By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Say goodbye to the USS Kansas City.

The Wichita-class replenishment oiler, will be pulled out of the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay Wednesday afternoon and towed to Vallejo, where it will be prepared for demolition at a Texas recycler, Kirsten Allen, a spokesperson for the Maritime Administration, said Tuesday.

Built in 1968 by General Dynamics, Quincy, Mass., the Kansas City was launched in 1969. During its career, the ship served in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.

Before being decommissioned in 1994, the oiler was deployed to the Western Pacific and Vietnam three times, and served much of its time in the Pacific.

Toward the end of its active duty, the vessel was dispatched to the Indian Ocean during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. During that time, it replenished the American Navy ships gathering in the area.

During its career, the ship was hit twice, once in the Philippines and again in the Middle East. In 1975, the USS Kansas City was struck by the USS Henry B. Wilson while it was moored at Subic Bay. Both ships received minor damage.

In 1991, the Kansas City suffered two underwater fuel tank holes, a crushed bulwark and some upper-level damage in a collision with the USS Harry W. Hill in the Gulf of Oman. The ship needed three weeks of repairs in Dubai.

The Harry W. Hill’s sonar dome was cracked, and the ship received other damage that took about three months to repair.

It received multiple citations and awards: Navy Meritorious Unit Commendations, Navy Battle “E” ribbons, Navy Expeditionary Medals for its work in Iran and the Indian Ocean; the National Defense Service Medal and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals for its service in the Persian Gulf and Operation Restore Hope in Somalia; Vietnam service medals; a Southwest Asia service medal; the Humanitarian Service Medal; the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal; and the Kuwait Liberation Medal.

The ship occasionally sailed into San Francisco Bay in the late 1970s to the 1980s, according to those who sent photographs of the ship to the Navy’s service ship archives. It was moored at Suisun Bay after its decommissioning Oct. 7, 1994.

Bill Reynolds, writing on a Navy site that lets crewmembers comment about their service, said his first Navy assignment, in 1993, was aboard the Kansas City, and that he served with “many great guys in the First Division.” He remains with the Navy, as a radiology resident in San Diego.

Most of the others described their memories of the ship as “hard work,” “good times” and “fun.”

Pedro Colon said the Kansas City, where he was assigned from 1993-95, was the last of the four ships on which he served. “Great crew, great times there,” he recalled. “We got her ready for a long sleep, and home we went.”

Another former crewmember, John Litchford, on board from 1993-94, wrote succinctly that decommission “was sad.”

The ship is among those declared as surplus by the federal government in 2009, when the Department of Transportation, through President Barack Obama, announced that the Reserve Fleet’s deteriorating ships would be removed.

Later, the Suisun Bay site would be judged to be an undocumented toxic waste site, and a lawsuit settlement required all 52 obsolete ships be towed by Sept. 30, 2017.

However, the Maritime Administration is at least two years ahead of the mandated schedule, according to another MARAD spokesperson, Kim Anderson.

Allen said the Kansas City is expected to be moved starting about 5 p.m. Wednesday, depending on weather and other conditions, and will be towed to the Mare Island Ship Yard, Vallejo. Once that company cleans the ship and prepares it for the long journey through the Panama Canal, it will be towed to All Star Metals in Brownsville, Texas.

The next ship scheduled to leave is the Mount Hood, an ammunition ship that was launched in 1968 and decommissioned in 1999. That ship is slated to leave Suisun Bay on Aug. 21.