USNS Apache

USNS Apache (T-ATF-172) is a U.S. Navy Powhatan-class fleet ocean tugboat that was operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) from 1981 to 2022. She spent the bulk of her career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

USNS Apache (T-ATF-172) is a U.S. Navy Powhatan-class fleet ocean tugboat that was operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) from 1981 to 2022. She spent the bulk of her career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. ==Construction and characteristics== The contract for the first four Powhatan-class tugs was awarded to Marinette Marine Co. on 12 September 1975. The Navy exercised its option to buy an additional three ships under this contract on 27 February 1978. Apache was the last ship delivered under this contract. Apache was laid down on 22 March 1979 at the company's Marinette, Wisconsin, shipyard. She was launched on 28 March 1981. Apache was christened by Mrs. John R. Young. At the time of the launch, Commander Young was on the staff of Vice Admiral Clarence R. Bryan who, as commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, was in charge of buying ships for the Navy and dealt directly with Marinette Marine on the Powhatan-class tug contract. The ship was delivered to the Navy on 23 July 1981. Her hull was built of welded steel plates. She was long at the waterline and overall, with a beam of , and a draft of . She displaced 2,260 tons fully loaded. As originally built, Apache had two controllable-pitch Kort-nozzle propellers for propulsion. She had two 20-cylinder Diesel engines, GM EMD 20-645F7B, which provided 7,200 shaft horsepower. These would drive the ship at 15 knots. She also had a 300-horsepower bow thruster to improve maneuverability. Electrical power aboard the ship was provided by three 400 Kw generators. These were powered by four Detroit Diesel 8v-71 engines. Powhatan-class tugs had global range in order to support the U.S. fleet across oceans. Apache's tankage was consequently large. She could carry of Diesel oil, of lube oil, and of drinking water. Her unrefueled range at 13 knots was Apache's aft deck was largely open to accommodate a number of different roles. It had of working space. The towing system could produce as much as 90 short tons of bollard pull. She had a 10-ton capacity crane for moving loads on the aft deck. There were connections to bolt down shipping containers and other equipment. Like all MSC ships, Apache was crewed by civilian mariners. At launch, her complement was 16 civilian crew and a 4-person military detachment of communications specialists. The ship could accommodate an additional 16 people aboard for transient, mission-specific roles. All the ships of the Powhatan-class were named after Native American tribes. Apache was named after the Apache people of the southwest United States. ex- on the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., on 18 November 1983. ]] ==Service history== On 22 May 1984, MSC held its first observance of National Maritime Day aboard Apache to commemorate the merchant seamen who were killed during America's wars. MSC commander Vice Admiral William H. Rowden, MSC vice-commander Rear Admiral Warren C. Hamm, Jr. and the retired commander of the Military Sea Transportation Service, Vice Admiral William M. Callaghan were aboard for the ceremony. In the summer of 1987, Apache was deployed on a 3-week research mission to study the current state of the sunken Civil War ship USS Monitor. The tug hosted 24 NOAA scientists and technicians who examined the wreck with an unmanned submersible called "Deep Drone". In August 1991, USNS Antares was crossing the Atlantic with equipment for the 24th Infantry Division in Saudi Arabia when she suffered disabling leaks in her boilers. Apache towed the ship to Rota, Spain for repair. In the fall of 1994, Apache was dispatched to Haiti to support Operation Uphold Democracy. On 1 December 1996, Apache arrived in Norfolk with USS Gonzalez in tow. The guided-missile destroyer had damage both propellers grounding on a coral reef and required a tow to the shipyard for repairs. The ship was crossing the Atlantic to begin a deployment in the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet in November 2001 when she rescued four people from a sinking 80-foot sailboat approximately 1,400 miles southwest of the Azores. In December 2002, Apache and an embarked detachment from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2 trained Croatian Navy divers off Split. While on a six-month deployment with the Sixth Fleet in 2006, Apache, with an embarked detachment of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2, held joint diving and salvage exercises with similar units of the French, Croatian, Albanian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Israeli, and Ghanaian navies. Her visit to Haifa, Israel was cut short when she sailed on 13 July 2006 as a precautionary measure due to fighting in the area. During this same deployment, Apache arrived in Monrovia on 9 August 2006 as part of a United States effort to strengthen relations with Liberia. She and her embarked detachment of divers were asked to survey wrecks in the harbor and assist in the repair of the port's commercial pier. During this visit, she rescued seven fishermen whose vessel had capsized. She also evacuated the crew and fought a fire aboard the cargo ship Tahoma Reefer. While deployed with the Sixth Fleet, in August 2022, Apache embarked the Navy's Cable-operated Unmanned Recovery Vehicle (CURV) 21 to locate and salvage an F/A 18E Super Hornet which had blown off the deck of USS Harry S. Truman. ==References==

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