USS Grasp (ARS-24) - Post-Korean War Operations

Post-Korean War Operations

Despite the termination of open warfare Korea was to remain an important port of call for Grasp as the salvage ship's peacetime duties settled into a pattern of yearly WestPac cruises out of Pearl Harbor intermixed with local operations and salvage work out of the Hawaiian port. As she sailed each year to join the U.S. 7th Fleet in its massive peacekeeping and patrol work in the western Pacific, Grasp visited such Asian ports as Yokosuka, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Manila, Okinawa, and Eniwetok. America's participation in the struggle against communism in Vietnam added Saigon to this list in 1963. And Grasp was also at Johnston Island in the spring of 1962 in connection with nuclear weapons tests being conducted there.

A reasonable speculation of the Grasp was the recovery of both US and Soviet ICBM reentry vehicles from depths down to 20,000 feet. It was from this experience that the plan to raise a Soviet submarine, the Jennifer Project, was launched.