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WOODEN SHIPS & IRON MEN
Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down 28 April 1952 at Burger Boat Co., Manitowoc WI.; Launched
13 May 1953; Commissioned USS Valor
(AM-472), 29 July 1954; Redesignated as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-472, 7 February 1955;
Decommissioned in July 1970; Struck from the Naval Register 1 February 1971; Sold for scrapping to Charles Gural, Rahway,
NJ, for $1,700.
Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 8
Officers, 70 Enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal machine guns, final configuration, bow gun
replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced
by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
These new minesweepers were smaller and built primarily of wood , with bronze and stainless (non-magnetic)
steel fittings to minimize their magnetic signature. All of the 1950 era MSOs had UQS-1 mine-locating sonar, later updated
with SQQ-14 sonar. MSOs were capable of sweeping for moored, bottom contact, magnetic and acoustic mines.
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| NOVEMBER QUEBEC SIERRA GOLF |
WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON MEN a book by CDR David D.Bruhn USN RET.The history of our MSO's from 1953
to 1994. To learn more about this excellent minesweeper book please visit CDR Bruhn's website at the link below.
David Bruhn
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