Ponchatoula (AO 148) - Naval Cruise Book

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An UNREP, or underway replenishment, is the refueling of one ship by another while trav- eling the same course and speed, no more than fifty yards apart. Fuel is transferred through hoses between the ships despite the danger of possible collision caused by two moving objects being in such close proximity. What makes an unrep worth the risk is the extension in opera- tional range of a man-of-war that otherwise would have had to stay clo se to a land base. Thus a fighting ship can sail beyond its normal cruising limit if there is a fleet oiler available. During World War Il the Japanese referred to the fleet oiler and her ability to deliver oil to a fleet at sea as a secret weapon . Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Commander- in-Chief of the Pacific Area, said the fleet oil- ers are one of the principal...weapons contrib- uting to the successful termination of this war . The war increased the use of unreps to main- tain a wide-ranging fighting fleet far from land support bases and close to enemy shores. To help the c a r r i e r s, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers on the battle line, oilers would come from support bases, refuel ships, and steam back for more oil. With the post-war period and the coming of the cold war Navy designers laid plans for a newer, faster class of oiler. They were built to carry 180,000 barrels of fuel, would weigh nearly 40,000 tons, and would be able to steam for prolonged periods of time at over 20 knots. These were the Neosho class oiler. The last and newest was commissioned on January 12, 1956. She has performed in the far reaches of the Western Pacific. That ship's name: Ponchatoula. Ponchatoula was named after the Poncha- toula River which flows through Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. Upon commissioning at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Ponchatoula sailed via the Panama Canal for her homeport of Long Beach, California. Her first deployment began in September of 1956, the highlight of whichwas the rescue of the Panamanian merchant ship SS Venus. In early 1958, her homeport shifted to Pearl Harbor, she again deployed to Westpac to support forces engaged in the Quemoy Crisis. By early 1962 Ponchatoula was in support of nineteen nuclear tests which took place off Christmas Island. Later that same year she won ServPac's Battle Efficiency E , During 1964 and 1965 the ship pumped to the Seventh Fleet operating in the South China Sea off the coast of Vietnam. The ship set a new Pacific Fleet record in an eight month deploy- ment in 1967, when she brought 516 ships along- side, 477 of which were refueled. Over 50 mil- lion barrels of fuel and many tons of freight were transferred to combatant ships operating far from their bases. Another new record of volume of petroleum products delivered was established in the June 1968 deployment as she pumped over 74 million barrels of fuel through her replenishment hoses. Since the beginning of the Manned Space Program in 1961, Ponchatoula has provided