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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Summary: AT-76 / ATF-76 Ute - Apache Class Fleet Tug: Laid down, 27 February 1942 at United Engineering Co., Alameda, CA; Launched, 24 June 1942; Commissioned USS Ute (AT-76), 13 December 1942; Reclassified as a Fleet Ocean Tug (ATF-76), 15 May 1944; Decommissioned, 13 July 1946; Recommissioned, 14 September 1951 at Tongue Point, Oregon; Decommissioned, 30 August 1974 and Transferred to MSC; Placed In-Service by MSC as USNS Ute (T-ATF-76); Placed Out-of-Service; Transferred to the Coast Guard, (date unknown); Commissioned USCGC Ute (WMEC-76); Decommissioned, (date unknown); Returned to Naval custody (date unknown); Struck from the Naval Register, 23 January 1989; Laid up in the Reserve Fleet; Final disposition, sunk as a target, 4 August 1991.
Specifications: Displacement 1,646 t.(fl); Length 205'; Beam 38' 6": Draft 15' 3"; Speed 16kts; Complement 8 Officers, 68 Enlisted; Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, two twin 40mm gun mounts, two single 20 gun mounts; Propulsion, four GE diesel-electric engines, single screw, 3,000hp.
Naval History:
Ute (AT-76) was laid down on 27 February 1942 at Alameda, Calif., by the United Engineering Co.; launched on 24 June 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Robert Tate, and commissioned on 13 December 1942, Lt. William F. Lewis in command.
After shakedown training in the San Francisco Bay region, Ute got underway on 10 February 1943, bound for Alaskan waters, and reached Dutch Harbor a week later. Ute immediately sailed for Amchitka, Alaska, where she participated in the salvage operations on the attack transport Arthur Middleton (APA-25) which had been thrown aground in one of the vicious "williwaws" common to that area of the world.
Throughout March, Ute, assisted by the fleet tug Tatnuck (AT-27), continued in her efforts to haul the stranded attack transport off the beach. Ute utilized two sets of beach gear in the attempt to free the vessel. Ute interrupted that work only once during the month to assist the merchantman SS Wallace to clear the harbor after the merchantman's mooring had parted.
After suspending her operations on the Arthur Middleton for the first week of April because of bad weather, the plucky auxiliary resumed her work when the weather cleared on the 8th. Success crowned her efforts the following day, when the attack transport shuddered free of the beach. Within a few days, Ute and Tatnuck got underway and towed Arthur Middleton to Dutch Harbor where they arrived on the 13th.
Ute fueled and left immediately for aptly named Cold Bay
where she assisted the stranded Russian merchantman Kroangl
Oktgabr. Passing a towline to the Soviet vessel, Ute pulled
her free the next day. That mission completed, the fleet tug
cleared Cold Bay for Women's Bay where she took two tank
landing craft (LCT's) in tow and proceeded via Dutch Harbor
to Sweeper's Cove.
During the first week of May, Ute assisted in laying
an antisubmarine net at Sweeper's Cove. On the 6th, she joined
TF 51 as the carriers were steaming toward the Kuril Islands
for strikes against Paramushiro to support the invasion of Attu.
While the task force was returning from the raid, which Ute had
participated in as a salvage unit, reduced visibility caused
the tug to be separated from the rest of the force. After
failing to regain her position, Ute received orders to proceed
to Attu.
Reaching that island on 12 May, Ute immediately found
employment during the initial landings there. The merchantman
SS Perida, transporting an Army combat team, had struck a
pinnacle rock, rupturing two holds, and was in danger of
foundering. The tug passed a line to the stricken vessel
and pulled her out of danger to a position near the beach
where she could unload her vital cargo.
Transferring pumps and other salvage gear to Perida Ute
continued salvage operations from the 12th to the 28th. During
that period, enemy air raids enlivened the proceedings and
caused several ships to stand out to sea. Ute, like a faithful
companion, stayed near the stranded Perida to lend a hand
should the occasion arise. On the 29th, Ute passed a towline
to Perida and took her to Adak. The valuable tug then rounded
out the month towing targets.
Ute remained at Adak until 8 June, when she headed for
Shemya Island. En route there, she assisted the subchaser/patrol
craft, PC-487, which had only a short time before rammed and sunk
a Japanese submarine 1-~?4. Taking the submarine chaser's men
and equipment on board, the tug stood by the scene of the action
until relieved on station by Lamberton (DMS-2).
