Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

Cruise Books

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USNS Neosho (T-AO 143)

USNS NEOSHO was the lead ship of the Navy's first major class of fleet oilers built after WWII. The NEOSHO was transfered to the Military Sealift Command on May 25, 1978. Finally decommissioned in 1992, the NEOSHO was stricken from the Navy list on February 16, 1994, and spent the following years laid-up in the James River Reserve Fleet, Fort Eustis, Va., awaiting final disposal. On February 9, 2005, the NEOSHO was towed to Brownsville, Tx. for scrapping at International Shipbreakers Ltd.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

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

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS / USNS NEOSHO Cruise Books:

• Crossing the Line Cruise Book 1957
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1972-73
• Mediterranean Cruise Book 1976-77

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS / USNS NEOSHO History:

USS NEOSHO was laid down at Bethlehem Steel's Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts, on August 15, 1952; named NEOSHO on September 29, 1953; launched on November 10, 1953; and commissioned on September 24, 1954. After fitting out and trials, she entered service with the Atlantic Fleet on December 8, 1954, based at Norfolk, Virginia, as the lead ship of a new, higher-speed oiler class designed for sustained alongside replenishment of fast carrier and surface forces.

Through 1955, she operated along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean, building crews' proficiency in fueling destroyers, cruisers, and carriers under a variety of sea states and night conditions. On September 7, 1955, she sailed for her first Mediterranean deployment with the SIXTH FLEET, integrating into the routine Cold War presence mission of combined exercises, show-the-flag port calls, and constant logistics support to carrier task groups. That Med cycle established a pattern of alternating SECOND and SIXTH FLEET duty that would define her commissioned career.

During her second Mediterranean tour in autumn 1956, NEOSHO supported SIXTH FLEET units placed on heightened readiness during the Suez Crisis. As Anglo-French-Israeli operations unfolded after October 29, U.S. naval forces maintained maximum readiness while Washington pursued diplomatic pressure. The American posture required continuous underway logistics to keep carriers and escorts fueled, a core task for NEOSHO until tensions eased by mid-November.

In June 1957, NEOSHO entered Dry Dock No. 2 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, for maintenance before resuming Atlantic Fleet operations. On July 9, 1961, a Navy photo documented her refueling the carrier INDEPENDENCE (CVA 62) and the destroyer DYESS (DDR 880) during Atlantic exercises - evidence of the routine multi-ship "solid and liquid" replenishments she conducted to sustain high-tempo flight operations at sea.

NEOSHO's Cold War duties broadened in 1958 when she joined TASK FORCE 88 for Operation Argus, a rapid, secret series of three high-altitude nuclear tests over the South Atlantic conducted from August to September. Her commanding officer served as Commander, Task Group 88.3 (the Mobile Logistics Group). For Argus she embarked U.S. Air Force MSQ-1A radar/communications vans to support missile-tracking, and fueled the task force - whose principal units included TARAWA (CVS 40), NORTON SOUND (AVM 1), BEARSS (DD 654), WARRINGTON (DD 843), COURTNEY (DE 1021), HAMMERBERG (DE 1015), and the oiler SALAMONIE (AO 26).

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in the fall of 1962, NEOSHO provided logistical support to Atlantic Fleet ships enforcing the naval quarantine of Cuba, enabling sustained patrol lines and contingency strike readiness off the island. From April through July 1964, she received a complete overhaul in dry dock at Baltimore, Maryland, renewing machinery, cargo systems, and replenishment gear for another employment cycle.

In 1965, she serviced Atlantic Fleet units positioned off Hispaniola during political turmoil in the Dominican Republic, part of the broader U.S. intervention that spring and summer. By 1967, reflecting a decade of continuous operations, NEOSHO had conducted more than 2,500 replenishments transferring in excess of 640 million U.S. gallons of petroleum products under both routine and crisis conditions.

After a late-1967 yard period, NEOSHO emerged from overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in January 1968 and began a three-year cycle of refresher training, local operations, and two seven-month Sixth Fleet deployments, with interim duty under SECOND FLEET. She returned for another overhaul toward the end of 1970, aligning with fleet-wide modernization of alongside transfer rigs and safety procedures.

On February 1, 1972, she supported Operation Springboard in the Puerto Rican operating areas - an annual winter series of training evolutions used by Atlantic units to sharpen air, surface, and logistics readiness - before returning to Norfolk in early March. Deploying to the Mediterranean in April 1972, NEOSHO completed roughly 100 at-sea refuelings and made port visits to Palma de Mallorca, Naples, Athens, Villefranche, and Barcelona, typical Sixth Fleet liberty and logistics hubs of the era. She continued alternating Med and Western Atlantic duty through the mid-1970s, including documented Suez Canal transit to or from the Mediterranean as part of a six-month deployment, reflecting the post-1967 reopening patterns of NATO ship movement between theaters.

