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13
UNIT AWARDS and CITATIONS
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (2), ,Combat Action Ribbon (2),Navy Meritorious Unit Citation (1),Navy
Expeditionary Medal (4),Navy Unit Citation (1) ,Air Force Outstanding Unit Award 28 Jan -22 Feb 1972 (1) and Secretary
of the Navy Letter of Commendation (2).
The third Fearless (AM-442) was launched 17 July 1953 by Higgins, Inc., New Orleans,
La.; sponsored by Mrs. A. J. Higgins, Jr.; and commissioned 22 September 1954, Lieutenant J. Roberts in command, reclassified
MSO-442 on 7 February 1955.
With Charleston, S.C., as her home port, Fearless operated through 1960 on training
operations, experiments and tests and in exercises along the coast and in the Caribbean. Every other year from 1955 she sailed
to the Mediterranean for duty with the 6th Fleet, joining in NATO exercises and visiting European ports. In the spring of
1956, she conducted joint exercises with ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, and through that summer experimented with controllable
pitch propellers and mine-counter measures equipment at Charleston and Port Everglades, Fl. [Transcriber's Note: Decommissioned
23 October 1990, Fearless was struck from the Navy list on the 28th of that month and sold 1 December 1992
During the 1987-88 Operation "Earnest Will" (the escort of the reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers), six active and reserve MSO's deployed to the Persian Gulf. Three West Coast MSO's: USS Enhance (MSO-437), USS Conquest
(MSO-488), and USS Esteem (MSO-438), and three East Coast MSOs : USS Inflict (MSO-456), USS Fearless (MSO-442), and USS Illusive
(MSO-448). Both ships and crews performed extremely well in very demanding conditions, clearing hundreds of mines from the
international waterway.
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