Neosho (AO 143) - Naval Cruise Book

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THE ONLY GAS STATION OPEN ON SUNDAY For ZOO years, cooks have been shin ing Navy ship s bells. MS3 MURPHY gladly displays the tradition above LOVELY GIRL There were dreams, there were plans To make this lovely girl All could see, she was indeed, Large enough to take the world In fifty two they laid her down The men were soaked with sweat After many hours, long and hard But she wasn't finished yet What will it take? was the cry, The men were standing in line I don't know but she'll endure Your shift is over it s time for mine She's taking all the hands turn out, To give her what she was needing At day s end, and a n1ght's rest She'll be ready for more beading She's a beaut, there s no doubt Although she s kind of paunched After much sweat of many men, Now she's ready to be launched In fifty three with cosmetic kit They painted her outer skin She was huge, but very lovely She was loved by her men She sat tall in her skids They painted numbers one four three That lovely girl she'll sail the world Then slid into the briney sea There s much work for sometime yet, It would be at least another year Many long hours, they would work, As she sat alongside the pier. The day come, it was fifty-four, She was then placed in commission. Orders were given, the watch was set, At her Commanding Officer's permission. Like a babe, taking firstisteps, She went on her trial runs: She performed, like a champ, Even with her five inch guns. It's been long, since her birth, She's sailed thousands of miles. Taking her men, where she goes, Always wearing a proud smile. She's growing old, with miles left yet, She's the fourth to bear her name. It's NEOSHO, AO one four three,' She has put them all to shame. W. R. BONE 5

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ECSI-IC CHARACTERISTICS HISTORY The name NEOSHO appeared long before the United States came to be. A river with its origin in East Central Kansas was named NEOSHO by the Indians inhabiting that region. The NEOSHO River is 460 miles long, flowing southeast into Oklahoma oil country, where it is generally known as the Grand River. Our ship is the fourth naval vessel to bear the name., Her original ancestor was an ironclad of the famous HMonitorH class, built in l863. Early in this century a precedent was established that fleet oilers would be named after our nation's rivers which bear Indian names. As the result of a major shipbuilding effort during the l930's, the second NEOSHO CAO 23D was commissioned just before the commencement of World War l Surviving the attack at Pearl Harbor, she sailed with the Pacific Fleet to stem the enemy advance. After participating in many battles, AO 23 was sunk in May 1942 after an attack by more than twenty Japanese bombers and one suicide plane during the battle of the Coral Sea. The name was transferred to a later ship of the same class, AO 43, which in her turn served with distinction during the remainder of the war in the Pacific. She was transferred to the maritime fleet at the end of hostilities. Our ship is the first of a class of large cargo capacity, high speed oilers designed to support the modern HSupercarriersH. She was launched in November l953 at the Quincy, Massachusetts yard of Bethlehem Steel Company and placed in commission in September of the following year. NEOSHO is assigned to Service Squadron FOUR and is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. In addition to numerous Mediterranean Deployments, NEOSHO in recent years has answered the call in the Suez Crisis of l956, the Cuban Quarantine in 1962, the Dominican Republic Conflict in 1965, the Task Force 200, the Bicentennial naval operation in l976. Her travels have encompassed four continents and have taken her across the equator and Arctic Circle to exotic ports of call. A0143 : 4 1 s 5 f 1 I I H AE il P . L X i 'x , . ' I w I ,III i

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is 1 P M50 HU , 6 Z fn 03020 X CAPT CHARLES G. TATE Commanding OMLQQJL W Q01 - I F LT. q.J- MCTIGUE LTjg T.W. BAILEY LT. R.H. ENDERLY OPMWUUM 09195 Head Navigaftcm Engineefuing Dept. Head LTjg T.w. BAiLEY ' TV' .- ENS R.M. THOMPSON LLiL LL E LLL L ' OC Div. 066110.01 QMC HEIM5 LT. J.J. NAV vw.0661w. R mv. 0525231 f L ' - A Cwoz H.A. KRAFT, Jr. BEM vw. oggiw. EA ' J' ' ' ' 1 lm s , 'J 'al ' v f 1 3 '.- 'I' n- 5 A V .1 I Hb' I ' ' . ,L f 5 s x 1 X 1 x f ' ENS G.J. COON ' A vw. 0554001 I EMC HIESLEY 5 E mv. 055mm