NEOSHO was decommissioned at Norfolk on May 25, 1978, and immediately transferred to the Military Sealift Command as USNS NEOSHO (T-AO 143). From the moment she shifted to Military Sealift Command on May 25, 1978, she sailed with a civil-service crew, keeping her well-worn replenishment rhythm but under a new operating construct. In MSC service she continued the same core tasking that had defined her commissioned career - black oil and JP-5 to carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and amphibious ships - now scheduled through MSC area commands and integrated into the Atlantic and Mediterranean logistics chains that sustained SECOND and SIXTH FLEET operations. The redesignation did not change her day-to-day reality at sea: long UNREP lines, brief pier-side loadouts, and steady shuttle work between combatants on the line and fuel sources ashore.

Through the late 1970s and 1980s, NEOSHO's deployments were largely cyclical and workmanlike - training and local tasking in the Western Atlantic interleaved with Mediterranean periods with the SIXTH FLEET. Photographs from the era show her in MSC markings, flight-deck aft retained from earlier modifications, and performing standard alongside evolutions typical of the class during peacetime presence and NATO exercise seasons. These images, dated to the mid-1980s, capture the ship underway in routine logistics posture rather than during discrete crisis events, which matches the oiler's principal mission in those years: to maximize on-station endurance for the fast carrier and amphibious groups that formed the backbone of U.S. maritime posture in the Atlantic and Med.

In January-February 1990, as the Cold War's final year opened, NEOSHO's schedule intersected with a high-tempo Atlantic workup: FLEETEX 1-90. During those evolutions she fueled the carrier JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) and her escorts, including the destroyer PETERSON (DD 969), while flight operations continued during the UNREP. A dated image documents an UNREP on January 30, 1990, and additional captions from the exercise series show NEOSHO steaming alongside KENNEDY under the FLEETEX 1-90 banner.

Within months, the ship moved from training support to contingency logistics. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, U.S. naval forces surged toward the Red Sea and Arabian Sea for what became Operation Desert Shield. On August 8, 1990, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) transited from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea escorted by TICONDEROGA (CG 47) and JOHN L. HALL (FFG 32). The two mobile logistics ships with that group were SURIBACHI (AE 21) and NEOSHO, which provided the fuel and ammunition flow to sustain the battle group's immediate presence while broader coalition forces assembled. This early Red Sea insertion is explicitly recorded in contemporary orders of battle and chronologies of the naval build-up.

Concurrently, instability in Liberia triggered a separate noncombatant evacuation operation off West Africa. Beginning August 5, 1990, Operation Sharp Edge drew U.S. amphibious and surface forces to the waters off Monrovia to extract American citizens and other evacuees amid a deteriorating civil war. Imagery from that period identifies NEOSHO providing logistical support to the task group - evidence of MSC's parallel lift and sustainment role during simultaneous contingencies on opposite rims of the Atlantic. In practical terms, that meant keeping the amphibious ships fueled so helicopter and boat sorties could continue without interruption.

As Desert Shield evolved toward Desert Storm in January 1991, carrier and surface formations rotated across the Red Sea and Arabian Sea lines, with newer AOE/AOR assets taking much of the sustained on-scene logistics load while NEOSHO continued MSC duties within Atlantic and Mediterranean tasking as required. The oiler's value in this phase remained what it had always been: flexible endurance for the striking forces, whether in formal exercises, embargo enforcement, or humanitarian and evacuation support. Photographic and documentary traces from 1990-1991 consistently place her in direct support of carrier operations and contingency task groups, but they also reflect the broader MSC model - ships tasked where their endurance and availability most efficiently closed the refueling gap.

Drawdown followed quickly after the Gulf War. NEOSHO was placed out of service at Norfolk on August 12, 1992. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on February 16, 1994. The ship's custody then transitioned to the Maritime Administration for lay-up in the James River Reserve Fleet at Fort Eustis, Virginia - standard practice for retired logistics hulls awaiting disposal once no longer required for surge sealift or training purposes. She entered MARAD custody and remained in the JRRF through the late 1990s as disposal programs and environmental compliance processes matured.

Her final movements are precisely documented. On February 9, 2005, NEOSHO departed the James River under tow for Brownsville, Texas. She arrived on March 4, 2005, and dismantlement at International Shipbreaking in Brownsville concluded on November 8, 2005.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS / USNS NEOSHO Image Gallery:

back to top

Back to Fleet Oilers page.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.