| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS White Plains |
| Namesake: | White Plains, New York |
| Builder: | National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, California |
| Laid down: | 2 October 1965 |
| Launched: | 26 July 1966 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Bob Wilson |
| Commissioned: | 23 November 1968 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 April 1995 |
| Struck: | 24 August 1995 |
| Fate: | Sunk as target 2002 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mars-class combat stores ship |
| Displacement: | 17,500 long tons (17,781 t) full load |
| Length: | 581 ft (177.1 m) |
| Beam: | 79 ft (24.1 m) |
| Draft: | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3 × Babcock and Wilcox boilers, 580 psi (3.7 MPa), 8250 °F (4400 °C) 1 × De Laval turbine, 1 shaft |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Complement: | 42 Commissioned officers and 445 enlisted personnel |
| Armament: | • 4 × 3"/50 caliber guns (2×2) (originally 6) • Chaff launchers • 4 × M240G 7.62×51 mm medium machine guns or M249 5.56×45 mm light MG • 1 × M2 12.7×99 mm heavy machine gun when security detachment is embarked • 2 × Vulcan Phalanx CIWS |
| Aircraft carried: | 2 × CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters |
USS White Plains (AFS-4) was the fourth Mars-class combat stores ship of the United States Navy. The ship was named after the city of White Plains, New York, scene of the Battle of White Plains during the American Revolutionary War.
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White Plains was laid down on 2 October 1965 by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California. She was launched on 26 July 1966, sponsored by Mrs. Bob Wilson, and commissioned at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard at Long Beach, California, on 23 November 1968, with Captain Thomas B. Brenner in command.
White Plains was used as the trial vessel for the class to mount the two Vulcan Phalanx CIWS. The ship retained the Phalanx systems after decision was made not to mount them on the rest of the class.
In the late 1980s, the ship was one of the first U.S. Navy ships to have women sailors aboard. By 1991, and after a berthing retrofit accomplished in overhaul, the ship had a complement of female officers, and female senior and junior enlisted aboard.
On May 9, 1989, while underway in the South China Sea en route to Guam, the White Plains experienced a major Class Bravo fire in the main engine room while conducting underway fuel replenishment with the combat replenishment ship USS Sacramento (AOE-1). The fire resulted from the ejection of a valve stem on the fuel transfer system which sent a high-pressure spray of fuel over the boiler and consequently ignited into a fireball. The cause of the valve stem ejection was from navy supply system black coated/painted fasteners, that were not the right type of metal (brass vs. copper) to withstand the pressure and heat of the system and environment. It was determined after an investigation that navy logistics had purchased the black coasted fasteners for use on ship fuel systems, without confirming or inspecting their metal content. After the tragedy, a complete review of these fasteners was conducted navy wide. There were 6 fatalities and 161 injuries reported as a result of the fire.[1] The ship and the ship's crew never really recovered from the tragedy. A plaque of the 6 who died hung in Damage Control Central as a constant reminder and the ship would occasionally receive mail for the crew that had died.
In January 1991 the White Plains was relieved from its deployment in Persian Gulf by sister ship Niagara Falls.
In early August 1992, the ship received an extensive refit, including her main steam plant. Later that same month, as the ship was unable to be leave on its own power, its mooring lines were reinforced with anchor chain and steel cables to keep it moored to the pier as Typhoon Omar approached the island of Guam.
On 27 August 1992, under the command of Capt. Robin Y. Weber, and although the ship weathered the initial pass of the eye of Super Typhoon Omar, after a relative calm and then the final pass of the eye of Typhoon Omar, White Plains was torn from her moorings. The ship with its skeleton crew rode out Omar's 150 mph winds in Apra Harbor. The ship ultimately ran aground on the coral beach. There were several theories as to why the ship was torn from her reinforced moorings. One of which was, despite the recommendation of the Auxiliary Division Officer, the ship leadership decided to lock the ship's rudder in the hard over position instead of the midships position. During refit, the ship also had its helo hangar doors removed. Its likely when the water flowed out of the harbor with the strong winds, on the final pass of the eye of the typhoon, the rudder being hard over, and having no doors on the helo hangar, helped drive the ship away from the pier, ultimately stretching and breaking the mooring lines. Water under the ship, pulling it away from the pier, and wind entering the hangar like a sail, pulling it forward.
Very fortunate to have run aground quickly in the harbor channel, after the ship left the pier in the storm, the ship lost its only power source for a day, a notoriously fickle emergency diesel generator. The generator situation was corrected after several hours and troubleshooting, and ultimately solved by a simple observation made by the electrical officer, LTJG. Lee, that a control governor mechanical linkage was undone. Essential power for emergency services were restored to the ship, enabling the crew to handle any flooding or fire that would occur. While the ship was aground for 3–5 days, the crew sustained on MREs, and helped plan, with harbor operations, for her ungrounding. There was no real damage to the ship's hull.
The ship recovered completely from the grounding and was underway for gulf operations in May 1993.
The ship, well past its life cycle and usefulness to the U.S. Navy, was decommissioned in 1995.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
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