Vietnam War
Cimarron continued her service into the Vietnam War during Western Pacific deployments to Subic Bay between 1965 and 1967. But her claim to fame as the oldest US Navy ship in continuous active service ended abruptly after being side-swiped by the USS Hornet during an underway replenishment port-side approach along the San Diego, California, coastline in September 1968. Cimarron was decommissioned and struck from the Navy List in October 1968 and sold for scrap in 1969.
As a tribute to many dedicated crew members, Cimarron's key artifacts were donated to Cimarron, New Mexico, which was located closest to the Cimarron River's headwaters at Eagle Nest, New Mexico. Her ship's bell became the village high school's bell.
Cimarron received 10 battle stars for World War II service, seven for the Korean War, and 4 campaign stars for her Vietnam War service.
Read more about this topic: USS Cimarron (AO-22)
Famous quotes containing the words vietnam and/or war:
“Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1992)
“I have agreed to go into the service for the war ... [feeling] that this was a just and necessary war and that it demanded the whole power of the country; that I would prefer to go into it if I knew I was to die or be killed in the course of it, than to live through and after it without taking any part in it.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)