USS Hector (AR-7)
Encyclopedia
The USS Hector (AR-7) was a repair ship that served in 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...
from 1944 to 1987.
World War II
Hector was launched 11 November 1942 by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding & Drydock Company and sponsored by Mrs. Schuyler F. Helm. Hector was commissioned 7 February 1944, with CommanderCommander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
J. W. Long in command.
After shakedown along 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...
, the new repair ship sailed for the Pacific, reaching 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...
9 April 1944. She remained at Pearl Harbor effecting repairs on various ships, primarily landing craft
Landing craft
Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...
, until she departed for Eniwetok on 5 June. Arriving there 13 June, Hector spent the summer at Eniwetok and then sailed for Ulithi
Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...
30 September. Her biggest repair job of the war came to her 27 October at Ulithi as the cruiser Houston
USS Houston (CL-81)
USS Houston , a Cleveland-class light cruiser, was the third vessel in the United States Navy named after the city of Houston, Texas. She was active in the Pacific War for several months, then crippled in an attack in October 1944....
, torpedoed twice by Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s, was towed alongside. Although hampered by a severe typhoon season which twice sent her out to sea for safety, Hector managed to repair Houston by the end of the year besides aiding many other smaller craft.
Hector departed Ulithi 16 February 1945 and 5 days later steamed into Tarragona
Tarragona
Tarragona is a city located in the south of Catalonia on the north-east of Spain, by the Mediterranean. It is the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the capital of the Catalan comarca Tarragonès. In the medieval and modern times it was the capital of the Vegueria of Tarragona...
, Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...
, to repair ships as the battle for the Philippines raged. This task completed, she returned to Ulithi 30 March and continued on to Saipan
Saipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
22 May. After the war ended 1 September, Hector remained in the Pacific to prepare various ships for return to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Korean War
Departing SaipanSaipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
21 January 1946, Hector reached Long Beach, California
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...
3 February. After serving as a repair ship there, she sailed for her first WestPac
Westpac
Westpac , is a multinational financial services, one of the Australian "big four" banks and the second-largest bank in New Zealand....
cruise 7 May 1947, thereby settling into a peacetime schedule interrupted 3 years later by the outbreak of Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. Hector sailed into Yokosuka 18 September 1950. From there she continued to Inchon, Korea, arriving at the scene of the Inchon Invasion, 25 September. For the remainder of the Korean War Hector alternated repair service along the Korean coast and in Japan with normal duty out of Long Beach. In 1954 she was presented with the Battle Efficiency Plaque for the year 1953-1954, and again in 1955 was awarded the same plaque for the year 1954-1955.
Thereafter, as before the Korean War, Hector alternated 4 to 6 months of service and exercises along the California coast with 6- and 8-month WestPac cruises. During these cruises the repair ship, operating in support and service of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Pacific and Asian defenses, visited such ports as Yokosuka, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
, and Eniwetok. Serving intermittently as flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
for both Service Squadrons 1 and 3, Hector also was a major participant in the Navy's People to People
People to People
People to People can refer to a number of things:* People to People International, a non-profit group and recipient of the Knight of Peace Award....
program in Asia. Her deployments to the Western Pacific continued into the 1960s.
Vietnam
Hector operated in the Far East from Japan to the Philippines between June 1963 and January 1964. After providing repair services for ships at Long Beach during the remainder of 1964 and the first 6 months of 1965, she underwent a modernization overhaul at Long Beach between July 1965 and February 1966 to increase her repair capabilities. Thence, she resumed fleet services out of Long Beach until departing for the Far East 5 August. She arrived Subic BaySubic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...
later that month, and during the next 6 months repaired and serviced ships in the Philippines, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, and Japan. She returned to the West Coast in March 1967 and into mid-1967 Hector continued to maintain a high state of readiness and provide repair services at Long Beach.
End of Vietnam and Beyond
During the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 (Operation New LifeOperation New Life
Operation New Life was the U.S. military evacuation of about 110,000 Southeast Asian refugees displaced by the Vietnam War out of South Vietnam....
