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Patch photo contributed by Paul M. Dunn		Picture provided by Russ (Pete) Clark, LTJG, 1958

USS VEGA 1974 Aft 3"50 guns removed Helo Deck added - Photo provided by Stanford Ladner

USS VEGA AF59

Rigel Class Stores Ship: Laid down, 7 June 1954, as a Maritime Administration type (R3-S-4A) hull, under Maritime Administration contract (MA 37) at Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., Pascagoula, MS.; Launched, 28 April 1955; Commissioned USS Vega (AF-59), 10 November 1955; Decommissioned, 29 April 1977, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA.; Struck from the Naval Register, 29 April 1977; Returned to MARAD, disposed of by MARAD sale, 1 December 1977.

Vega earned 10 battle stars for her service to units of the 7th Fleet during the Vietnam War.

Specifications: Displacement 15,150 t(fl).; Length 502'; Beam 72'; Draft 29'; Speed 21kts; Armament four dual mount 3"/50 gun mounts; Propulsion: two boilers, oil fired with G.E reduction gear, 600psi cross compound steam turbine, single propeller; Complement 350.

Note:  As to the demise of the Vega, she was sold to a fish processing company and towed to Seattle WA.  I think it was in  1983 or 84 that a sailor, whom I did business with, asked me what ship I was on.  When I said the Vega he told me that it was in Tacoma WA.
     I took my son with me after work and went to see it.  I drove up to the pier and in the dark I could see its silhouette.   I couldn't miss it, was my home for 3 1/2 years!   Next day  I went to see it.  What a mess!
     They had covered all the forward deck.  The ship was stripped.  They had put a door in the side of it.  I was allowed to go aboard.  I went over to where I had slept and just about cried to see such a grand ship in this shape.  I went all over the ship with my son.  We went into the galley.  That hadn't changed, I saw the old stove that I had cooked on. 
     The Vega was going to be scrapped so it is probably somebody's car now.    Richard Conhiser, CS3, 1961 -64

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