USS Wabash (AOR-5) - Additional WestPac Deployment

Additional WestPac Deployment

On 5 June 1976, Wabash again set sail for WestPac. En route, she collided with Flint during a towing exercise, but neither ship suffered damage curtailing her primary mission capabilities. No one was injured. After damage and voyage repairs at Subic Bay, Wabash commenced routine local operations in Philippine waters. On 9 July, however, she returned hurriedly to Subic Bay to load stores and cargo and departed the following day to conduct a "stern chase" of task group TG 77.7. This group was then headed for the Indian Ocean and a 30-day "show the flag" cruise. En route, Wabash rendezvoused with Mars to load further supplies and stores, transited the Strait of Malacca, and entered the Indian Ocean on 17 July.

Wabash conducted underway replenishments with Ranger, Preble, Goldsborough, and Ouellet, as task force TF-77 "showed the flag" in the Indian Ocean as part of the American effort to balance a growing Soviet presence in that area of the globe. Her duties thus completed, Wabash returned to Subic Bay on 7 August and got underway nine days later to rejoin the Ranger task group to replenish them as they returned to the United States.

Completing her duties with the Ranger group soon thereafter, Wabash put into Guam, Mariana Islands, and prepared to provision the incoming Enterprise task group. The replenishment ship subsequently conducted local operations in the Philippines in September and in Japanese waters in October—operating out of Sasebo—before visiting Pusan, Korea. Returning to Sasebo on 25 October, the ship headed for Yokosuka soon thereafter for repairs and upkeep prior to concluding her WestPac deployment. During this, her third WestPac tour, Wabash had steamed over 35,000 miles, conducted 100 underway replenishments, and had been at sea nearly 65 percent of the time. Departing Japanese waters on 10 November, Wabash arrived at her home port one day before Thanksgiving.