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USNS Navajo (T-ATF 169)

Named after the American Indian tribe, the USNS NAVAJO was the fourth POWHATAN - class ocean tug.

The NAVAJO was equipped with a 10-ton capacity crane and a bollard pull of at least 54 tons. A deck grid was fitted aft which contained 1 inch bolt receptacles spaced 24 inches apart. This allowed for the bolting down of a wide variety of portable equipment. There were two GPH fire pumps supplying three fire monitors with up to 2,200 gallons of foam per minute. A deep module could be embarked to support naval salvage teams.

Put out of service and stricken from the Navy list on October 1, 2016, the NAVAJO is presently laid up at Pearl Harbor, Hi., awaiting final disposal.

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Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

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Accidents aboard USNS NAVAJO:

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USNS NAVAJO History:

USNS NAVAJO, a POWHATAN-class fleet ocean tug built by Marinette Marine in Wisconsin, took shape during the late Cold War shipbuilding push to give the U.S. fleet long-range towing and salvage reach across the Pacific. Her keel was laid on December 14, 1977; she was launched on December 20, 1979 and delivered to the Navy's Military Sealift Command on June 13, 1980. From the outset she was crewed by civilian mariners with a small Navy detachment and fitted for global ocean towing and diving support: twin EMD diesels driving controllable-pitch propellers in Kort nozzles, a bow thruster, a SMATCO 66 DTS-200 towing winch capable of heavy bollard pull, and an open, container-ready 4,000-square-foot after deck and 10-ton crane that let her embark salvage gear or mission modules as needed.

Early assignments quickly demonstrated her role as a go-anywhere tow and support asset on the U.S. West Coast. In April 1981, she was dispatched northwest of San Diego to assist the oiler USNS TALUGA (T-AO 62) after an engine-room fire, and on June 10, 1981 she took USNS HUDSON under tow when the survey ship went dead in the water off San Nicolas Island. Those same months underscored why MSC kept tugs like NAVAJO forward - there were few naval assets as flexible for casualty tows, local rescues, and range support.

In August 1981, NAVAJO and sister tug USNS SIOUX (T-ATF 171) moved the decommissioned battleship ex-NEW JERSEY (BB 62) from Bremerton to Long Beach for reactivation amid U.S. naval buildup decisions of the early 1980s. That long coastal tow previewed dozens of "final voyages" she would shepherd over the next three decades. On December 14, 1982, she began one of the era's longest fleet-tug tows - taking the former cable ship ARTHUR M. HUDDELL from Guam toward the Panama Canal, a 40-50-day evolution across the breadth of the Pacific that required patient weather routing and husbanding of fuel and gear.

Through the late 1980s, NAVAJO's broad after deck and crane made her a practical platform for salvage support. In July 1988 off San Francisco she assisted recovery efforts after an MH-53E Sea Dragon crashed, work that typically combined deck handling, diving support, and careful station-keeping in coastal conditions. The ship's pattern of mixed towing and salvage continued into the post-Cold War period. In April 1991, she returned ex-NEW JERSEY north to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Bremerton, this time in company with USNS NARRAGANSETT (T-ATF 167), reflecting decisions to stand down battleship service as defense priorities shifted.

The Western Pacific remained a routine operating area. On April 1992, as the Navy prepared to place ex-MISSOURI (BB 63) in reserve, NARRAGANSETT handled the main tow and NAVAJO accompanied, a staged evolution that mirrored standard MSC practice on heavy, valuable moves. Later that summer, Typhoon Omar struck Guam. On September 1, 1992, after the combat stores ship USS WHITE PLAINS (AFS 4) had broken adrift and grounded in Apra Harbor during the storm, NAVAJO towed the ship back into deeper water to clear the beach and pier approaches - one of many storm-recovery tasks fleet tugs performed for harbor masters across the Pacific.

Routine inactive-ship tows continued mid-decade - among them ex-DUNCAN (FFG 10) out of Pearl Harbor in January 1995 - punctuated by ad-hoc assignments. In 1998, she completed the trans-isthmus leg of the long tow of the decommissioned nuclear cruiser ex-MISSISSIPPI (CGN 40), taking the handoff at the Panama Canal from USNS MOHAWK (T-ATF 170) for the rest of the run to Bremerton. These transfers, often sequenced among sister tugs, balanced schedules, weather windows, and canal transit slots.

NAVAJO's flexibility extended beyond ship tows. In September 2000, when World War II ordnance was identified on the seabed off Hilo Bay, Hawaii, she served as the dive platform while Navy explosive-ordnance teams located and neutralized rounds. The tug's deck grid and container tie-downs made staging safe and efficient in swell-prone waters. In 2001, she escorted the decommissioned nuclear submarine ex-NARWHAL (SSN 671) from the Panama Canal to San Diego with USNS SIOUX, a tow that demanded careful routing, communications control, and compliance with environmental and security measures unique to former nuclear vessels.

