Search the Site with

General Characteristics

Crew List

Memorabilia

Accidents aboard the Ship

About the Ship's Name

History

Image Gallery

to end of page

USS Willamette (AO 180)

USS WILLAMETTE was the fourth ship in the CIMARRON - class of fleet oilers and the first ship in the Navy to bear the name. Since decommissioning the ship is laid-up at the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, Benicia, CA. USS WILLAMETTE was last homeported in Pearl Harbor, HI. and when the ship was commissioned in 1982, she was the first US Navy ship to be commissioned in Pearl Harbor since 1917.

On September 27, 1991, WILLAMETTE was the second ship of the CIMARRON-class to complete jumboization. A 108 foot midbody section was added to the center of the ship. This midbody increased fuel capacity by 30,000 barrels and added an ordnance cargo capability of 625 tons. The midbody also featured an additional emergency diesel generator and two standard tensioned replenishment alongside method (STREAM) cargo stations.

back to top

go to the end of the page

back to top

go to the end of the page

Crew List:

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

• Click here to view the list.

back to top

go to the end of the page

• Click here to see which USS WILLAMETTE memorabilia are currently for sale on ebay.

back to top

go to the end of the page

Accidents aboard USS WILLAMETTE:

back to top

go to the end of the page

About the Ship's Name:

The name Willamette is of Indian origin, though there is no definitive source. The name is thought to mean long and beautiful river or rainwaters along the river.

The Willamette River flows north from its source near Eugene, Oregon and empties into the Columbia river near Portland. It has at least two distinctions: it is one of the few rivers of any volume in the United States that flows in a northerly direction and it is the largest river lying wholly within one state.

The Willamette emerges into the Willamette Valley as three forks. The Coast Fork issues from a heavily forested wilderness while the Middle Fork flows from the base of Emigrant Butte in the Calapooga Hills. These tow streams join in the upper reaches of the valley. Some miles below they are joined by the third fork, the McKenzie, which rises at the base of Three Sisters in the Cascade range.

The settlement of the Oregon county began on the banks of the Willamette. Throughout the 19th century the Willamette was the focus of the civilization in Western Oregon. The abundant fish in its waters, especially salmon, and the game in its flood plains were a reliable source of food and its rich bottomlands bore heavy corps of wheat and hay.

The river was the principal means of transportation as flatboats plowed their way along the river. After 1851 they were replaced by sidewheelers and later stern-wheelers.

Through the early 20th century the river's importance declined as land and air transportation become more efficient. In recent years a successful water cleanup campaign has enhanced its natural scenic beauty and recreational resources.

The Willamette river basin contains the states three largest cities - Portland, Salem, and Eugene; approximately 70 percent of the state's population. It supports an economy based on timber, agriculture, industry, and recreation. It supplies extensive fish and wildlife habitats, as well as a source of hydroelectric power.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS WILLAMETTE History:

USS WILLAMETTE took shape at Avondale Shipyards, New Orleans, after the Navy awarded the construction contract on April 11, 1978. Her keel was laid on August 4, 1980, and she entered the water in a sideways launch on July 18, 1981, a spectacle on the Mississippi noted for the ship's unusual entry into the river. WILLAMETTE was commissioned at Pearl Harbor on December 18, 1982 - the first U.S. Navy ship commissioned there since 1917 - and she reported to the Pacific Fleet as a fast oiler built to move bulk ship fuel and aviation fuel while also transferring limited mail, personnel, and dry cargo. She entered service fitted with two MK 15 PHALANX close-in weapon systems - an augmented self-defense fit for a ship that would spend most of her career in close company with combatants during alongside replenishments.

Early operations in 1983-1985 established the routine that would define her career: loading at Navy fuel depots, brief pier calls at Pearl Harbor between underway periods, and long at-sea stretches punctuated by connected replenishments and helicopter vertical delivery with carrier battle groups and destroyer squadrons across the Central and Western Pacific. Her first Western Pacific deployment began in mid-January 1985 and carried her through the region's standard circuit of logistics hubs and fleet operating areas, including Guam, Subic Bay, Hong Kong, and multiple Japanese ports, before she returned to Pearl Harbor later that year to reset for the next cycle.