Upon reaching Shemya, Ute went to work dynamiting shoal
spots until the 16th. On that day, she was ordered to Nizki
Island to assist SS MacVeigh after that merchantman had been
stranded on a reef. Ute easily pulled the vessel free and
assisted Tatnuck in towing her to Massacre Bay.
Ute carried out a small repair job on an Army tug and
then commenced salvage operations on SS MacVeigh. That task
kept her busy until the 28th when she left to tow an
antisubmarine net to Shemya. Two days later, the tug returned
at flank speed to Attu and soon thereafter proceeded to Alexai
Point to assist the grounded Hulbert (AVD-6).
Throughout the first three weeks of July 1943, Ute
attempted to pull Hulbert off the beach and still continued
her efforts to salvage SS MacVeigh. She interrupted those
efforts on the 19th to assist the grounded merchantman Delwood.
However, an LCT passed between the two ships, cutting the towline.
Again passing a line, Ute persisted in her attempt to free the
ship and finally succeeded in getting the ship off the rocks.
Unfortunately, the damage to Delwood proved to be greater than
at first thought; and, soon after she had been refloated, she
was in a dangerously "sinking condition." Thirty minutes later,
Delwood listed heavily to port and began to go down by the stern.
Ute cut herself free from the foundering merchantman with
an acetylene torch. Happily, no men were lost in the operation.
Ute later took the damaged LCT in tow and delivered her to
Massacre Bay.
Ute operated at Massacre Bay, Attu, until 7 August when
she towed two LCT's to Constantine Harbor Amchitka. After
leaving her tow there, the tug picked up another LCT and proceeded
to Adak which she reached on the 10th. Two days later, she sailed
with the Kiska-bound attack force. However, that operation proved
to be unnecessary, since the Japanese had evacuated the island a
short time before, leaving only a few stray dogs to contest the
invasion.
Weather and mines still endangered the ships. The latter
damaged the destroyer Abner Read (DD-526); and, on 18 August,
Ute towed that destroyer to Adak.
A few days later, Ute returned to Kiska with a barge in tow.
On the 26th, she got underway to investigate the report that a
sunken Japanese submarine lay in the vicinity of Twin Rocks.
Divers sent down from Ute confirmed the report, locating a
submarine lying on her port side in 10 fathoms of water.
On 13 September, Ute proceeded to the location of the
disabled LST-461; but upon reaching the scene soon thereafter,
found that LST-461 was already underway, travelling at the
end of a towline astern of the tug Robert Preston. Ute returned
to Kiska Harbor and, the next day took a barge in tow. The
towline parted, however, and heavy weather forced the tug to
abandon her attempt to regain the barge.
Two days later, Ute proceeded to Buldir Island to assist
LCT - 56. Arriving there on the 19th, the tug took the landing
craft in tow and subsequently delivered her safely to Kiska.
For the remainder of September, the fleet tug tackled a
number of odd jobs, such as clearing fouled anchors and recovering
tackle from sunken Japanese vessels. On the 29th, she recovered
a Navy plane which had capsized in the harbor.
Ute continued salvage evolutions on sunken and damaged
enemy ships in the harbor before she moved to Adak in early
October. There, the tug underwent a needed availability alongside
a tender until the 22d when she returned to Kiska and sailed
thence to Attu. There, Ute pulled the merchantman, SS Ole E.
Rolvaag off the beach, with little trouble, and spent the
remainder of the month searching for Army barges reported adrift
at sea.
After failing to locate the derelicts, Ute returned to
Massacre Bay on 1 November. A week later, she salvaged a PT-boat
and towed it to a mooring buoy. The next day, the tug once more
headed for Kiska and spent the days salvaging sunken Japanese
ships. The fickle Alaskan weather added to her workload, and Ute
again found herself engaged in pulling ships free of the beach.
The destroyer King (DD-242), an old "flushdecker," ran aground
at Kuluk Bay, Adak, and Ute pulled her free on the 27th before
proceeding to Lash Bay, Tanaga Island, for salvage operations
on LST-451.
Neptune's capricious antics in wintry Alaskan waters
continually interrupted Ute's work on the LST, and heavy seas
finally forced the tug from the anchorage. She cruised at sea
until the weather moderated and then returned to pull the landing
ship free a few days later. With the LST in tow, Ute started out
for Adak but weather and sea conditions worsened and forced the
hips to take shelter in the lee of Tanaga Island for two days before
continuing.
