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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

Contributed by Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret

USNS Grapple (T- ARS-53)
ex
USS Grapple (ARS-53) (1986 - 2006)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Quebec - Sierra - India NQSI

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Navy Unit Commendation - Navy Battle "E" Ribbon (7) - Matopma; Defense Service Medal
Bpttom Row - Southwest Asia Service Medal - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal - Armed Forces Service Medal

Safeguard Class Rescue and Salvage Ship:

Laid down, 28 April 1984, at Peterson Builders, Sturgeon Bay, WI.

Launched, 8 December 1984

Commissioned USS Grapple (ARS-53), 15 November 1986

Grapple is assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Service Force and is homeported at Little Creek, VA.

Decommissioned and transferred to the Military Sealift Command (MSC) at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, 13 July 2006

Placed in service as USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53), 13 July 2006

Specifications:
Displacement 2,633 t.(lt) 3,282 t.(fl)
Length 255'
Beam 51'
Draft 17' (max.)
Speed 14 kts.
Complement 6 Officers, 94 Enlisted
Armament

two MK-38 25mm chain guns

two .50 cal machine guns
Propulsion four Caterpillar 399 diesel engines, two shafts, 4,200hp

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By
	23k	*USS Grapple* (ARS-53)** underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo	USS Grapple web site
	107k	*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
	90k	*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 Navy photo	Edward Cleary
	197k	*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
	82k	*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
	80k	*USS Grapple* (ARS-53)** moored pierside, Sete, France 15 October 1992.	Photo by Guy Schaeffer, Collection of Paolo Marsan
	87k	*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
	85k	*USS Grapple* (ARS-53)** departing Valletta Port, Malta, 24 August 2001.	Photo by Anthony Vella of Senglea, Malta
	67k	*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
	74k	*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
	76k	*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
	80k	*USS Grapple* (ARS-53)** moored pierside at NAB Little Creek, 8 September 2005. US Navy photo # 050908-N-0535P-001.	Navy Newsstand
	281k	*USS Grapple* (ARS-53) decommissioning and simaltaneous acceptence by MSC for service as USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53)**, 13 July 2006, at NAB Little Creek. US Navy photo	MSC web site
USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53)
	65k	*USNS Grapple* (T-ARS-53)** moored pierside Portsmouth, N.H., date unknown..	Curtis A. Smith, Captain Civ.
	59k	*USNS Grapple* (T-ARS-53)** date and location unknown.	Curtis A. Smith, Captain Civ.
	2937k	*USNS Grapple* (T-ARS-53) tows de-fueled, decommissioned nuclear submarine ex-USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN-) 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