Her West Coast scientific support work surfaced again in 2003, when she towed the Navy's unique Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) into San Diego Harbor - a reminder that MSC tugs also underpinned oceanography, test ranges, and research logistics when large, slow, unpowered platforms needed precise delivery to pier or operating area.

The mid-2000s saw NAVAJO increasingly tied to major fleet exercises that used retired hulls as live-fire targets and complex salvage test articles. On October 19, 2006, she moved ex-NEW ORLEANS (LPH 11) from Suisun Bay to Pearl Harbor for eventual sinking at RIMPAC 2010. In January 2007, she delivered ex-JOUETT (CG 29) to Pearl Harbor ahead of her SINKEX in VALIANT SHIELD 2007, and later that year took ex-KNOX (FF 1052) from Hawaii to Guam for use and disposal during the same exercise series.

RIMPAC 2006 had already highlighted her role: NAVAJO towed ex-BELLEAU WOOD (LHA 3) out of Pearl Harbor to the SINKEX area. At RIMPAC 2008, she again provided the terminal tow, this time moving ex-HORNE (CG 30) from Suisun Bay to Hawaiian waters. In 2009-2010, her exercise support broadened to undersea rescue and deep-ocean work. In September 2008, operating with the Chilean submarine CS SIMPSON, the Navy tested its then-new Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System (SRDRS), validating rapid installation on a "vessel of opportunity" and at-sea handling - a capability that, in crisis, could be embarked on a tug like NAVAJO or another available platform. In November 2009, she embarked U.S. and Indian Navy divers for the bilateral SALVEX 2009 off Hawaii, a recurring series focused on joint salvage and diving interoperability.

In winter 2010-2011, she shifted to deep-ocean search. With the Navy's CURV-21 remotely operated vehicle and ORION sonar embarked, NAVAJO conducted two central-Pacific tasks. In December 2010, she ran a search roughly 240 nautical miles southwest of Pearl Harbor that verified a Navy deep-water sensor was no longer attached to its anchor at more than 16,000 feet. After a short stand-down, she sailed in early January 2011 to a Marshall Islands search box to look for a U.S. Air Force asset across rugged seabed to over 14,000 feet before recovering to Pearl Harbor on January 24. These missions leveraged the tug's endurance, deck space, and handling gear to host the Navy's heaviest deep-ocean systems without needing a dedicated research ship.

NAVAJO remained a regular at RIMPAC's logistics edges. In 2010, she towed ex-MONTICELLO (LSD 35) and ex-ANCHORAGE (LSD 36) from Pearl Harbor to their SINKEX positions. In 2012, she delivered ex-KILAUEA (T-AE 26) from San Francisco to the firing area and served as a diving platform for Royal Australian Navy teams. She participated again in 2014 and, in 2016, towed ex-THATCH (FFG 43) to her SINKEX. Outside the exercise windows she continued the steady drumbeat of inactive-ship moves, among them ex-FRESNO (LST 1182) from Pearl Harbor to Guam in 2014 and the frigate ex-GARY (FFG 51) from San Diego to Pearl Harbor on September 16, 2015 ahead of transfer to Taiwan.

Day-to-day seamanship still defined much of her life. On July 28, 2012, during a mooring evolution near the Pearl Harbor entrance, a parted line led to the loss of approximately 8,000 pounds of ground tackle - anchor, chain, and heavy line - over the side into about 150 feet of water. Navy divers and deck crews recovered the gear on August 9, 2012. In May 2016, she towed the missile-tracking barge MOBILE AREA TARGETING SUPPORT SYSTEM (IX-524) into Pearl Harbor, and that year she also supported Hawaii-based search and salvage operations following the January 14 collision of two CH-53E Marine helicopters off Oahu, work coordinated with the dedicated salvage ship USNS SALVOR (T-ARS 52) and Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit-1.

After thirty-six years of service centered largely on the Pacific Rim - from Apra Harbor storm recoveries to Suisun Bay lay-up pulls, from FLIP tows into San Diego to deep-sea ROV searches out in blue water - USNS NAVAJO was inactivated and stricken on October 1, 2016. She has since remained moored at Pearl Harbor pending disposition, a representative example of the POWHATAN-class contribution to everyday fleet logistics, casualty response, and exercise infrastructure across a changing geopolitical era. Over her career, NAVAJO and her embarked detachments earned the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation and the Coast Guard Unit Commendation, unit-level recognition consistent with a ship whose value lay in reliable, repeatable, technically demanding work far from headlines.

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USNS NAVAJO Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the NAVAJO at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., on September 29, 2011 (the first three photos). The next day - September 30, 2011 - the NAVAJO departed San Diego for San Francisco (fourth photo) for a drydock period. The last photo shows the ship in drydock at San Francisco on October 6, 2011.

The photos below were taken by me and show the NAVAJO arriving at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif., on March 15, 2012.

The photos below were taken by Sebastian Thoma and show the NAVAJO laid up alongside the former USS VANDEGRIFT (FFG 48) in Middle Loch at Pearl Harbor, Hi., on March 18, 2022.

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