USS Wasatch (AGC-9)

USS Wasatch (AGC-9)

USS Wasatch (AGC-9) was a Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship, named after a mountain chain in central Utah. She was designed as an amphibious force flagship, a floating command post with advanced communications equipment and extensive combat information spaces to be used by the amphibious forces commander and landing force commander during large-scale operations.

The ship was laid down as Fleetwing under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1349) on 7 August 1943 at Wilmington, N.C., by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company; launched on 8 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. P. A. Wilson; and acquired by the Navy on 31 December 1943 for conversion to an amphibious command ship. Renamed Wasatch and designated AGC-9, the ship was converted for naval use at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Va., and commissioned there on 20 May 1944, Capt. Alford M. Granum in command.