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SS Cornhusker State (T-ACS 6)

Sorry, no coat of arms available.

Built and delivered as cargo ship SS CV STAG HOUND for the Maritime Administration, the ship initially served as a container ship for American Export Isbrandtsen Containership Lines. Later Reaquired by the Maritime Administration, the ship was converted to a crane ship from March 1987 till February 1988, by Norshipco in Norfolk, Va. She was placed in service as SS CORNHUSKER STATE (T-ACS 6) on March 12, 1988. The ship was subsequently berthed at Newport News, Va., capable of being fully activated within 5 days. She is named after the state of Nebraska which is also refered to as Cornhusker State.

On December 20, 2025, CORNHUSKER STATE was towed from Newport News to Philadelphia, Penn., for deactivation.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard SS CORNHUSKER STATE. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

• Click here to view the list.

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SS CORNHUSKER STATE History:

USS CORNHUSKER STATE began life as the commercial container ship CV STAG HOUND, a Maritime Administration C5-S-73b hull built by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. Her keel was laid on 27 November 1967, she was launched on 2 November 1968, and delivered on 20 June 1969 for service with American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines and, from 1978, Farrell Lines without name change. Returned to the U.S. Government and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in 1986, she was selected for conversion to an Auxiliary Crane Ship under the Navy-MARAD program. Norfolk Shipbuilding & Drydock (NORSHIPCO) fitted three heavy twin-boom pedestal cranes and made associated deck and systems alterations to the C5 hull, redesignating her type to C5-S-MA73c. The ship was redelivered to MARAD and placed in service as SS CORNHUSKER STATE (T-ACS 6) on 12 April 1988, assigned to the Ready Reserve Force under Military Sealift Command (MSC) operational control. From the outset she was maintained in short-notice readiness (five- or ten-day activation depending on assignment) as part of the U.S. strategic sealift posture.

Through the early 1990s, CORNHUSKER STATE cycled between reduced operating status at her layberth in Virginia and activations for exercises and contingencies that honed the joint logistics-over-the-shore (JLOTS) concept. In April-May 1994, she took part in RESOLUTE RESPONSE off Fort Story, Virginia, a JLOTS training evolution focused on lighterage interfaces and elevated causeway systems in surf-zone conditions. Later that fiscal year, amid the multinational effort to restore democratic governance in Haiti, she was one of the Ready Reserve Force vessels activated for Operation Uphold/Support Democracy. Alongside other RO/ROs, CORNHUSKER STATE transported military cargo from U.S. ports to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, providing self-sustained crane capacity where shoreside gear was limited and port infrastructure fragile. The activations demonstrated the RRF's ability to meet or beat the four-day activation goal under Coast Guard-supervised trials and the Navy's requirements.

Following these Caribbean and East Coast duties, the ship returned to reduced operating status but continued periodic readiness trials, dock trials, and maintenance cycles in accordance with RRF policy, which included Coast Guard inspection regimes and a ten-year drydocking cycle across the fleet to preserve surge reliability. These measures sustained her cranes, power plant, and cargo systems so she could integrate with Navy lighterage and Army causeway components when called.

After the 11 September 2001 attacks, CORNHUSKER STATE was activated at Cheatham Annex, Virginia, in November 2001 for Operation Enduring Freedom. From 5 November 2001 through 1 May 2002, she deployed to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, augmenting afloat ammunition logistics by transporting and serving as floating storage to sustain combat operations. During this mission she moved 595 twenty-foot-equivalent containers and additional equipment, supplementing stocks held aboard the afloat prepositioning ship MV MAJ. BERNARD F. FISHER (T-AK 4396) at Diego Garcia. This employment illustrated the crane ship's niche: when gearless containerships and austere ports constrain resupply, a self-sustaining platform can side-load and feed lighterage or consort vessels without relying on shore-based gear. On completion of the OEF tasking, she returned to reduced operating status on the U.S. East Coast.

In June 2009, CORNHUSKER STATE supported JLOTS 09 at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (Cuba). On 8 June 2009, a 154,000-pound Manitowoc crane was offloaded from her deck to help assemble an elevated causeway system, after which the ship worked as the heavy-lift centerpiece for over-the-shore transfer rehearsals - moving containers to lighterage and causeway sections to simulate expeditionary port creation in a denied or damaged harbor. Imagery from 17 June 2009 documents the construction and use of the causeway complex built from and alongside the ship. The exercise refined techniques the joint force would soon need for humanitarian response.

Those techniques were put to immediate use after the 12 January 2010 Haiti earthquake. Activated for Operation Unified Response, CORNHUSKER STATE staged via Naval Station Guantanamo Bay and the waters off Port-au-Prince to furnish at-sea crane capacity in a port whose piers and handling gear had been severely damaged. On 24 February 2010 she was photographed pier-side at Guantanamo Bay in direct support of Haiti logistics. By February 2010, she was transferring containerized relief supplies at sea to the barge ATLANTIC TRADER as part of the interagency maritime supply chain feeding shore nodes rebuilt by Seabees and Army engineers. Navy Reserve Naval Cargo Handling Battalion 13 loaded materials aboard the ship for onward movement, underscoring the civil-service mariner/active-reserve team that characterizes RRF operations. With airfields congested and port assets degraded, the crane ship's ability to discharge to lighterage preserved flow of food, water, shelter materials, and medical cargo into the humanitarian operation.

In fall 2017, CORNHUSKER STATE crossed the Atlantic for a European munitions logistics evolution under U.S. European Command. Departing the U.S. East Coast in early September, she proceeded first to Gibraltar, then north to the Weser approaches off Bremerhaven, and on to Nordenham, Germany, where she was photographed passing Bremerhaven on 9 October 2017 en route to the ammunition port. Army statements in theater that month described paired crane-ship deliveries to Nordenham - CORNHUSKER STATE and sister ship FLICKERTAIL STATE (T-ACS 5) - moving hundreds of containers of ordnance for U.S. forces in Europe. The sequence reflected the enduring role of RRF crane ships as self-sustaining heavy-lift assets at established ports and expeditionary nodes alike. After cargo operations, the ship returned to layberth in Virginia.

CORNHUSKER STATE has continued to answer spot taskings while maintained in short-notice readiness. On 9 September 2023, she was documented getting underway from Naval Station Rota, Spain, a movement consistent with MSC Europe and Africa tasking to posture logistics assets near NATO operating areas and surge ports. Between such sorties she remained tied up at her Virginia outport with systems preserved and periodically trialed under MARAD and Coast Guard oversight to ensure cranes, power plant, and cargo gear can be brought to full operating status within the designated activation window.

On 20 December 2025, CORNHUSKER STATE was towed from Newport News to Philadelphia, Penn., for deactivation.

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SS CORNHUSKER STATE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the CORNHUSKER STATE passing Bremerhaven, Germany, in a rain shower on her way to nearby Nordenham on October 9, 2017. The CORNHUSKER STATE departed the US East Coast in early September 2017 and initially proceeded to Gibraltar before heading north to Nordenham.

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