USS Haleakala (AE-25) was a Nitro class ammunition ship

Nitro class ammunition ship

The Nitro class ammunition ships are a class of three auxiliary vessels of the United States Navy. Launched in 1958-9, they were among the first specialised underway replenishment ships built after the Second World War, to carry munitions and the new guided missiles...

 of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 in service from 1959 to 1993.

The USS Haleakala (AE-25) was launched on 17 February 1959 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation

Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905...

 in Baltimore, Maryland and was sponsored by Mrs. Maurice E. Curts, wife of Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 Maurice Curts. Haleakala was commissioned 3 November 1959, with Captain Miles P. Refo, III in command.

After shakedown out of Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located on of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba which the United States leased for use as a coaling station following the Cuban-American Treaty of 1903. The base is located on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas...

 Haleakala transited the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 and visited Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 and Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

 before arriving at San Francisco, 17 March 1960. The fifth of a new class of ammunition ships designed from the hull up for carrying and transferring at sea the latest in munitions and guided missiles, Haleakala spent the first part of April with conducting replenishment exercises to test new equipment.

Haleakala departed San Francisco 7 July 1960 on her first Western Pacific deployment. Visiting Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

, Yokosuka, and Sasebo, she provided services to various units of the 7th Fleet before returning to Port Chicago, California

Port Chicago, California

Port Chicago was a town on the southern banks of Suisun Bay, in Contra Costa County, California. It was located east-northeast of Martinez, at an elevation of 13 feet...

, 19 December 1960.

Haleakala departed on her second deployment to the Western Pacific 18 April 1961 and again serviced units of the 7th Fleet, returning to Port Chicago

Port Chicago, California

Port Chicago was a town on the southern banks of Suisun Bay, in Contra Costa County, California. It was located east-northeast of Martinez, at an elevation of 13 feet...

 8 September. In October, in company with , she steamed to Long Beach

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

 to participate in Exercise "Covered Wagon", an effort to test realistically a representative Attack Carrier Strike Force in all of its wartime tasks in the face of opposition similar to that which might be expected of a potential enemy.

Haleakala made two subsequent deployments to the Western Pacific between 29 May 1962 and February 1964. She arrived Todd Shipyards

Todd Shipyards

Todd Shipyards was an American soccer club based in Brooklyn, New York that was an inaugural member of the American Soccer League. The team was formed when the Todd Shipyard company decided to merge the Brooklyn Robins Dry Dock with Tebo Yacht Basin F.C....

, Seattle, 25 February 1964 for overhaul and modernization to increase her efficiency and safety. With conversion completed by May 1965, through the fall of 1965 Haleakala participated in Operation Baseline. On 20 November she sailed for Yankee Station

Yankee Station

Yankee Station was a point in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam used by the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers of Task Force 77 to launch strikes in the Vietnam War. While its official designation was "Point Yankee," it was universally referred to as Yankee Station...

 via Pearl Harbor to support combat operations in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, returning to Subic Bay 13 December.

Most of 1966 was spent on another Western Pacific deployment. Haleakala departed Subic Bay 23 August for the West Coast

West Coast of the United States

West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...

, arriving San Francisco 12 September. After training exercises off Mare Island

Mare Island

Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States alongside the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full...

through December, Haleakala returned for further replenishment operations off Vietnam into 1967.