| Home | History | Fleet | Ships | Troop Ships | Cargo Ships | Project Ships | Operations | Gallery | ||
The Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS)
was formed on 2 August, 1949, under a directive issued by
Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, establishing the
organization "in order to provide, under one authority, control,
operation and administration of ocean transportation...
for all agencies or departments of the National Military
Establishment", the organization becoming active on 1 October,
1949. A total of approximately 320 ships were
transferred to the new command from the old Navy Transportation
Service and the U.S. Army. Thirty-five of these ships had been
controlled by the U.S. Maritime Commission, while thirty-seven
(from the Navy Transportation Service) were commissioned Navy
ships operated by Navy crews. The remainder of these vessels,
comprised of auxiliaries of all types, were designated "U.S.
Naval Ships" (U.S.N.S.) and were operated by merchant marine
civil service crews. The organization's name was changed to
Military Sealift Command (MSC) in 1970. 
Undoubtedly, the most well-known of the ships operated by MSTS were the AP-type troopships. From 1943, when the General, Admiral and C-4 class transports began arriving on the scene until 1973 when the Barrett class USNS Barrett and USNS Upshur returned from the Far East to the United States in March of that year to be retired from active MSTS transport service, these ships had transported millions of military personnel from all service branches, military dependents to and from bases overseas, government employees and even foreign troops such as Indians, Malayans, Indonesians, Republic of Korea (ROK) troops etc. during UN operations, as well as many hundreds of thousands of refugees from Korea, Vietnam, and China, displaced aliens from Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Russia. MSTS transports brought back returning servicemen and POW's from both WWII and Korean theatres. Six of every seven military servicemen sent to Korea during the Korean Conflict went by sea. Between 1965 and 1966, two of every three fighting men in Vietnam arrived by MSTS transport, while during the entire Vietnam War era over one-half million troops were transported by these ships. Nineteen MSTS transports were involved in the troop build-up in Vietnam, with transatlantic AP's being re-deployed to the Pacific to handle the huge sealift requirements. Gradually increasing public acceptance of air travel combined with the advent of jet transports in large scale airlift service in the 1960's began the decline of troopship operations. The absence of any large scale conflicts since the Vietnam War as well as a drawdown of US bases overseas resulted in the scrapping, lay-up or sale of the remaining vessels. The USNS Barrett made the last MSTS trip bearing dependents, arriving in Oakland California on 15 August, 1966. Just as was the case for those who sailed in the era of the trans-oceanic passenger liners, the millions of military personnel and dependents who were associated, albeit briefly, in most cases perhaps for a few weeks, with these ships will nevertheless long remember them, for those associations invariably occurred during important junctures in their lives. Distances seemed greater, traveling time much longer, good-byes perhaps forever. Those of us who crewed these ships will never forget the pure seagoing experience which they afforded... tough ships, tough men, doing a tough job well. |
||
| Copyright 2007 Military Sea Transportation Service Society | ||