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USNS Mohawk (T-ATF 170)

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USNS MOHAWK was the fifth POWHATAN - class ocean tug. Placed out of service on August 16, 2005, the MOHAWK spent the following 18 years laid up at Philadelphia, PA. In early September 2023, she was towed from Philadelphia to Brownsville, Tx., for scrapping.

USNS MOHAWK 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. That 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.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS MOHAWK. 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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USNS MOHAWK History:

USNS MOHAWK entered Military Sealift Command service on October 16, 1980, following construction at Marinette Marine in Wisconsin and a launch in spring 1980. As a POWHATAN-class fleet ocean tug she was built for heavy ocean tows, diving and salvage support, and emergency response, with twin EMD diesels driving controllable-pitch propellers in Kort nozzles, a powerful SMATCO towing winch, a 10-ton crane, and fittings to embark portable dive and decompression systems.

Early work established her dual identity as both tow platform and afloat base for divers: in February 1982, she served as the dive ship for recovery operations after an F-4E Phantom II crashed in shallow water off Charleston, South Carolina, temporarily borrowing a heavier stern anchor from USCGC ESCAPE when winter weather defeated the original ground tackle. Later that year, she towed floating dry-dock pontoons from Charleston to Holy Loch, Scotland, supporting the Atlantic submarine base. Through the fall of 1985 and winter of 1985-1986 she deployed in the Caribbean for counter-drug surveillance, then on August 1, 1986, departed the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard with battleship ex-WISCONSIN (BB 64) in tow, USS EDENTON (ATS 1) in company, delivering the battleship to Avondale Shipyard, New Orleans, on August 15, 1986, for the opening steps of her Cold-War reactivation. The tug's heavy-weather towing, long-range endurance, and small crew of civilian mariners became her hallmarks.

Routine Atlantic operations framed the late 1980s. On December 18, 1987, MOHAWK was credited in press reports with rescuing 29 people after a collision between two merchant ships at sea. In January 1989, she assisted refloating a grounded U.S. destroyer after three days aground, adding practical salvage to her resume. Across these years she won three Navy "E" ribbons (1981, 1982, 1989) as the class matured into the fleet's go-to heavy tugs.

In the early 1990s, she alternated stateside towing and training with Sixth Fleet deployments as a diving/salvage and tow asset. On April 3, 1993, she recovered wreckage from an F-15 that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico, the debris moved ashore by LCAC to Tyndall AFB for investigation. In February 1995, she recovered a downed T-34C Turbo Mentor off Corpus Christi, again underscoring her utility as a stable, roomy platform for embarked Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit teams. In June 1995, she towed ex-INCHON (LPH 12) from Ingleside, Texas, to the Philadelphia inactive fleet, a long coastal evolution typical of NAVSEA's inactive-ship logistics. In September 1995, during a Sixth Fleet swing, MOHAWK moored in Constanta, Romania, for Exercise Poseidon '95, where Detachment Bravo, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit TWO trained with Romanian counterparts. Other calls included Mahon, Spain, reflecting a tempo of coalition engagement and small-port logistics. The ship received a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation in 1995 and the Armed Forces Service Medal in 1996, formal markers of sustained operational work in that mid-decade window.

By 1998, her tow docket and forward presence both accelerated. In March 1998, MOHAWK took nuclear-powered cruiser ex-MISSISSIPPI (CGN 40) out of Norfolk for hand-off at the Panama Canal to sister tug USNS NAVAJO (T-ATF 169), which continued the tow to Bremerton. On March 31, 1998, MOHAWK shifted directly to take ex-SAM RAYBURN (MTS 635) under tow - an example of back-to-back heavy evolutions that kept her towing gear and seamanship at peak currency. In 1998, she also visited Rhodes, Greece, during a Sixth Fleet period. On October 10, 1999, she began towing ex-GUADALCANAL (LPH 7) from Philadelphia toward Hampton Roads when a tow-guide assembly failure injured a crewmember - an incident later cited in legal filings - before the tow was stabilized and completed. In November 1999, following the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 south of Nantucket on October 31, 1999, MOHAWK joined the salvage ship USS GRAPPLE (ARS 53) and NOAA's WHITING off the crash site: the Navy team transitioned from Coast Guard first response to systematic sonar and ROV survey and debris recovery in heavy seas.

After millennium-turn upkeep, the tug remained deeply woven into fleet evolutions. On October 16, 2001, she towed ex-GUAM (LPH 9) from Norfolk to the Atlantic exercise area where Carrier Air Wing aircraft from USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) conducted a SINKEX, disposing of the retired amphibious assault ship after a prolonged air and surface attack sequence. In 2000-2001 and again in 2003, MOHAWK's Sixth Fleet patrols paired towing with combined diving and salvage exercises: Detachment Alpha of MDSU-2 embarked for a six-month cruise that staged joint dives with Bulgarian Navy teams off Varna and conducted similar serials with partners in Egypt and Croatia. Port calls included La Maddalena, Sardinia; Valletta, Malta; and Palma de Mallorca in 2000-2001, Valletta again in 2003, and La Spezia, Italy, in 2005. These cooperative evolutions matched U.S. policy emphasis on post-Cold War naval capacity-building around the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Inactive-ship moves continued alongside that engagement portfolio. In June 2004, MOHAWK received the cruiser ex-LEAHY (CG 16) at the Panama Canal - after an initial leg with USNS NAVAJO - and towed her to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility at Beaumont, Texas, on June 21, 2004, prior to final disposal at Brownsville. Through 2004-2005, she cycled routine Atlantic training, dock periods, and light certification events to keep towing and rescue gear within inspection currency as the class approached end-of-life decisions.

MOHAWK was placed out of service on August 15, 2005, and laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia. For years she remained in reserve while the Navy and Maritime Administration weighed transfer or disposal options, including a Defense Security Cooperation Agency authorization to sell the tug to Chile later rescinded on May 16, 2016. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on August 31, 2015, she stayed berthed at Philadelphia until September 1, 2023, when she departed under tow for Brownsville, Texas, where dismantling commenced - closing nearly twenty-five years of active MSC service followed by almost eighteen years in reserve.

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USNS MOHAWK Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me on November 7, 2008, and show the MOHAWK laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) Philadelphia, PA.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the MOHAWK laid up at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on October 17, 2016. The ship alongside is the ex BARRY (DD 933).

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