Service History
USS Flint was commissioned under the command of Captain Philip R. Bush following extensive sea trials. The ship then made a transit through the Panama Canal to its home port of Naval Weapons Station, Concord, California.
Flint made its first Western Pacific (WestPac) deployment in fall of 1972. It participated in numerous underway replenishment activities with ships of the US 7th Fleet in support of military operations off the coast of Vietnam including resupply of gunline destroyers and aircraft carriers participating in Operation Linebacker and Operation Linebacker II. Its helicopter detachment flew hundreds of sorties ferrying munitions to US naval ships in the operational theatre.
Captain Bush was relieved as Commanding Officer by Captain Thomas Rogers in December, 1972. In subsequent deployments in 1973-1974 and 1974–1975, Flint was assigned to naval forces in the Gulf of Aden in support of operations monitoring the Yom Kippur War, the Vietnam evacuation task force (Operation Frequent Wind) and rescue forces involved in the Mayagüez incident.
Captain Rogers was relieved as Commanding Officer by Commander John K. Ferguson in early 1974.
Flint served as ammunition supply ship during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, 1990 to 1992, under Cmdr. Skirm and Capt. Thompson.
On October 7, 1993 a maintenance petty officer was killed attempting to ride a cargo elevator from a lower level to the main deck. At an Admiral's Mast, Flint's Commanding Officer Cmdr. Patrick J. Sharrett, accepted responsibility for the sailor's death and was relieved of command by Commander Logistics Group One.
Cmdr. John M. MacIntyre of Coronado, California, was the final commanding officer of the ship. The ship was under the operational command of Commander, Logistics Group 1.
Flint completed 15 deployments to the western Pacific and received recognition for the dramatic 1978 rescue of 86 fishermen shipwrecked near Palawan Island, Philippines, during a typhoon.
Read more about this topic: USS Flint (AE-32)
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