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USS Taconic (AGC-17)
Encyclopedia
USS Taconic (AGC-17/LCC-17) was an Adirondack class amphibious force command ship of the U.S. Navy named after the Taconic Mountains
Taconic Mountains
The Taconic Mountains or Taconic Range are a physiographic section of the larger New England province and part of the Appalachian Mountains, running along the eastern border of New York State and adjacent New England from northwest Connecticut to western Massachusetts, north to central western...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. She was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.
Taconic was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1710) at Wilmington, N.C.
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
, on 19 December 1944 by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company
North Carolina Shipbuilding Company
North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard in Wilmington, North Carolina, created as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program in the early days of World War II. From 1941 through 1946, the company built 243 ships in all, beginning with the Liberty ship SS Zebulon B....
; launched on 10 February 1945; sponsored by Mrs. O. W. Turner; acquired by the Navy on 6 March 1945; converted to an amphibious force 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...
at the Atlantic Basin Iron Works
Atlantic Basin Iron Works
The Atlantic Basin Iron Works was an ironworks that operated in Brooklyn, New York, in the early to mid-20th century. It built U.S. Navy warships during World War I and II.Founded before 1910, the yard had its headquarters at 18-20 Summit Street...
in Brooklyn, New York; and commissioned
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
there on 16 January 1945, Capt. C. G. Christie in command.
Service history
Upon commissioning, Taconic began a long tour of duty with the Atlantic FleetU.S. Atlantic Fleet
The United States Fleet Forces Command is an Atlantic Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources that are under the operational control of the United States Northern Command...
. She served alternately 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...
of the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force and of Amphibious Groups 2 and 4. Between June 1946 and June 1949, she participated in CAMID I, II, and III, amphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare
Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...
exercises conducted in the Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
area and encompassing joint training for United States Military Academy
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
cadets and United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
midshipmen. Each spring, the amphibious force flagship joined the Atlantic Fleet
U.S. Atlantic Fleet
The United States Fleet Forces Command is an Atlantic Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources that are under the operational control of the United States Northern Command...
maneuvers carried out in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
area.
In June 1949, following a yard overhaul at Norfolk
Norfolk Naval Shipyard
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling, and repairing the Navy's ships. It's the oldest and largest industrial facility that belongs to the U.S. Navy as well as the most...
, Virginia, she took part in Operation "Diaper," the transportation of Navy men and their dependents from the Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
to Norfolk.
In 1951 Taconic was featured as the command ship in the Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
film, The Frogmen
The Frogmen (film)
The Frogmen is a 1951 black-and-white film made by Twentieth Century Fox. It is based on operations by United States Navy Underwater Demolition Teams, popularly known as "frogmen," against the Japanese Army and naval forces in World War II...
.
Taconic remained in active service for 20 more years. During that entire period of time, she retained Norfolk as her home port.
She participated in numerous exercises both with the Second
United States 2nd Fleet
United States Second Fleet was a numbered fleet in the United States Navy from 1950 until its disestablishment in September 2011. Second Fleet's area of responsibility included approximately of the Atlantic Ocean from the North Pole to the Caribbean and from the shores of the United States to the...
and Sixth fleets, and with units of North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations. The amphibious force flagship was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
on eight different occasions in those two decades; and, in the summer of 1958 she served as flagship of the Commander, Middle East Force, during the Lebanon Crisis. In November 1959, she served as communication and support ship to President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
during the Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
-Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
-India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
leg of his visit to a number of European and Asian countries. When not deployed with the Sixth Fleet, she operated with the Second Fleet in the western Atlantic and in the Caribbean. The bulk of those operations consisted of exercises; but, on one occasion in March 1957, she carried President Eisenhower's limousines to Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
for his meeting with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
.
In January 1963, Taconic patrolled the Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an coast during political unrest in that country. She returned to the Caribbean area for special duty again in May and June 1965 during similar troubles in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. In January 1969, at the beginning of her last year of service, Taconic was redesignated LCC-17.
After 12 months of operations and preparations for decommissioning, the amphibious force 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...
was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 17 December 1969 at Norfolk, Virginia. She was berthed with the National Defense Reserve Fleet
National Defense Reserve Fleet
The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...
on the James River, Virginia. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register
Naval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
on 1 December 1976 and was sold for scrap to the Banty Corp on 6 April 1982.