USS Kawishiwi, 1950s-era oil carrier, to be towed to Mare Island Thursday

An oiler built to refuel an entire task force without any help will leave the Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay on Thursday en route Mare Island Dry Docks, Vallejo, in preparation for towing to Texas, where it will be broken apart and recycled.

The USS Kawishiwi, named for a Minnesota river, was built in Camden, N.J., in 1954 and entered service July 6, 1955.

It was one of six Neosho Class oilers built during the Cold War after the Korean conflict.

The motto on its insignia is “Non Pareil,” or “Without Equal.” Its name reportedly comes from the Ojibway or Chippewa languages, and has been translated variously as meaning “River full of beaver houses” and “Water with many shadows.”

The Kawishiwi is 655 feet long and 86 feet wide, with a maximum draft of more than 35 feet. It has reached speeds exceeding 21 knots, and has carried more than 7 million gallons of petroleum cargo, the same fuel capacity of the new and larger T-AKA class dry cargo and ammunition ships.

While on active duty, the ship had 254 to 324 Navy personnel.

Most of its career was spent with the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet in East and Southeast Asia during the Vietnam war, said Kirsten Allen of the Maritime Administration’s Office of Congressional and Public Affairs.

According to Navy records, the ship’s ability to refuel vessels at a rapid rate increased the mobility of the Seventh Fleet’s operations.

It was active in West Pacific (Westpac) operations, sailing from Hawai’i to the Far East and Southeast Asia, where it participated in shows of strength and peacekeeping missions credited with averting several political crises in those areas.

While it wasn’t technically a war ship, the Kawishiwi was armed with two 5-inch guns and six 3-inch, rapid-fire twin mounts, and occasionally took fire itself.

The ship refueled vessels involved in the Vietnam war, delivering millions of gallons of fuel oil, jet fuel, aviation gasoline and other petroleum products, as well as freight, mail and passengers.

It also cruised the Indian Ocean to support the USS Hancock’s DVA-19’s turning over of its planes to Israel as part of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The Kawishiwi made the entire round trip without arriving at a single port, and never had to refuel itself, though it refueled the task force as needed.

The Kawishiwi participated in the 1975 evacuation of Saigon, refueling the ships involved in that operation as well as the helicopters flying in and out of Saigon. It also picked up refugees and took them to the Philippines.

The ship had other duties as well.

Nicknamed “Special K,” the vessel was part of the fleet on duty during NASA’s Gemini 10, 11 and 12 and Apollo 13 and 15 space flights that took place from 1966 to 1971. Ship personnel had trained to pick up the spacecraft if other ships assigned to the task were unable to perform the job.

The ship was turned over to the Navy’s Military Sealift Command on Oct. 10, 1979, where it remain until Sept. 16, 1992, when it was transferred to the Maritime Administration’s Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, Allen said.

The Kawishiwi will be towed to Mare Island from Suisun Bay beginning about 9 a.m. Thursday, depending on weather and water conditions. Once it is scrubbed of marine growth in the Mare Island Dry Docks, it will be towed to International Shipbreaking in Brownsville, Texas.