The Bureau of Ships started the preliminary design of the new fleet oiler in March, 1951. Forty-two months later, an incredibly short time from design study to completion, the first of the Neosho-class was delivered. Faster, larger, and with double the transfer rate of any previous Navy oiler, the AO-143- class embodies the distilled experience of the fleet replenishment art—and represents as substantial an advance in AO’s as does the Forrestal in CVA’s.
When the war clouds of 1940 gathered, the Navy commandeered seven Esso T-3 tankers and modified them to Cimarron-class oilers. (A tanker is a bulk carrier that hauls oil from one storage area to another; an oiler is a Fleet auxiliary that replenishes the fighting ships at sea.) 24,000-tonners with 120,000 barrel capacity, they were popular and effective Fleet units, and 22 more were built directly for the Navy. But something more was needed.
The six Neosho-class ships give that something more. With more length than a light cruiser, more weight loaded than an unconverted Essex-class carrier, capabilities in A. A. defense (and for Mississinewa, in CIC and communications as well) equal to or better than a destroyer, and ability to operate with a fast striking force, they are capable partners to the brave new carriers and missile ships.
Oiler advances don’t hit the headlines, but to oiler-men the AO-143-class is crammed with solid improvements. Increased speed means more replenishments per oiler, strikingly demonstrated in recent Sixth Fleet exercises when widely dispersed ships were replenished singly. All tank valves operate remotely from a cargo deck one deck above the main deck, and extensions to the sheer line permit handling all rigs behind lifelines —spelling heavy weather safety. Thirty-two deck winches permit seven simultaneous fueling rigs with every saddle whip and retriever on a winch or drum, ending time-consuming stopping off to tend or retrieve. There are eight stations for black oil, four each for avgas and JP-5, and two for diesel, and remote control stations give the winchmen an unobstructed view. Two black oil stations (four in one ship) have constant tension gear to minimize span wire winching, a boon for heavy weather or night operations.
Generous cargo deck space, laid out without interference to fuel rigs, increases ability to handle fleet freight and packaged POL smartly while replenishing—the ship can deliver and receive dry cargo fast on both sides while fueling. Three of the class have helicopter platforms aft, offering great promise for accelerated underway replenishment of solids. Extra reefer capacity permits carrying fresh or frozen provisions for limited fleet issue, and there is cargo space in the hold. During a recent support mission Neosho successfully provided full logistical support afloat and ashore to all military activities in the designated area.
The last two of the class are completely air conditioned, three others partially so. There is more (and more comfortable) space for officers and men, and a better, roomier galley and mess hall. And the galvanized superdeck grating makes for a happier deck force without that perennial airborne rust to fight. But one CO compares the wealth of radar, fire control, etc., with his destroyer-size complement and concludes that “we probably have more work available per man than almost any other class of naval ship!”
The new oiler’s flexible installation gives her a potential still not fully realized. Recent experiments with oil and avgas on the same span wire, JP-5 double-rigged from both sides of the ship to double the rate at one station, and replenishment at high ship speeds in bad weather, suggest the many rapid delivery possibilities of this splendid ship.
Each of the class has facilities for a Unit Commander and staff, but Mississinewa, only oiler ever designated a flagship and converted to suit, provides Commander Service Force Sixth Fleet with accommodations probably equal to any fleet flag. She has generous office spaces, can berth sixteen staff officers and 51 men, has a new enclosed flag bridge, a helo, and complete flagship communications.
The engineering plant, for commanding officers accustomed to combatant ship flexibility, leaves something to be desired in stand-by capacity—cleaning a boiler means dropping to half power. Auxiliaries are largely electrical—weight-saving but not yet universally popular. Bugs typical of a new class have arisen, chief of which was a tendency of the boilers to prime, but most have been licked by now, and one commanding officer says, “The ship is an excellent one. Conditions once known and understood can be accepted and means devised to avoid the tender spots.”