USS Wahkiakum County (LST-1162) - Decommissioning and Disposal

Decommissioning and Disposal

Decommissioned at the Inactive Ship Facility, Orange, Texas, on 16 October 1970, Wahkiakum County was transferred to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) at Brooklyn, New York on 10 April 1972. Reclassified as a United States Naval Ship (USNS) -- indicating non-commissioned U.S. Navy service with a largely civilian crew—and as T-LST-1162, the now-USNS Wahkiakum County operated with MSC as a cargo ship until struck from the Navy List in 1973; sources disagree on the date on which she was struck, claiming it was either on 11 January 1973 or on 11 November 1973. She was then laid up.

Wahkiakum County was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 29 July 1992, for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benicia, California. She was sold for scrapping on 22 June 2005 to ESCO Marine, Brownsville, Texas, and removed from the Suisun Bay National Defense Reserve Fleet on 24 August 2005. She was subsequently scrapped.