After finally delivering the LST, Ute fueled and rushed
to aid the Russian merchantman Valery Chealov a ship that had
split in half in the heavy seas. Arriving a few hours later, Ute
stood by while Cree (ATF-84) took the after section of the halved
ship in tow and then herself went to work recovering the forward
half. Ute rescued a Soviet seaman from one of the hulks after
the man jumped overboard into the freezing waves.
The next morning, Ute secured a grapnel to the wreck and
towing commenced. The following day, the wire parted. After
several unsuccessful attempts to secure another towline to the
hulk, the resourceful American sailors welded a 400-pound anchor
to a depth charge arbor and fired it off in the direction of the
wreck. A second try at this ingenious method succeeded when one
of the flukes of the anchor caught on the Russian ships' deck.
After taking up the slack, Ute towed the hulk once more.
Two hours later, though, the towing wire chafed and parted.
With the derelict drifting aimlessly in the stormy seas, no move
could be made to resume the tow until the tempest abated. Then,
five volunteers clambered on board the drifting bow section and
took the line passed from Ute and once more secured the anchor
chain to the wreck. Finally, on 22 December, Ute transferred her
charge to an Army tug at Sand Bay, Great Sitkin Island. Soon after
returning to Adak, Rear Admiral F. E. M. Whiting presented
Lt. William F. Lewis, Ute's commanding officer, with the Legion
of Merit for his performance of duty in the tug.
Subsequently, the day after Christmas 1943, Ute got underway
for Shemya Island to assist grounded SS Scotia. On the way, a heavy
storm forced Ute to seek protection in the lee of Tanaga Island.
Thence, under new orders, the fleet tug pushed on via Attu to Kiska
where she obtained additional salvage and diving equipment necessary
for the Scotia salvage project.
Just before the salvage operations on the grounded Scotia
could commence, the ship's master gyro compass failed, holding
up the salvage work for nearly two weeks before repairs could be
effected. No sooner had work begun, than Ute was forced to shift
to Tanaga Island to aid the grounded YMS-127. Three days later
the fleet tug pulled the motor minesweeper off the rocks and
towed her to Adak before returning to Attu at the end of the
month.
Early in February 1944, Ute was assigned to standby salvage
duty during another bombardment of Japanese installations on
Paramushiro. Led by the light cruisers Richmond (CL-9) and
Raleigh (CL-7), the American ships conducted a successful
shelling; and Ute returned to Adak.
One week later, the busy fleet tug proceeded to Constantine
Harbor, at Amchitka, to save a gasoline barge. After cruising off
the harbor entrance for a day waiting for the weather to improve,
Ute entered the harbor and commenced operations. Upon completion
of her mission four days later, she proceeded to Kiska to shift
a cruiser's moorings, and thence moved on to Adak to tow targets.
However, bad weather prevented the scheduled gunnery exercises,
and the fleet tug returned to Attu.
Ute operated on standby during another bombardment of
Japanese installations on Paramushiro early in March. After
returning to Attu, she shifted to Adak delaying long enough
to tow targets there in mid-month before shifting to Great
Sitkin Island. During the last week of March, Ute towed the
bow section of the Russian merchantman Valery Chkalov to
Dutch Harbor. She later returned to Great Sitkin in April to
prepare the after section of that ship for towing. Departing
Great Sitkin on 1 May, Ute delivered the bow section of
Valery Chkalov to Vancouver, British Columbia, on the 21st
and then pushed on to Seattle for an availability. During
that stint in Aleutian waters, the ship was reclassified as a
fleet tug, ATF-76.
After repairs and alterations at the Puget Sound Navy
Yard during June and most of July, the fleet tug left Puget
Sound on 28 July and pointed her bow once more toward Alaskan
waters.
Stopping long enough at Kodiak to pick up a tow, Ute
proceeded to Dutch Harbor, where she was drydocked for repairs
to her bilge keel. Underway with her tow again a few days
later, the fleet tug ultimately reached Adak on 21 August.
For the first half of September, Ute remained at Adak,
doing odd jobs and towing sleds for gunnery exercises before
she proceeded to Dutch Harbor on 14 September. Except for a
salvage job to perform on YP~7, the remainder of the month
proved uneventful.
