USS Aggressive (MSO-422)

History
Name: USS Aggressive
Builder: Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, Connecticut
Laid down: 25 May 1951
Launched: 4 October 1952
Commissioned: 25 November 1953, as AM-422
Decommissioned: 2 July 1971
Reclassified: MSO-422 (Ocean Minesweeper), 7 February 1955
Struck: 28 February 1975
Homeport: Charleston, South Carolina
Fate: Sold for scrapping, May 1980
General characteristics
Class and type: Aggressive-class minesweeper
Displacement: 853 long tons (867 t) full load
Length: 172 ft (52 m)
Beam: 35 ft (11 m)
Draft: 10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement:
  • Active: 7 officers, 70 enlisted
  • Naval Reserve Force: 5 officers, 52 enlisted plus 25 reserve
Sensors and
processing systems:		 AN/SQQ-14 mine countermeasures sonar
Armament:
  • 1 × twin 20 mm gun mount
  • 2 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) twin machine guns

USS Aggressive (MSO-422) (originally designated AM-422) was the lead ship of the Aggressive-class minesweeper. She is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named Aggressive. This was later regarded as a mistake by President John F. Kennedy who stated that the ships should only be employed for "Peace keeping".

She was built by Luders Marine Construction Co. of Stamford, Connecticut, sponsored by Mrs. Stephen M. Archer, and commissioned at Brooklyn, New York, in the New York Naval Shipyard, Lt. Lawrence W. Kelley in command.

Service history

For most of 1954, Aggressive remained in the shipyard for alteration. In February 1955, her designation was changed to MSO-422. Her first deployment, immediately afterwards, had her take part in a mine warfare exercise off the south-east coast of the United States. She took part in the landing of American forces during the Lebanon crisis of 1958.

The ship was home ported at Charleston for her whole naval career. She also provided services to the Naval Mine Warfare School, Charleston; Naval Mine Defense Laboratory, Panama City, Florida; Mine Evaluation Detachment, Key West, Florida; and the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Test Facility, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Aggressive also took part in several fleet exercises and operations along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean.

On 1 October 1970, preparations to deactivate the ship were begun, and she was decommissioned on 2 July 1971. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 February 1975, and she was sold to R. E. Williams in May 1980.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
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