Ponchatoula (AO 148) - Naval Cruise Book

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A . PONCHAT ULNS HISTORY The U.S.S. PONCHATOULA QAO-1481 was com- missioned the 12th of January 1956 at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. The second Navy ship to bear the name, PONCHATOULA is named after a river, as are all the U.S. Navy oilers. The PONCHATOULA river flows through Tongipahoa Parish, Louisiana. Upon completion of acceptance trials and a shake- down cruise, PONCHATOULA sailed for her new home port, Long Beach, via the Panama Canal in March 1956. PONCHATOULA wasted little time in embarking on a long career of service. In September 1956, PONCHATOULA rescued the floundering Pana- manian ship SS VENUS off the coast of Japan by taking the ship in tow and clearing oncoming typhoon Ivy. In early 1958, PONCHATOULA's home port was changed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. PONCHATOULA has since participated in the Que- mey-Matsu Crisis 09583, operated in support of the Operation Dominic nuclear tests in the Christmas Islands 619623, supported Seventh Fleet units opera- tion in the South China Sea off the coast of Viet Nam and served as a space capsule recovery ship for proj- ects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. In November 1965 the ship spent ten days on a good- will visit to Sydney, Australia where she participated in 'fExercise.Warrior along with ships of the Brit- ish, Australian and New Zealand navies. I PONCHATOULA returned to Pearl Harbor in April 1967 from an eight month deployment to South East Asia where she again engaged in direct support of Seventh Fleet combat operations off the coast of Viet Nam and in the Gulf of Tonkin. The ship set a new Pacific Fleet record by bringing 503 ships alongside and refueled 464 of them. Over 50 million gallons of fuel and many tons of cargo were transferred to com- batant ships operating far from their bases. ' In her November 1967 to June 1968 deployment, PONCHATOULA established another new record for volume of petroleum products delivered to customer ships, pumping over 74 million gallons of fuel through her replenishment hoses. She then underwent a five month, 83 million overhaul. An April visit .to Kobe, .Japan and EXPO '70 high- lighted PONCHATOULA's 1970 deployment. The ship operated out of Sasebo conducting replenishments in the Sea of Japan for nearly half of her latest seven months in WestPac. In February 1971, PONCHATOULA served as sec- ondary recovery ship for the Apollo 14 space mission and following a two day stop over in Pago Pago, American Samoa, returned to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard where she was converted to burn and carry Naval Distillate. , On July 22, 1971 PONCHATOULA departed Pearl Harbor on yet another West Pac deployment: The following is the latest chapter in her continuing history. ...1

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C, 1 1 C, 1 ll.f'5' PONUHATOIILA Westpac July 1971- February 1972 l

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hip's Plaque The PONCHATOULA plaque was designed shortly after commissioning the ship. It symbolizes what the ship stands for and the ideals she fosters. The mean- ing of emblem is as follows: KID The white chevron is symbolic of the higher concepts to which the ship aspires. 425 The sky blue fields through which the chevron points upward is symbolic of the heavens which contains the guides of these ideals. Q35 The moon and the stars are aids from the heavens to help in safe navigation on each cruise. 145 The symbol found in the upper left-hand corner represents the Goddess Venus and commemorates PONCHATOULA's timely rescue, in 1956, of the Panamanian ship VENUS. As ever, she stands ready to perform even the most demanding missions.