In October, Ute put to sea to assist the Russian
merchantman SS Altgelt which was reportedly breaking up at
sea. However, the Soviet ship reached Kodiak safely; and Ute
returned to Dutch Harbor for the remainder of the month. The
ship then sailed south for another availability, this time
at the Pactfic Repair and Drydock Co. in Oakland, Calif.
With repairs and trials behind her, Ute cleared San
Francisco Bay on 16 December 1944, in a convoy bound for the
Hawaiian Islands. She reached Pearl Harbor two days into the
new year, 1945. A week later, she pushed on for the Marshalls.
Towing limestone, a concrete supply barge, Ute touched
first at Majuro, then at Eniwetok where she arrived on 1
February 1945. There, the fleet tug was assigned to the
logistics support group of TG 50.8 to service the main striking
force of the 5th Fleet with oil and provisions while underway
and thus enable the Fleet to stay at sea nearly continuously
to support the Iwo Jima campaign.
On 9 February, Ute sortied in company with TG 60.8 for
an area east of Iwo Jima and remained at sea for the rest of
the month. On the 16th, Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher's carrier
planes bombed airfields, aircraft factories, and shipping in
the Tokyo area and repeated those strikes on the 17th as well.
On the 21st, Ute attempted to assist escort carrier
Bismarck Sea (CVE-95), damaged by a Japanese kamikaze. However,
before Ute could arrive on the scene, Bismarck Sea sank. After
searching for survivors, the fleet tug returned to her station
in the task group.
Task Group 50.8 returned to Ulithi for a rest, putting
into that lagoon on 6 March, but sortied again a fortnight later
to support the Fleet in the operation against Okinawa Gunto. As
before Ute steamed in company ready to perform her vital but
unglamorous salvage mission. However, except for sighting numerous
mines in the vicinity, the tug found this assignment uneventful.
Ute cruised with TG 50.8 until 16 April, when she was
detached to head for Okinawa. Once again she was ordered to
assist one of the kamikaze-damaged flattops, this time the
fleet carrier Franklin (CV-13). However, Franklin recovered
her power of self-propulsion before Ute arrived.
On the night of 24 May, Ute fired at, but missed, a Japanese
plane that roared by, close aboard. The next morning, however,
her gunners splashed a "Val" that had attempted to bomb the
helpless SS William B. Allison. A few hours later, Ute got
underway and churned to the assistance of the high-speed
minesweeper Butler (DMS-29), kamikazied off the anchorage.
At dusk on that day, after assisting the damaged Butler,
Ute proceeded to Chimu Wan to extinguish a fire on PC-1605 and
to assist that patrol craft which had been hit by two kamikazes.
During the night, the efforts of the firefighters succeeded,
and Ute prepared to take the craft in tow.
However, before Ute could get a line to the submarine chaser,
new orders sent the tug to the assistance of the destroyer
Braine (DD-630), also the victim of a kamikaze, 40 miles east
of Okinawa. Ute got underway but as she did so, a "Val", pursued
by a trio of Corsair fighters (Vought F4U's), attacked her.
Undeterred by Ute's gunfire and that of the three fighters,
the "Val" made a suicide dive in the direction of the fleet tug.
Fortunately, the airmen and Ute's gunners gained the upper hand
and splashed the "Val" into the sea about 50 yards on Ute's port
quarter.
Ute's usefulness was proved before the month was out as she
assisted ships on the picket lines (frequent targets of kamikazes)
and in the harbors. On the 17th, she towed an LSM from the Hagushi
beach anchorage to Kerama Retto and, the following day, salvaged
he damaged tank landing craft, LCT-1335. After Daly (DD-519) took
a kamikaze on 28 April, Ute set out to her aid, but, since Daly
could make it to Kerama Retto under her own power, Ute returned
to Hagushi. That night, the fleet tug opened fire on a Japanese
plane which attacked ships in the anchorage nearby, and the suicider
crashed about 500 yards from the ship.
The next day, Haggard (DD-555), damaged by a kamikaze,
required assistance. Ute brought the stricken "tin can" to
Kerama Retto before being sent to Buckner Bay for duty. Shortly
after arriving there, the tug salvaged an LCI (landing craft,
infantry) that had hit a reef and later relieved another tug
in towing an ammunition barge. Then, for nearly two weeks,
Ute performed repairs on the damaged merchantman,
SS William B. Allison.
