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U.S.S. VERMILION

(AKA-107)

VINCIT ROBOR
STRENGTH TO CONQUER

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USS VERMILION (AKA-107 ) - a Tolland-class attack cargo ship

In Commission 1945 to 1971

AKA-107 Deployments - Major Events

Add a AKA-107 Shellback Initiation Add a AKA-107 Deployment - Major Event
Month Year to Month Year Deployment / Event
OCT1944-Keel Date: 17 OCT 1944
at North Carolina Shipbuilding Company Wilmington NC
DEC1944-Launch Date: 12 DEC 1944
JUN1945-Commissioned: 23 JUN 1945
OCT1946- Shellback Initiation - 7 OCT 1946 - Pacific Ocean
JUN1952-SEP1952Blue Nose - Arctic Circle
MAY1955-AUG1955Artic Circle making a DEW line base at Hall Beach
JUN1955-NOV1955aneartic circle
JUN1955-NOV1955blue nose
AUG1955-NOV1955Antarctic Circle
JUN1958-DEC1958Mediterranean-Lebanon
JUL1958-SEP1958Occupation of Lebanon
FEB1960-NOV1960Mediterranean
JUN1960-DEC1960Mediterranean
JAN1961-JAN1964Cuban Missle Blockade
OCT1962-OCT1962Cuban Missle Blockade
APR1963-OCT1963Mediterranean
JAN1965-JAN1965Caribbean
MAR1965-JUN1965Mediterranean
MAR1965-JUL1965Caribbean
MAY1965-JUN1965Caribbean
NOV1965-JAN1966Caribbean
JAN1968-MAR1968West Pac
JAN1970-MAY1970Caribbean
APR1971-Decommissioned: 13 APR 1971

AKA-107 General Specifications

Class: Tolland-class attack cargo ship

Named for: Vermilion County

Complement: 425 Officers and Enlisted

Displacement: 13910 tons

Length: 489 feet 2 inches

Beam: 63 feet

Flank Speed: 16 Knots



USS VERMILION (AKA-107)



Vermilion (AKA-107) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1700) on 17 October 1944 at Wilmington N.C by the North Carolina Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. launched on 12 December 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Rex Freeman; delivered to the Navy incomplete on 23 December 1944 moved to the Todd Shipyard at Brooklyn New York completed as a Navy attack cargo ship and placed in commission at Brooklyn on 23 June 1945 Capt. F. B. Eggers in command

Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and based at Norfolk Va. Vermilion spent more than a year after commissioning engaged in shakedown and refresher training. That routine occupied her time until late in 1946. In November of that year she made a cruise to South American waters and resumed duty out of Norfolk upon her return. Normal fleet operations including midshipman summer training cruises amphibious exercises type training and reserve training cruises -- took up Vermilion's time for almost three years. On 26 August 1949 she was decommissioned and berthed with the Reserve Fleet Group located at Orange Tex. The outbreak of the Korean War in the summer of 1950 interrupted her inactivity. She was recommissioned at Orange on 16 October 1950 Capt. A. Jackson in command.

Though the Korean War occasioned Vermilion's return to active duty she never saw service in that conflict. Instead she replaced more combat-ready ships in the Atlantic Fleet and released them for duty in the Far East. After shakedown training the attack cargo ship began normal operations with the Atlantic Fleet. That employment continued until the summer of 1951 when she participated in Operation "Bluejay " the first large-scale seaborne lift of supplies to the new air base under construction at Thule Greenland. She returned from that mission to Norfolk on 29 August 1951 and resumed operations with the Atlantic Fleet. During the summer of 1952 the ship returned to Thule on another supply mission. She completed that operation on 25 August when she returned to Norfolk and to duty with the Atlantic Fleet. The end of the year and the beginning of 1953 saw her operating in the West Indies out of the base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. She returned to Norfolk on 2 February and once again started normal duty out of that port.

For the next five years Vermilion participated in Atlantic Fleet amphibious exercises at Onslow Beach N.C. and in the Caribbean. She also conducted independent ship's exercises and made cruises the length of the Atlantic seaboard. In June of 1958 the attack cargo ship left the east coast of the United States for a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. She returned home in December and resumed her normal schedule of operations.

Her routine of amphibious exercises independent ship's exercises and the like continued until the fall of 1962 when she was deployed to the West Indies to support the American quarantine of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis. Following that mission the ship returned once again to her familiar routine of operations out of Norfolk. In May 1963 she once more departed the east coast for a deployment with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterrranean .

Vermilion returned to Norfolk on 17 October and began another four-year stint of operations along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean. In January 1968 she departed Morehead City N.C. with Marine Air Control Squadron 6 bound -- via the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor -- for the Ryukyus. She arrived in Buckner Bay. Okinawa on' 22 February and departed those islands on the 25th with the Marine Air Squadron 8 embarked. She disembarked the air squadron at Morehead City on 30 March and returned to Norfolk on the 31st. Following a six-month overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard during which she was redesignated LKA-107 on 14 August Vermilion resumed Atlantic Fleet operations in November. She continued to operate out of Norfolk for over two years On 13 April 1971 the ship was decommissioned at Norfolk. She was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 27 July 1971 for layup in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at James River Va. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 January 1977.

[Note: The above USS VERMILION (AKA-107) history may or may not contain text provided by crew members of the USS VERMILION (AKA-107) or by other non-crew members and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]