Photo By Hendrick Dickson | Graphic honoring Military Sealift Command's 75th Anniversary. The MSC75 Blast from the...... read more read more
Our MSC75 Blast from the Past series continues with the General G.O. Squier-class troopship, USNS General R.M. Blatchford (T-AP 153).
USS General R. M. Blatchford (AP-153) was a C4 type ship named after Major General Richard Milford Blatchford, who served in the Spanish-American War and later was the Commanding General at Panama in 1918. The transport ship sailed for the U.S. Navy in World War II, before being transferred to the U.S. Army as USAT General R.M. Blatchford in 1946. She was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), later renamed U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, on March 1, 1950, where she would be operated by a civil service crew, and transport thousands of troops from the West Coast in support of United Nations Forces in Korea.
On February 11, 1961, USNS Blatchford sailed from New York for two and a half years of overseas service in the United Nations Congo sealift. Earning her the nickname of "Ambassador Ship," her crew cemented goodwill relations for the United States in the best traditions of the People-to-People Program while helping to keep the peace in the Congo. The veteran transport travelled 174,000 nautical miles in ferrying 36,809 passengers to and from the Congo, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Malaya, and Indonesia. She circumnavigated the African continent several times and crisscrossed the Indian Ocean repeatedly while rotating United Nations soldiers, doctors, nurses, and technicians assigned to the Congo.
She returned to New York August 11, 1963, with high praise from the government and United Nations Secretary General U. Thant who said, "The ship and her devoted master and crew have been a mainstay of the United Nations Operations in the Congo, and they have never failed us, even when their duties must have seemed arduous and incessant."
She continued to operate in the Atlantic supporting U.S. Forces in Europe until being transferred to the Pacific in 1965 to carry troops to Vietnam. She continued this vital task until overhauled at San Francisco in January 1967 and entering ready reserve status.
| Date Taken: | 01.31.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2024 11:48 |
| Story ID: | 464349 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 184 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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