USS Mispillion (ex-AO-105) (T-AO-105) (Non-retention)

The USS Mispillion  was laid down as a T3-S2-A3 tanker hull on February 14, 1945, under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 2701), by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania  and launched on August 10, 1945. The U.S. Navy subsequently acquired the vessel on November 30, 1945, and commissioned it on December 29, 1945.  Mispillion operated extensively in the Pacific Ocean.  After joining Service Force, Pacific on April 6, 1946, the vessel alternated station tanker duty at the following locations: Tsingtao and Shanghai, China; Subic Bay, Philippines; and Eniwetok, an atoll in the Marshall Islands.  The ship also shuttled between the Arabian oil port, Bahrain, and various ports in Japan, China, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, and the Mariana Islands.   As station tanker at Eniwetok in 1948, the ship took part in the atomic bomb test, Operation "Sandstone."  In 1949 it performed cold weather operations off Alaska.  During the Korean War, it provided logistical support for invasion at Inchon on September 15, 1950.  In 1956 Mispillion participated in Operation "Redwing" another atomic bomb test in the Marshall Islands.  On April 16, 1965, Mispillion underwent an extensive conversion and overhaul period, which increased its cargo carrying capacity, added increased its length by nearly 100 feet. In April 1967, Mispillion arrived at Subic Bay, Philippine Islands and began a 7-month cruise refueling carriers and gunfire support ships of the Navy’s Seventh Fleet during the Vietnam War.  During the next few years, the aging oiler continued to support the Seventh Fleet in Southeast Asia until its decommissioning on July 26, 1974. The following year, the ship was placed in service with the Military Sealift Command as USNS Mispillion (T-AO-105), where it continued to provide fleet support on the U.S. West Coast and in the Western Pacific.  USNS Mispillion continued to operate in the Pacific and Indian Oceans supporting U.S. Navy Task Groups until it was placed out of service. It entered the Maritime Administration’s Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet on February 8, 1990.

Naval History and Heritage Command Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships