The USS Ponchatoula, the 50th vessel on the Maritime Administration’s list of ships to be pulled from the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay and sent for recycling, is expected to leave Benicia on Thursday, Kirsten Allen, MARAD spokesperson, said.

Departure from the Reserve Fleet was expected to start at 11 a.m., though the ship’s movement depends on weather and water conditions, Allen said.

After preparation at BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair, where it will be cleaned of marine growth and examined for structural soundness, the ship will be towed to Brownsville, Texas, where ESCO Marine will break apart and recycle the ship.

The Ponchatoula is a Neosho-class tanker that was built in Camden, N.J. by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. It was one of six in this class, and was named for the Ponchatoula Creek in Tangipahoa Parish, La.

The ship began its service Jan. 12, 1956, as a support vessel in Southeast Asia, where it spent most of its career.

It also participated in splashdown recovery of American space ships, but its first rescue experience came about by accident.

During its first deployment, the Ponchatoula helped rescue the SS Venus, a Panamanian merchant ship that had been caught on the edges of two typhoons. The Ponchatoula towed the Venus until relief vessels arrived.

The ship met its first hostile conditions in 1958 while operating with the 7th Fleet during the Quemoy-Matsu Crisis. Afterward, it became involved in experimental operations, providing petroleum, oil and lubricant services to Joint Task Force 8 during Operation Dominic I nuclear tests.

The Ponchatoula was involved in numerous historic recovery operations for Mercury and Gemini space flights, Allen said. It also joined in the pickup of one Apollo flight.

For Project Mercury, it joined recovery ships during the Sigma 7 and Faith 7 splashdowns in 1962 and 1963, after which it was sent to refuel ships off the coast of Vietnam.

In 1965, the Ponchatoula participated in recovering Gemini 4, and after returning to Vietnam, joined the recovery of Gemini 6 and 7.

The ship set a new record in the Pacific Fleet in 1966 by bringing 503 ships alongside, refueling 464 of them. Starting late in 1967 and finishing by June 1968, the ship pumped more than 74 million gallons of fuel.

By October of that year, the Ponchatoula again was participating in a spacecraft splashdown, this time for Apollo 7, the first American three-man flight.

The ship returned to Vietnam to support Allied operations. Before sailing to Hawai’i, the ship earned 12 battle stars for its Vietnam War service.

Decomissioned in the 1980s, the ship was removed from the Navy’s active duty fleet Aug. 31, 1992, after a 43-year career. She was moored among Reserve Fleet ships in Suisun Bay on May 1, 1999.

Former members of the ships crew have shared stories about their experiences. Those tales and others related to the ship can be found on the ship’s website, www.ussponchatoula.com.