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USS Grapple (ARS-53) underway, date and location unknown.
US Navy photo |
USS Grapple web site |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) tows the ocean minesweepers USS Inflict (MSO-456), USS Fearless (MSO-442) and USS Illusive (MSO-448) to the Persian Gulf to support US Navy escort operations. The ships departed Little Creek, VA., on 6 September 1987. Traveling via the Suez Canal and arriving in the Gulf of Oman on 2 November 1987. At the time, the 9,000-nautical-mile (17,000 km) trip was the longest distance three ships were towed by one.
Department of Defense photo # DN-ST-88-01143 by PH2 C. Duvall. |
Robert Hurst |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) conducts deep drone and diving operations at the crash site of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, 14 September 1998. US and Canadian forces worked together to retrieve victims and aircraft debris from the crash site. Grapple is the U.S. Navy's newest rescue and salvage vessel and can deploy Mobile Underwater Debris Survey System technology, Synthetic Aperture Sonar, and the Laser Electro-Optics Identification System to provide detailed images of the ocean floor.
US Navy photo # 980914-N-8492C-001, by PH1 Todd P. Cichonowicz USN. |
Bill Gonyo |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) moored pierside, date and location unknown.
US Navy photo. |
Richard Miller BMCS USNR Ret |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) conducts underwater survey and recovery work using DRSV Drone 7200 at the 31 October 1999 crash site of Egypt Air Flight 990 off the coast of New England.
US Navy photo |
Jack Treutle |
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Lee Wolford inspects DRSV Drone 7200 aboard USS Grapple (ARS-53), during salvage and recovery operations to find
wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767-366R, which had crashed into the Atlantic about 60 miles south of Nantucket Island, on 31 October 1999.
US Navy photo from "Mud, Muscle, and Miracles" by Captain Charles A. Bartholomew, USN and Commander William I. Milwee, Jr., USN (Ret.) |
Robert Hurst |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) returns to pier 2 at Naval Station Newport in Newport, R.I., Monday, 15 November 1999, after successfully recovering the cockpit voice recorder from the crash and recovery site of EgyptAir Flight 990. Numerous U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and other governmental agencies have been involved in the effort of recovering the flight data and cockpit voice recorders to assist the NTSB in determining the cause of the 31 October crash.
US Navy photo # 991115-N-6019M-001 by PH2 Brian McFadden. |
Bill Gonyo |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) moored pierside, Sete, France 15 October 1992. |
Photo by Guy Schaeffer, Collection of Paolo Marsan |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) with USS Osprey (MHC-51) in tow, 30 September 1998, place unknown.
US Navy photo # 970930-N-0000U-018 |
Bill Gonyo |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) departing Valletta Port, Malta, 24 August 2001. |
Photo by Anthony Vella of Senglea, Malta |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) is in a four point moor above the historical wreck of the Civil War ironclad ex-
USS Monitor, 17 miles off Cape Hatteras, N.C., 30 April 2001. Following the famous battle in Hampton Roads with ex-CSS Virginia (Merrimack) on 9 March 1862, Monitor performed blockade
duty. On her way to North Carolina, the ironclad foundered off Cape Hatteras shortly after midnight on 31 December 1862.
US Navy photo # 010430-N-9407M-024 by PH2 Isaac Merriman. |
Bill Gonyo |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) entering port at Little Creek Amphibious Base, Norfolk, VA, 3 August 2002, after conducting local ops that day just to seaward of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. |
David Johnston QM3(SS) USNR |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) entering port at Little Creek Amphibious Base, Norfolk, VA, 3 August 2002, after conducting local ops that day just to seaward of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. |
David Johnston QM3(SS) USNR |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) moored pierside at NAB Little Creek, 8 September 2005.
US Navy photo # 050908-N-0535P-001. |
Navy Newsstand |
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USS Grapple (ARS-53) decommissioning and simultaneously placed in service by MSC as USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53), 13 July 2006, at NAB Little Creek.
US Navy photo |
MSC web site |
USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53)
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) moored pierside Portsmouth, N.H., date unknown.. |
Curtis A. Smith, Captain Civ. |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) date and location unknown. |
Curtis A. Smith, Captain Civ. |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) tows de-fueled, decommissioned nuclear submarine ex-USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-709) in the Atlantic Ocean in April 2008 to the Panama Canal on the first leg of a 10,000-mile tow from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash. The ships departed Portsmouth April 8 and ex-Rickover arrived in Bremerton May 30. The submarine was towed through the Pacific by fleet ocean tug USNS Sioux (T-ATF-171). While in Bremerton, ex-Rickover will go through a dismantling program overseen by the US Navy.
US Navy photo. |
Lee Wahler |
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880k |
USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) escorting the decommissioned nuclear-powered attack submarine ex-USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-709) through the Panama Canal in April 2008 after towing the submarine 3,600 miles from Kittery, ME. Photo courtesy of USNS Grapple. |
Robert Hurst |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) towing ex-USS Conolly (DD-979) to sea in April 2009 to be expended as a target during a sinkex as part of UNITAS Gold 2009. Ex-Conolly was sunk during the exercise on 29 April 2009. |
Curtis A. Smith, Captain Civ. |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) underway, date and location unknown.
US Navy (MSC) photo. |
Robert Hurst |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) and USNS Grasp (T-ARS-51) moored pierside at Naples, Italy, circa July 2011 |
Photo by Timothy R. Lockwood, Master, USNS Grapple |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) moored pierside at Chaguaramas Coast Guard Base in Trinidad and Tobago. Grapple along with Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU-2), Company 2-1, is participating in Navy Dive Southern Partnership Station 2012, a multinational partnership engagement designed to increase interoperability and partner nation capacity through diving operations.
US Navy photo # 120320-N-BJ279-029 CHAGUARAMAS COAST GUARD BASE, Trinidad and Tobago (March 20, 2012) by MC2 Kathleen A. Gorby |
Lee Wahler |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) moored pierside, 29 June 2012, location unknown.
Photographer and contributor unknown. Image courtesy of tugster |
Robert Hurst |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) at anchor off Calvi, Corsica, 21 October 2012, during a research diving operation to find a ditched World War 11 B-17 Flying Fortress.
Photos B.Guidi |
Robert Hurst |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) departs Hampton Roads, 25 March 2014, with the de-activated
USNS Observation Island (T-AGM-23) in tow. Grapple will deliver Observation Island to the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Beaumont, TX. |
Lee Wahler |
160229-N-SF508-128 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 29, 2016) |
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USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) departs Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story as part of a five-month deployment to the
U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations. Aboard Grapple is a detachment from
Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, Company 2-1.
US Navy photo #'s 160229-N-SF508-128 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 29, 2016) and 160229-N-SF508-174 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 29, 2016) by MC2 Charles Oki |
Lee Wahler |
160229-N-SF508-174 VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Feb. 29, 2016) |
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