Ute located the damaged kamikazied destroyer Braine on
the afternoon of 27 May and delivered her, at the end of a towline,
to Kerama Retto the following morning. Ute next returned to
the crippled William B. Allison, then leaking badly and threatening
to sink, but interrupted that work the next day to conduct
salvage operations on LST-844.
After pulling the LST off' a reef on 2 June, Ute returned
to William B. Allison and commenced pumping operations. Three
days later, she went to the assistance of J. William Ditter (DM-31),
after that light mine layer had mixed it up with Japanese suiciders,
and towed the damaged ship to Kerama Retto, the refuge for battered
and sinking ships.
Ute managed to pitch in with some antiaircraft action of
her own on the 11th and shot down a Japanese plane that passed over
her during a suicide run.
By this time, one of Ute's engines was out of operation, so
the fleet tug sailed for Saipan on the 16th, exactly two months
after she had first made landfall at Okinawa. During that period,
the ship had been at general quarters between 20 and 30 percent of
the time, saw antiaircraft fire nearly every night, and observed
Japanese aircraft numerous times. After reaching Saipan, she
proceeded on to Leyte Gulf for availability.
Moored alongside Jason (ARH-1), Ute underwent repairs and
alterations through mid-August 1945 when Japan capitulated. She
remained in San Pedro Bay until the 28th, when she proceeded in
convoy back to Okinawa.
With the war now over, Ute was sent to occupy lower Korea.
Early in September, she proceeded to Jinsen (now Inchon), Korea,
where she remained through mid-month. She headed for Shanghai,
China, on the 18th, and reached the mouth of the Yangtze a few
days later. After taking on a pilot, the fleet tug proeeeded up
the Whangpoo River to Shanghai, where she remained for the remainder
of the month.
On 1 October, Ute towed the Yangtze River lightship into
position at the mouth of that river and returned to Shanghai soon
thereafter. Early in the second week of October, the fleet tug
received orders to proceed up the Yangtze, taking in tow with her
four lighters laden with aviation gasoline.
Reaching Hankow on the 16th, she discharged her cargo there
and returned to Shanghai within a few days. Six miles above Keichow
two mines detonated close aboard, dislocated the tug's shaft bearings,
ruptured her fuel tanks, and caused considerable damage throughout
the ship. Seize (ARS-26) assisted the crippled fleet tug; and
Tekesta (ATF-93) took over Ute's barges. The little convoy reached
Shanghai on 2 November. On that day, Ute went alongside the heavy
hull repair ship Dixie (ARM-14) and remained there undergoing
temporary repairs through the end of the month.
On 15 December, Ute got underway for the Marianas, in company
with and towed by ATR-72, and reached Guam on the day after Christmas.
From that island, she continued on via Eniwetok and Kwajalein to the
United States and arrived at San Francisco on 27 February 1946. After
a drydocking at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard from 5 to 19 April,
the tug proceeded north to Astoria, Oregon, where she was placed
in out-of-commission, in-reserve, status on 13 July 1946.
Called back to service in the Korean War mobilization, Ute
was recommissioned at Tongue Point, Oregon., on 14 September 1951.
Upon completion of an overhaul at Oakland on 23 November 1951,
she sailed for San Pedro and four weeks of intensive underway
training. On 4 January 1952, Ute departed San Diego and headed for
the Far East, stopping at Pearl Harbor for two weeks en route.
After touching at Sasebo, Japan, Ute proceeded on to the Korean
war zone.
From 23 February to 21 March 1952, Ute operated in Wonsan
harbor, primarily laying buoys to mark swept channels and at
Nan Do laying mooring buoys for boats in rough weather. She made
one trip to Hungnam to replace a vital navigation buoy. During
that period, Ute also participated in shore bombardments at
Wonsan, Hungnam, and Songjin, engaging targets of opportunity.
On 27 February in SongJin harbor, Ute cleared the fouled
screw of the minesweeper AMS - 4. On 14 March, she assisted the
Republic of Korea (ROK) minesweeper, AMS-518, with emergency
repairs after that vessel had broken her starboard propeller
shaft and suffered a flooded engine room. Following the emergency
repairs, Ute took the minesweeper to Chinhae, Korea.
