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USNS Soderman (T-AKR 317)

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USNS SODERMAN is the eighth and final WATSON - class large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship (LMSR) and the second ship in the Navy named after Pfc. William A. Soderman.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS SODERMAN. 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 SODERMAN ship is named to honor Pfc. William A. Soderman, USA (1912-1980), a native of West Haven, Connecticut. Pfc. Soderman was assigned to Company K, 9th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division during World War II. On Dec. 17, 1944, Pfc. Soderman defended a key road junction near Rocherath, Belgium. Under severe artillery barrage, mortar and machine gun fire, he remained at his post and successfully held off German counter offenses by disabling three enemy tanks with a bazooka at point blank range before being wounded. Distinguishing himself by conspicuous gallantry and unfaltering courage against overwhelming odds, above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy, President Harry S Truman presented Pfc. Soderman the Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the White House on Oct. 12, 1945.

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USNS SODERMAN History:

USNS SODERMAN was built as part of the U.S. military's post-Cold War effort to ensure that heavy equipment could be moved quickly into a crisis theater, a requirement reinforced by the logistics lessons of the 1990-1991 Gulf War and the growing emphasis on rapid-response expeditionary operations. On February 25, 2000, construction was ordered at National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) in San Diego, California. The ship was laid down on October 31, 2000, as a WATSON-class large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) vessel designed to carry outsized Army combat equipment and sustainment cargo while remaining fast enough to meet deployment timelines. On April 26, 2002, the ship was christened and launched in San Diego. The available records associate the ceremony with the ship's namesake family, including the participation of William A. Soderman's widow, Virginia Soderman. After completion and acceptance processes typical for major new-construction sealift ships, USNS SODERMAN entered service with Military Sealift Command (MSC) on September 24, 2002, joining the U.S. Army's afloat prepositioning enterprise - an operational concept built around keeping complete sets of equipment forward-positioned at sea so that soldiers can fly in and draw combat-ready materiel without waiting for it to be shipped across oceans.

By early 2003, that strategic logic became immediately relevant as the United States and coalition partners surged forces into the U.S. Central Command area ahead of the Iraq invasion that began on March 20, 2003. In this build-up period, prepositioned sealift and rapid sealift deliveries were key to moving heavy tracked vehicles, engineer equipment, and the vast inventory of trucks and support gear required for large-scale ground operations. Within this context, USNS SODERMAN was directly tied to the Kuwait logistics pipeline: from March 8, 2003, through March 13, 2003, U.S. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion FOUR (NMCB-4) disembarked from USNS SODERMAN at Ash Shu'aybah Port, Kuwait - an event recorded in Seabee deployment reporting as part of the unit's Operational Iraqi Freedom-era movement and staging. Contemporary Marine Corps operational history of the 2003 campaign likewise notes the arrival of USNS SODERMAN on March 12, 2003, highlighting it among the sealift arrivals that eased pressure on overland lift by bringing in large numbers of amphibious assault vehicles and trucks for the force poised to drive north.

Once the initial invasion phase passed into sustained operations, the regional security environment and the continuing demands of Iraq-related logistics kept Kuwait and the broader Gulf region central to sealift and cargo-handling activity through the mid-2000s. Documentary imagery underscores USNS SODERMAN's continued connection to that flow: on December 16, 2006, U.S. Navy cargo-handling personnel were photographed inspecting military vehicles prior to loading them aboard USNS SODERMAN in Kuwait, reflecting the routine but operationally significant work of cycling equipment by sea in support of ongoing requirements.

In 2007, USNS SODERMAN appeared in a very different mission set tied to humanitarian logistics and expeditionary port-opening skills. On February 11, 2007, at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, the ship's roll-on/roll-off discharge ramp was used to transfer equipment onto the Improved Navy Lighterage System during HUMANITARIAN SUPPORT OVER THE SHORE (HSOTS) 2007, a simulated disaster-relief response exercise. In the documentation for that event, this was described as the first time the ship's discharge ramp had been used in a large-scale over-the-shore exercise, illustrating how LMSR capabilities could be adapted to austere logistics when fixed port infrastructure is damaged, limited, or unavailable. Less than two weeks later, on February 23, 2007, USNS SODERMAN was photographed preparing to moor at Naval Station Everett, Washington. The accompanying caption explicitly described the ship as homeported in Diego Garcia, a reflection of how MSC's prepositioning ships are often administratively "homeported" at forward logistics hubs aligned to global contingency plans rather than operating from a traditional U.S. Navy homeport model.

Through the following years, the ship's publicly visible record becomes more intermittent in date-specific reporting - an unsurprising pattern for a vessel whose core purpose is to remain available with loaded military equipment, moving as required and conducting maintenance, cargo preservation, and periodic port visits that are not always described in press products. When discrete events do surface, they tend to be tied to safety incidents, major logistics evolutions, or large exercises. One such safety-related case occurred on October 4, 2012, when U.S. Coast Guard watchstanders in Honolulu received a morning notification that a contractor aboard USNS SODERMAN - operating off the coast of Hawaii - needed medical attention. A Coast Guard flight surgeon recommended evacuation, and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew launched at approximately 10:40 a.m. to conduct the medevac.

A later cluster of verifiable milestones illustrates how the ship's role expanded alongside Indo-Pacific operational concepts that emphasized distributing logistics and transferring vehicles without relying on major ports. On September 7, 2010, through September 17, 2010, U.S. Army reporting documented ammunition onload operations aboard USNS SODERMAN at Naval Weapons Station Charleston, South Carolina, an example of the continuous "care and feeding" required to keep prepositioned stocks usable and ready. On June 13, 2017, USNS SODERMAN participated in a seabasing evolution near Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands with USNS MONTFORD POINT (T-ESD 1), reflecting U.S. efforts to rehearse offshore transfer methods and flexible sustainment options for the Western Pacific operating environment. Later that same year, MSC reporting recorded a significant maintenance interval: USNS SODERMAN returned to the United States in September 2017 for cargo maintenance and then entered regulatory dry-docking from November 2017 through January 2018, an important lifecycle event for a large sealift ship whose mission depends on mechanical reliability, hull integrity, and compliance with inspection standards.

By 2020 and 2021, the ship's presence within Indo-Pacific prepositioning patterns and its occasional U.S.-based logistics evolutions again became visible in official annual reporting and Army public affairs. MSC's 2020 year-in-review product specifically noted USNS SODERMAN alongside USNS CHARLTON (T-AKR 314) in Saipan during May 2020, consistent with the wider U.S. focus on sustaining distributed posture and readiness in the Pacific. On May 14, 2021, through May 21, 2021, U.S. Army public affairs documented the completion of offloading operations from USNS SODERMAN at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina - another example of the periodic cargo cycling and stateside interface required to refresh afloat equipment sets, complete maintenance actions, and reposition stocks in line with operational plans.

As of the most recent MSC public handbook materials available, USNS SODERMAN remains listed among MSC's government-owned ships supporting the U.S. Army's afloat prepositioning mission.

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USNS SODERMAN Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show USNS SODERMAN at Norfolk, Va., on May 31, 2025.

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