USS ''Valor'' (AM-472/MSO-472) was an in service with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

from 1954 to 1970. She was sold for scrap in 1971.

History

''Valor'' was laid down on 28 April 1952 at

Manitowoc, Wisconsin Manitowoc () is a city in and the county seat of Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The city is located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Manitowoc River. According to the 2020 census, Manitowoc had a population of 34,626, with ove ...

by the

Burger Boat Company The Burger Boat Company, of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, US, is a builder of custom-designed, hand-built pleasure yachts. The company also produces commercial vessels. Henry B. Burger founded the H. Burger Shipyard in 1863 in Manitowoc, WI. It produced ...

; launched on 13 May 1953; sponsored by Mrs. Walter J. Kohler; towed through the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

and down the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

to Boston, Massachusetts; and commissioned at Boston on 29 July 1954. Following preliminary trials, ''Valor'' joined Mine Division (MinDiv) 82, Mine Squadron (MinRon) 8, Mine Force, Atlantic Fleet, on 14 September. Immediately thereafter, she steamed to Key West, Florida where she conducted shakedown training through the end of the year. In February 1955 she entered the

Charleston Naval Shipyard Charleston Naval Shipyard (formerly known as the Charleston Navy Yard) was a U.S. Navy ship building and repair facility located along the west bank of the Cooper River, in North Charleston, South Carolina and part of Naval Base Charleston. H ...

for an extensive overhaul. On the 7th of that month, she was redesignated ocean minesweeper USS ''Valor'' (MSO-472).

Atlantic Fleet Mine Force

''Valor'' completed repairs and modifications in October and rejoined the Mine Force, though on a detached assignment at the Engineering Experimental Station at Annapolis, Maryland as an engineering prototype. That phase of testing ended on 23 November, and ''Valor'' returned to Charleston, but continued experimental duty until December. After that, the

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

began normal duty with the Atlantic Fleet Mine Force based at Charleston. That service, broken only by a voyage to

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

in April and May 1956, and by a six-month deployment to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

from 29 August 1957 to 12 February 1958, lasted until March 1958. On 1 March 1958 she began a 10-year association with the Navy Mine Defense Laboratory located at

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It is the more populated city of the Panama City–Lynn ...

. On 16 March she departed Charleston and, on the 29th, arrived in her new home port. In July 1959, after 15 months of duty at Panama City (punctuated by an overhaul at Charleston during the winter of 1958 and 1959) ''Valor'' took her first break from mine countermeasures development work when she was deployed to northern European waters.

Attached to the Belgian Navy

Departing Charleston on 24 July, the minesweeper arrived in Ostend, Belgium on 11 August. There, she changed operational control from the United States Navy to the Belgian Force Navale and joined the Belgian Minesweeper Division 191. On 17 August she and the other elements of the division departed Ostend for a voyage to the waters surrounding the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. The warships arrived in Congolese waters on 9 September and commenced a series of multinational minesweeping exercises involving American, Belgian, and Portuguese units. The exercises ended on 21 September, and ''Valor'' and her division mates headed back to Ostend where they arrived on 17 October. ''Valor'' continued to operate locally out of Ostend, with the Belgian minesweeper division, until 15 January 1960 when she returned to United States Navy control and headed, via

Rota, Spain The town of Rota is a Spanish municipality located in the Province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Its surface area is 84 km2 and is bordered by the towns of Chipiona, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. It is located near the city o ...

, back to the United States.

Return to the United States

The minesweeper arrived back in Panama City on 14 February 1960. Over the next eight years, ''Valor'' continued to operate out of Panama City in support of the mine countermeasures development program of the Navy Mine Defense Laboratory. However, that routine was broken frequently, on three occasions by six-month deployments to the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, but more often by overhauls, refresher training, and exercises in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. Her association with the Mine Defense Laboratory ended on 1 March 1968 when she received orders transferring her to MinDiv 44 and reassigning her to Charleston as her home base. The ship operated from that port for the remaining two years of her Navy career. During that period, ''Valor'' made one more deployment to the Mediterranean between April and August 1968.

Decommissioning and sale

Early in October 1969 the minesweeper began a pre-rehabilitation overhaul at Charleston in preparation for extensive modifications to update her equipment. She never finished those modifications, for early in 1970 a board of inspection and survey found her to be "beyond economical repair" and recommended that she be disposed of. She was decommissioned sometime in July 1970 and her name was struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

on 1 February 1971. On 30 August 1971, she was sold to Mr. Charles Gural of

Rahway, New Jersey Rahway () is a city in southern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A bedroom community of New York City, it is centrally located in the Rahway Valley region, in the New York metropolitan area. The city is southwest of Manhattan ...

for $1,700.00 for scrapping.

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valor (AM-472) Agile-class minesweepers Ships built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin 1953 ships