Not only did Ute perform salvage duties and shore
bombardments at Wonsan but she also was assigned picket stations
inside the harbor and performed other duties that included the
detail of taking mail and supplies to islands held by friendly
forces. She also supplied American and ROK small craft with
fuel, provisions, and some 20,000 gallons of fresh water.
Upon completion of her first tour in Korean waters, Ute
returned to Sasebo for a short period of replenishment. Her
second trip to the combat zone took her to Cho Do, on the western
coast of Korea, where she operated from 31 March to 27 April.
Her numerous duties included: furnishing local escort and fire
support for LST's en route to Cho Do or Sok To, carrying mail
and stores for friendly ships in the immediate vicinity, and
repairing friendly LCM's and minesweepers. Each night, Ute
conducted picket patrols.
On 6 April, Ute commenced salvage of an ROK salvage ship
that had run aground and needed help to pull free and out of danger.
During the operation, Ute drew heavy fire from communist shore
batteries; 21 rounds landed between 20 to 100 feet from the ship.
However, the valiant fleet tug bore a charmed life, for she was
able to maneuver safely out of gun range on every occasion, and
her crew suffered no casualties.
On 24 April, Ute fired a shore bombardment mission and
earned the nickname "Good Shoot Ute" from the American and British
forces blockading the Korean west coast. Fires started by the
ship's shells burned all night. The crew also noted several
explosions indicating damage done to the enemy. That engagement
proved to be the last before she retired from Korean waters.
During her replenishment at Sasebo, Ute received emergency
orders to assist a SCAJAP LST that had broached at Cheju Do island.
This task kept the tug busy from 29 April to 11 May, when, with her
task completed, she returned to Sasebo.
Ute's fourth trip to the combat zone took her back to Cho Do,
on the west coast of Korea. Her duties were similar to those of her
earlier stays on the line but placed more emphasis on the ship's
repair capabilities. She furnished 10,000 gallons of fresh water
to small craft during that particular tour and conducted a
successful salvage operation on a damaged LCM that had been
beached during a storm. After refloating the craft, she delivered
it to an LSD for repairs.
On the night of 15 June 1952, Ute was ordered to take a wooden
barge, laden with a cargo of gasoline, oil, food, and water, to an
island deep in enemy waters which was held by friendly troops. Since
it was imperative that the delivery be made under cover of darkness,
Ute threaded her way to the island which was located only 35 miles
from the mouth of the Yalu River and in an area reportedly patrolled
heavily by communist aircraft. Innumerable navigational hazards
and poorly charted waters made the passage an anxious one; but,
by navigating with her radar, the tug made the trip successfully
and delivered the barge and its eagerly-awaited cargo in record
time. Returning to Cho Do before daybreak, Ute's combat air patrol
(provided lest she be discovered by enemy planes) was not needed.
Ute's other duties during this time included the evacuation
of wounded and the transportation of prisoners of war (POW's)
to the British light cruiser, HMS Ceylon. Other routine tasks
included the stopping and searching of alien sampans coming
down the Yellow Sea from the north. Relieved on station, Ute
proceeded to Yokosuka, Japan, for a well-earned rest.
That autumn, Ute labored in Korean waters for a fifth
time, from 20 August to 30 September 1952. During that time,
she operated in company with the destroyer Radford(DD-545) and,
on one occasion, witnessed that "tin can's" firing on MiG jets
that passed close by. The tug performed salvage work and fired
eight more shore bombardment missions.
Having logged 166 days in the combat zone, Ute headed for
Pearl Harbor on 7 October. After a yard availability there, the
tug picked up the disabled PC1141 at Johnston Island, returning
her to Pearl Harbor on 26 January 1963.
Ute plied the Pacific, performing routine towing duties,
to Midway and Wake Islands, before she began her second Western
Pacific (WestPac) deployment early in September. She then operated
in Far Eastern waters until the following March, when she returned
via the Marshalls to Pearl Harbor.
Over the ensuing decade, Ute conducted numerous WestPac
deployments and operated in the northern Pacific as well. Her
missions included tows, salvage work, and search and rescue
missions. During those years, Ute was homeported at Pearl Harbor
and ranged from Japan to Indochina; from Johnston Island to
Bikini Atoll; and from Adak (her old "stomping grounds") to
the Marianas.
