UNDERWAY! 2025 Wall Calendar / W.W. II SPECIAL EDITION NOW AVAILABLE - CLICK HERE |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
For RATING SHIRTS - Click on your Rating Abbreviation below: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
U.S.S. VERMILION
(AKA-107)VINCIT ROBOR
STRENGTH TO CONQUER
Click to view crew list
USS VERMILION (AKA-107 ) - a Tolland-class attack cargo ship
In Commission 1945 to 1971AKA-107 Deployments - Major Events
Add a AKA-107 Shellback Initiation | Add a AKA-107 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
OCT | 1944 | - | Keel Date: 17 OCT 1944 at North Carolina Shipbuilding Company Wilmington NC | ||
DEC | 1944 | - | Launch Date: 12 DEC 1944 | ||
JUN | 1945 | - | Commissioned: 23 JUN 1945 | ||
OCT | 1946 | - | Shellback Initiation - 7 OCT 1946 - Pacific Ocean | ||
JUN | 1952 | - | SEP | 1952 | Blue Nose - Arctic Circle |
MAY | 1955 | - | AUG | 1955 | Artic Circle making a DEW line base at Hall Beach |
JUN | 1955 | - | NOV | 1955 | aneartic circle |
JUN | 1955 | - | NOV | 1955 | blue nose |
AUG | 1955 | - | NOV | 1955 | Antarctic Circle |
JUN | 1958 | - | DEC | 1958 | Mediterranean-Lebanon |
JUL | 1958 | - | SEP | 1958 | Occupation of Lebanon |
FEB | 1960 | - | NOV | 1960 | Mediterranean |
JUN | 1960 | - | DEC | 1960 | Mediterranean |
JAN | 1961 | - | JAN | 1964 | Cuban Missle Blockade |
OCT | 1962 | - | OCT | 1962 | Cuban Missle Blockade |
APR | 1963 | - | OCT | 1963 | Mediterranean |
JAN | 1965 | - | JAN | 1965 | Caribbean |
MAR | 1965 | - | JUN | 1965 | Mediterranean |
MAR | 1965 | - | JUL | 1965 | Caribbean |
MAY | 1965 | - | JUN | 1965 | Caribbean |
NOV | 1965 | - | JAN | 1966 | Caribbean |
JAN | 1968 | - | MAR | 1968 | West Pac |
JAN | 1970 | - | MAY | 1970 | Caribbean |
APR | 1971 | - | 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]