Namesake Mount Baker Laid down 5 October 1970 Decommissioned 18 December 1996 Launched 23 October 1971 | Awarded 8 March 1968 Commissioned 22 July 1972 Construction started 5 October 1970 Builder Ingalls Shipbuilding | |
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Name USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34) | ||
USNS Mount Baker (T-AE-34) is the seventh of eight Kilauea-class ammunition ships to serve with the Military Sealift Command. She is the second U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, and is named for Mount Baker, a 10,781-foot volcano in the Cascade Range of Washington. Ammunition ships operated by Military Sealift Command provide logistic support to US Navy ships at sea.
Mount Baker was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was commissioned 22 July 1972 as USS Mount Baker (AE-34) and entered service with the Atlantic Fleet.
In 1976, the Chief of Naval Operations authorized the testing of the LAMPS MK III System aboard her flight deck. Later that year, Mount Baker gave support to rescue operations of the Navy's nuclear-powered submersible (NR-1). In 1977, she was awarded the Battle E as the best ammunition ship in the Atlantic Fleet.
On 18 December 1996, Mount Baker decommissioned and was placed in service with the Military Sealift Command. The ship's designation was changed to T-AE-34. Previously, she provided ammunition onload and offload support to U.S. Navy ships operating in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Mediterranean.
On July 20, 2009, the Navy announced that the ship would be inactivated on August 2, 2010. She was laid up at the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia, PA, waiting to be sunk as a target, but she was apparently sold for scrapping c. June 2012 and towed to Brownsville, TX, for dismantling, c. July 7, 2012.
