citation:

Sergeant First Class Shughart, United States Army, distinguished himself by actions above and beyond the call of duty on 3 October 1993, while serving as a Sniper Team Member, United States Army Special Operations Command with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia. Sergeant First Class Shughart provided precision sniper fires from the lead helicopter during an assault on a building and at two helicopter crash sites, while subjected to intense automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenade fires. While providing critical suppressive fires at the second crash site, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader learned that ground forces were not immediately available to secure the site. Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader unhesitatingly volunteered to be inserted to protect the four critically wounded personnel, despite being well aware of the growing number of enemy personnel closing in on the site. After their third request to be inserted, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader received permission to perform this volunteer mission. When debris and enemy ground fires at the site caused them to abort the first attempt, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader were inserted one hundred meters south of the crash site. Equipped with only his sniper rifle and a pistol, Sergeant First Class Shughart and his team leader, while under intense small arms fire from the enemy, fought their way through a dense maze of shanties and shacks to reach the critically injured crew members. Sergeant First Class Shughart pulled the pilot and the other crew members from the aircraft, establishing a perimeter which placed him and his fellow sniper in the most vulnerable position. Sergeant First Class Shughart used his long range rifle and side arm to kill an undetermined number of attackers while traveling the perimeter, protecting the downed crew. Sergeant First Class Shughart continued his protective fire until he depleted his ammunition and was fatally wounded. His actions saved the pilot's life. Sergeant First Class Shughart's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest standards of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit and the United States Army.

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USNS SHUGHART History:

SHUGHART (T-AKR 295) began life as a commercial MAERSK container ship before being taken up for U.S. government sealift service and converted into a Large, Medium-Speed, Roll-on/Roll-off (LMSR) ship used to move and preposition Army and joint force equipment overseas. By May 7, 1996, the former LAURA MAERSK had been delivered into Military Sealift Command (MSC) service and was being outfitted/converted for her new mission at National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego, California. In the same period, trade reporting noted that the ship had been christened at NASSCO in honor of Medal of Honor recipient Randall D. Shughart, with his widow Stephanie Shughart participating and senior defense and industry leaders attending.

From September 7, 1996, through September 26, 1996, SHUGHART conducted a Sea Echelon Deployment Readiness Exercise (SEDRE) and associated operational testing of her conversion and mission capabilities, operating at sea and in U.S. East Coast waters with documented activity tied to Savannah, Georgia, and Hampton Roads, Virginia. As the U.S. expanded post-Cold War expeditionary and contingency planning, a major purpose of ships like SHUGHART was to provide rapid sealift and prepositioning capacity. However, an official U.S. accountability review reported that a mission-critical deficiency affected SHUGHART's readiness for an early 1997 prepositioning deployment, with her mission role temporarily covered by another ship while SHUGHART was expected to deploy after corrective action.

During the large U.S. force build-up to the Iraq War, a publicly compiled deployment note - citing contemporary reporting - recorded that USNS SHUGHART transited the Suez Canal on February 26, 2003, after departing the U.S. East Coast in early February 2003. Later that year, an Army News Service account reported that Stryker armored vehicles shipped by sea aboard USNS SHUGHART arrived in Kuwait on November 12, 2003, supporting U.S. Army operational requirements during that phase of the conflict.

On March 5, 2004, while berthed at the Port of Ash Shuaybah (Ash Shu'aiba), Kuwait, USNS SHUGHART suffered a serious engine-room-area fire during cargo operations - reported at the time as occurring while the ship was offloading military trucks and equipment for U.S. Army use. The response drew assistance from other government-controlled sealift assets, including CAPE DOUGLAS (T-AKR 5052) and CAPE DUCATO (T-AKR 5051), and the incident became a U.S. Coast Guard safety case study because of failures in certain remotely operated fuel-oil quick-closing valves that complicated efforts to secure fuel during the emergency. Subsequent technical support and damage assessment work included activity in Bahrain, where specialists supported MSC with investigation and repair planning.

Over the following years, SHUGHART remained part of MSC's sealift inventory. In MSC's own published overviews of its fleet, USNS SHUGHART is listed among the command's surge sealift roll-on/roll-off ships supporting joint force deployments and contingencies. By the early 2020s, U.S. sealift force-structure management shifted SHUGHART toward lay-up and reserve status. MSC reported that in March 2022, it chartered the tug SIGNET WARHORSE I to conduct a dead-ship tow of USNS SHUGHART from Newport News Marine Terminal to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas, for permanent assignment into MARAD's Ready Reserve Force (RRF). The tow was described as about 1,700 nautical miles over 16 days, and the ship's contract mariner crew disembarked before the tow began. Administrative end-of-service actions were recorded as occurring on March 21, 2023, when inventories note title transfer and the ship's status as stricken, consistent with the transition from active MSC operation to MARAD reserve custody.

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