Early in 1966, American involvement in Vietnam began to
show in the ship's routine. The tug departed Sasebo on 27 March,
bound for South Vietnam, with APL-55 in tow. Shifting to Danang
soon after her arrival at Camranh Bay, she towed YD-127 to Subic Bay,
Philippines, between 6 and 10 April. Ten days later, the veteran
tug relieved Bausell (DD-845) in shadowing a Soviet trawler to
keep the Russian ship from interfering with the operations of
American carriers in Tonkin Gulf.
After continuing that "skunk patrol" for five days, Ute
salvaged the merchantman, SS Excellenev, a ship that had run
aground while carrying munitions to Vietnam. She arrived at t
he scene (at Triton Island 180 miles southeast of Danang) on
26 April and, after surveying the bottom offshore, began laying
beaching gear. After tearing Excellenev from the bulldog grip
of the reef at 1602 on 30 April, Ute returned to the Tonkin
Gulf on 1 May to resume "skunk patrol."
Relieved by Abnaki (ATF-96) at Danang in mid May, Ute put
into Hong Kong on the 22d for rest and recreation. She operated
in southeast Asian waters into the summer, touching at Kaohsiung,
Taiwan, Subic Bay; Singapore; and Sattahip and Bangkok, Thailand,
before returning to Subic Bay for upkeep.
After a brief visit to Japanese waters, Ute returned to
Pearl Harbor in early October. She did not return to WestPac
operating areas again until the following summer. She performed
services for the Royal Thai Navy between 28 and 30 August and
then towed APL55 from An Thoi, Vietnam, to Sasebo, Japan. For
a month that autumn, from 15 October to 15 November Ute carried
out surveillance of a Soviet `'trawler" in the Tonkin Gulf
with TF-77, before conducing salvage operations on Clarke County
(LST-601) at Doc Pho, Vietnam.
Ute spent much of 1970 in the southeast Asian area, numbering
Camranh Bay, Vung Tau, Danang, Sattahip, and Singapore among her
ports of call. After participating in salvage operations with SS
Laredo Victory near Midway, Ute returned to the west coast of the
United States, towing two old Fletcher-class hulks, ex-O'Bannon
(DD-450) and ax-Nicholas (DD449) from Pearl Harbor to the Mare
Island Naval Shipyard between 31 January and 14 February 1971.
Subsequently deploying to the northern Pacific operating
area and then to Pearl Harbor in mid-year, Ute spent much of that
autumn undergoing salvage and refresher training in Hawaiian waters.
Deploying to WestPac again in early November, Ute "chopped" to
the 7th Fleet on 13 November.
Ute did not return to continental American waters until 1972;
her homeport was officially changed from Pearl Harbor to San Diego
on 15 October. One of her first tasks upon arrival "stateside" was
the tow of the erstwhile fleet carrier Bunker Hill (CV-17) to
San Clemente Island in November for shock tests. After the tests
were completed, Ute returned Bunker Hill to San Diego. Commander,
Destroyer Squadron 33 reported that the overall success of the
tests ". . . can be largely attributable to the expertise and
versatility of USS Ute in performing a variety of assignments."
Ute performed coastwise tow and tug services for the Fleet,
off the southern California coast, into 1974. Her WestPac service
was not over, however, for she commenced yet another deployment
on 7 January 1974. Over the seven months that ensued, Ute visited
such ports as Pearl Harbor, Subic Bay and Poro Point in the
Philippines; Singapore; Hong Kong, Yokosuka, Kure, and Sasebo
in Japan; Keelung, Taiwan; and Pusan, South Korea. The Fleet
utilized her services in such diverse activities as torpedo
recovery, target tows, diver requalification, and ocean towing.
She capped off the deployment by towing YMS-789 from Poro
Point to Tacoma, Wash. One month of hectic activity followed
her return from WestPac, and then the ship was decommissioned
and simultaneously turned over to the Military Sealift Command
(MSC) on 30 August 1974.
Manned by a civilian crew, the valuable veteran served
actively with MSC into the late 1970's and remained on the
Navy list as of October 1979.
Ute received three battle stars for her World War II service,
two for her Korean War service, and nine for her service in Vietnam.
© 2007, Serge Obolensky, All Rights Reserved
This site is not affiliated with, nor supports in any way, the
Zuni Maritime Foundation, formerly known as the Tamaroa Maritime Foundation.
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