USS Sacramento (AOE-1)


Sacramento Class Fast Combat Support Ship

  • Displacement 18884 tons
  • Length 793 ft
  • Beam 107 ft
  • Draft 38 ft (Max)
  • Speed 26 Kt
  • Compliment 22 Officers, 530 Enlisted
  • Aircraft - two CH46E Sea Knight helicopters
  • Armament NATO Sparrow missiles, two twin 40mm gun mounts, replaced by two Phalanx CIWS
  • Propulsion four boilers, two geared steam turbines, two shafts, 100,000 shp

    • Sacramento and her sister ship USS Camden (AOE-2), are unique in that their propulsion systems were originally installed in the uncompleted Iowa class battleship, USS Kentucky (BB-66.
     When it was decided to scrap Kentucky, the Navy split the propulsion system and installed it in Sacramento and Camden.

  • Laid down, 30 June 1961, Sacramento was the last ship built at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA.
  • Launched, 14 September 1963
  • Commissioned USS Sacramento (AOE-1), 14 March 1964

    •

  • Decommissioned, 1 October 2004, at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA.
  • Laid up at the NAVSEA Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance Office, Bremerton, WA.
  • 13 April 2007,  Contact awarded to ESCO Marine, Brownsville, TX.,
    •  for scrapping, in lieu of use as a target for fleet training,
  • Scrapping completed, 11 July 2008
    • Additional Links for USS Sacramento:
    http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/59/5901.htm
    http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s2/sacramento-iii.htm
    http://unitpages.military.com/unitpages/unit.do?id=201812
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sacramento_(AOE-1)

    Final cruise of the USS Sacramento
    http://www.BoulderKnoll.com/AOE-1/
    My Duties with USS Sacramento
    May 1979 - Jul 1981
    In May 1979 I decided to convert from Naval Reserves and rejoined the Regular Navy and was again sent to Treasure Island for processing.   I was then sent to Travis AFB for a flight to Subic Bay where I was put on a C-5 for a flight to Diego Garcia.

    Diego Garcia - Things may be different now, but in 1980 it was primitive at best.  Our compound was just a series of huts in the middle of nowhere.  The huts were platforms raised up a couple feet off the ground, presumably to keep the creepy crawling things from crawling in our bunks.  The walls of the huts were constructed of 4 X 8 sheets of ply wood - set sideways with a screened 2 ft gap to the floor and another 2 ft gap to the roof so there was some air flow.  The semi-solid walls gave at least the illusion of a some privacy.  (I guess it is not right for the guys in the next hut to see your naked butt, but, it is perfectly OK for the 20 other strangers in your hut.) The roof was corrugated metal.  When the coconuts fell (which they did every night) it made an awful racket.  The showers was poles set in the middle of the crushed coral compound with smelly Army canvas tarps hung to sort of resemble walls. There was no roof and anyone could see half way up your leg - eek!   The latrines, also centrally located in the middle of the compound.  It was a scene right out of M*A*S*H and /or Gilligan's Island.  Most of guys bitched and complained, but to me the whole thing was like Boy Scout Summer Camp all over again, only hotter.

    The USS Mars (AFS-1) was coming to Diego Garcia to pick up transit personnel and take them to their ultimate destination.  When it was time to leave, we were taken to a small craft pier to await the boat that would take us to the USS Mars.  It was a long, hot  wait.  I noticed a strange noise from under the pier and being bored I hopped down to see what it was.  Bobbing there in the water I found 4 cans of Olympia beer and 4 cans of Budweiser still attached to their plastic 6 pack holders.  It was like manna from heaven!  OK, it was only 8 warm beers which provided only a couple of swallows each of us, but at the time, beer fished from the waters of the the Indian Ocean tasted greater than the finest beers of Europe.  I felt like Bob Hope in "The Private Navy of Sgt O'Farrell."

    We rendezvoused with the Sacramento in the Arabian Sea (This was during the Iranian Hostage crisis, now know as Operation Eagle Claw.)  The Mars and Sacramento were along side each other doing a replenishment.  Personnel for transfer (like me) reported to the flight deck and received a full safety briefing.  We were then fitted for flight deck cranials, flight life vests and received yet another briefing on how to use them.  We boarded the CH-46 helicopter, were strapped in and double checked.  Lift off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . set down.  That was it!  An hour of preps and safety briefings, checks and double checks for a flight that lasted less than 30 seconds.  My first and last ride in a CH-46.

    Although the Sacramento was much larger than the destroyers I was used to, the QM gang was about the same size.  There were 6 of us including our chief.  And like a destroyer, we all depended on each other.  Every QM did everything because that was the way it was.  It was just like Rick and me on the USS Hamner.

    Our Navigator, Lt Cheesman, and our QMC, Bob Colcleasure, involved all of the QMs with every aspect of celestial navigation.  We prepared the sight list, we kept time, we also assisted in solving the sight reduction.  They basically taught all of us the art and love of celestial navigation.  LT and QMC insisted that each of us learn and perform every aspect of Navigation and we all loved it.

    It was on Sacramento that I earned my Master Helmsman qualification and crossed the equator to become a Shellback.

    What was my scariest time on the Sacramento - Hmm.  Well, there was the time when I was on the helm transiting out of Pearl Harbor and just off Hospital Point  the ship suddenly had split rudders, (when two rudder do not turn at the same angle.) but that was relatively easily and quickly fixed.
    I think the my most scariest time was while refueling with the USS Davidson in the Arabian Sea.  The Davidson caught fire in a fuel strainer and went DIW while the span wires were still tensioned fore and aft.  I was on the helm and had glanced at the Davidson through the stbd bridge door just in time to see the her suddenly disappear from view.  All I could do was focus hard on keeping the course especially because we had astern bell rung up before they could disconnect.  I was able to maintain course and everyone on deck did their job just as they had trained and the emergency disconnect was performed perfectly with no casualties.

    In Hawaii, Lt Cheesnman had to take emergency leave and left the ship.  During the transit to Puget Sound the QM gang filled in for his navigation duties and performed all of the celestial sights.  I was told later that Jr QMs were not supposed to be able to do that.      We did know any better.  That was the way we believed all QMs did things.

    Upon arrival from WestPac, the Sac went into overhaul.  In Sept the whole QM Gang earned advancement.  A shipyard worker came to the bridge and noticed three QM2's chipping paint and asked why. Well, our 1st class was in the chart room doing paper work.  He then asked why our juniors weren't doing this type of work and we told him that there was one junior QM but he was the berthing compartment cleaner this week.      Again, that was just the way we believed all QMs did things.

    July of 1981 BuPers said that a local ship needed temporary help and I was transfered TAD to USS Reasoner (FF-1063).
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