), HECTOR aided in setting up camps in Guam for Vietnamese refugees, for which Hector earned her first Humanitarian Service Award. During the same year, she completed conversion to Navy Distillate fuel and renovation to her crew's galley, mess decks and scullery.
During her deployment in 1977, Hector was called on to replenish desperately needed stores to combatant ships that had departed Pearl Harbor quickly in order to observe Soviet cruise missile triangulation operations. During this operation, the infamous "Hector Missile" was built to confuse the enemy. In July, Hector was forced to cancel an R&R visit to Keelung
Keelung
Keelung City is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. It borders New Taipei and forms the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with the Taipei and New Taipei. Nicknamed the Rainy Port for its frequent rain and maritime role, the city is Taiwan's second largest seaport...
, Taiwan in order to evade Typhoon Vera, which struck northern Taiwan. She proceeded on to her next scheduled port, Subic Bay
Subic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...
RP.
During the spring of 1978, Hector provided Fleet Repair Service in Seattle, WA. Her deployment in September began with a visit to Papeete, Tahiti, and later to Subic Bay, RP; Keelung, Taiwan; Pusan, Korea and finished the year providing FRS in Yokosuka, Japan.
In 1980, she received a major overhaul, and HECTOR became one of the first ships in the Pacific Fleet to have women officers report aboard. (One of whom was Ensign Darlene Iskra who served aboard as Diving Officer 1980-82 who went on to make Naval History in 1990 by becoming the first woman to command a Naval vessel, the USS Opportune.)
In 1981, HECTOR began her 25th deployment, visiting Yokosuka Japan; Diego Garcia; Mombasa, Kenya, Melbourne, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand, Tonga,
Samoa, Western Samoa. While in Pearl Harbor, Hector sent a team to rescue 12 passengers of a plane which crashed 200 yards off Hector's quarter. For this she was commended by Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet. In October 1981, Hector's homeport was again shifted, from Mare Island to Oakland, CA.
In June 1982 the first ten enlisted women reported aboard Hector at the Naval Supply Center in Oakland, California. HECTOR received the Navy "E" Ribbon for the period 1 Jan 1982 - 30 June 1983.
In 1983, HECTOR spent a month repairing ships in Bremerton, WA. During the month of April, HECTOR temporarily served as the Logistic Command Center while Commander Task Force 73 was embarked for FLEET EX 83-1, the largest military exercise in the North Pacific since World War II.
In 1984, during the ship’s 26th deployment, HECTOR steamed over 35,000 miles. She also provided disaster relief to the storm battered island of Madagascar. On this deployment Hector received two Humanitarian Medals. One was for the rescue of 28 Vietnamese refugees from a small wooden craft. For the second award, a group of Hector volunteers spent several days in a leper colony doing maintenance on local homes, and other facilities, while in Madagascar. They also provided some much-needed medical service including dental work, amputations, etc, all with field tools and in a damaged gazebo.
Her home port was changed from Alameda to San Diego in 1985, and the HECTOR celebrated her 42nd birthday on the high seas. During transit up the Willamette River to Portland, OR in August, Hector's aft mast was snapped off as a result of coming into contact with the Burnside Bridge.
At the beginning of 1986, HECTOR provided FRS to the Midway Battle Group in Yokosuka, Japan. HECTOR's stay in Subic Bay was extended to 1 & 1/2 months during January to February due to Philippine elections and civil unrest. She later visited Al-Masirah, Ohman and Pattaya Beach, Thailand.
After 43 years of faithful and productive service to the fleet from the entire West Coast to numerous ports of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, the USS HECTOR AR-7 Deck Log was closed 31 March 1987 in San Diego, and she was duly decommissioned.
On 20 April 1989, HECTOR was leased to Pakistan and renamed MOAWIN. She was returned to U.S. custody at Singapore in 1994, and on 17 October of that year was sold to Ruby Enterprises of India. Subsequently, the USS HECTOR AR-7 suffered an ignominious demise by cutting torches at a nondescript scrap metal yard somewhere on the coastline of India.