In 1986, WILLAMETTE figured prominently in two very different snapshots of the fleet. In July she was photographed underway during a midshipmen summer training cruise, a reminder that the oilers formed part of the Navy's annual training cadence as well as its logistics backbone. Earlier that year, on February 10, 1986, during a night formation-steaming exercise roughly 60-75 nautical miles southwest of Oahu, she collided with the repair ship JASON (AR 8) at about 9:15 p.m. local time. The impact tore open JASON's port side and crumpled WILLAMETTE's bow. One sailor aboard JASON was killed and eight were injured. Both ships returned to port for months of repairs. WILLAMETTE ultimately received a new bow section during the yard period that followed. The incident and its consequences reverberated through training and seamanship discussions across the Pacific Fleet.

From mid-1986 into 1987, she resumed blue-water work, including a WestPac followed by an extended, globe-circling deployment in early 1987 during which she operated under every numbered fleet commander in turn. In that span, she routinely fueled U.S. and allied ships moving between the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean as Cold War escort patterns gave way to the heightened Persian Gulf tensions of the tanker-war period. Her crew's awards roll from that year - among them a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation and the Navy Expeditionary Medal for the early-1987 operating window - reflects the operational tempo and geography of that deployment cycle.

WILLAMETTE's late-1980s schedule continued to pivot between WestPac and Indian Ocean tasking. In 1988-1989, she again deployed across Seventh and, at times, Fifth Fleet waters, shuttling fuel to carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and amphibious groups conducting presence patrols, exercises with regional partners, and maritime security operations. As the Cold War ended and the Pacific Fleet adjusted to post-1989 realities, the Navy launched a program to increase the CIMARRON-class's capacity and effectiveness. WILLAMETTE entered that "jumboization" program and, on September 27, 1991, completed the insertion of a 108-foot mid-body. The modification increased her fuel capacity by roughly 30,000 barrels, added about 625 tons of ordnance cargo capability, introduced two additional STREAM cargo stations and an extra emergency diesel generator, and modernized ballast and cargo transfer automation - changes that materially improved how many ships she could sustain between loadings and how quickly she could work multiple rigs at sea.

The early 1990s found the enlarged oiler back on her familiar Pacific beat, supporting post-Desert Storm presence and exercise patterns and the routine training flows of West Coast carrier and amphibious groups. Through 1994, she alternated local operations out of Pearl Harbor with underway periods west of the dateline. On June 29, 1995, while moored at Pearl Harbor, a boiler casualty produced a brief overpressure event and fireball in the boiler room. Seven sailors were treated for smoke inhalation, repairs were made, and the ship returned to service. Later that year she deployed again to the Western Pacific, and the period from December 1995 to May 1996 earned WILLAMETTE a Navy Unit Commendation for sustained logistics performance alongside strike-group and amphibious ready-group customers spread across Seventh Fleet waters.

In the late 1990s, WILLAMETTE continued to refuel Pacific Fleet units as they exercised with allies across Northeast and Southeast Asia and conducted routine presence and engagement patrols. By mid-1998, she was on the U.S. West Coast for a final visit to Portland and a last transit of her namesake river before returning to Hawaii for deactivation preparations. Her last recorded underway replenishment took place on February 12, 1999, closing a ledger that would ultimately tally well over a thousand UNREPs and hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel passed at sea across four numbered fleets and with a long list of partner navies.

WILLAMETTE was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor on April 30, 1999. She left the islands under tow on June 10, 1999, bound for the Suisun Bay reserve fleet at Benicia, California. Title transferred to the Maritime Administration on July 28, 2001, and she remained in the National Defense Reserve Fleet until disposal under domestic sale in late 2013. Scrapping followed at Brownsville, Texas, in 2014.

back to top

go to the end of the page

USS WILLAMETTE Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the WILLAMETTE laid-up at Suisun Bay, Calif., on March 27, 2010.

back to top

Back to Fleet Oilers page.

Back to ships list.

Back to selection page.

Back to 1^st page.