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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive
Patches contributed by Mike Smolinski

USS Valcour (AGF-1)
ex
 USS Valcour (AVP-55) (1946 - 1965)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Charlie - Quebec - Juliet
 NCQJ
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from left to right
Navy Expeditionary Medal - National Defense Service Medal
Barnegat Class Small Seaplane Tender:
  • Laid down, 21 December 1942, at Lake Washington Shipyards, Houghton, WA.
  • Launched, 5 June 1943
  • Completed at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, WA.
  • Commissioned, USS Valcour (AVP-55), 5 July 1946, CDR. Barnet T. Talbott in command
  • Reclassified Miscellaneous Command Flagship, (AGF-1), 15 December 1965
  • Decommissioned and struck 17 June 1973
  • Towed to Solomons Island, MD. for use as a test-bed for the EMPRESS (Electromagnetic Pulse Radiation Environment Simulation for Ships) facility by the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL), White Oak, MD;
  • Final Disposition, sold for scrapping in May 1977
    Specifications:
    Displacement 1,766 t.(lt) 2,750 t.(fl)
    Length 311' 8"
    Beam 41' 1"
    Draft 13' 6"
    Speed 18.6 kts.
    Complement 215
    Armament
    one single 5"/38 dual purpose gun mount
    one quad 40mm AA gun mount
    two dual 40mm AA gun mounts
    four dual 20mm AA gun mounts
    Propulsion diesel, two shafts, 6,000hp
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed By /
    Source
    USS Valcour (AVP-55)
    Timbalier 103k USS Valcour (AVP-55) outboard of USS Timbalier (AVP-54) at pier 6-A, Bremerton Navy Yard, 10 January 1945. The two AVPs were built at Lake Washington Shipyards, Houghton, WA. and towed to the Navy Yard for completion. Timbalierwas eventually towed back to the Lake Washington Shipyards and completed there while Valcour was completed at Bremerton Navy Yard. The photo is taken from the flight deck of USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14). That ship was having 20mm galleries relocated from the aft end of the flight deck to the sides.
    Bremerton Navy Yard photo # 96-45    		 Tracy White
    Timbalier 100k Aerial view of USS Timbalier (AVP-54) nearest pier 6-A and inboard of USS Valcour (AVP-55) at Bremerton Navy Yard, 10 January 1945. The two AVPs were built at Lake Washington Shipyards, Houghton, WA. and towed to the Navy Yard for completion. Timbalier was eventually towed back to the Lake Washington Shipyards and completed there.
    Bremerton Navy Yard photo # 97-45    		 Tracy White
    Valcour 58k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway in Puget Sound, 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.
    US National Archives photo # 19-N-94952, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 66k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway in Puget Sound, 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.
    US National Archives photo # 19-N-94953, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 65k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway in Puget Sound, 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.
    US National Archives photo # 19-N-94951, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 68k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway in Puget Sound, 3 July 1946, two days before commissioning.
    US National Archives photo # 19-N-94949, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 59k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway in the early 1950s. The ship lacks her 5"/38 gun, which was removed in 1951, but still displays a World War II-style small hull number. The quadruple 40mm gun mount on her fantail was probably added in a 1948 yard period.
    US Navy photo # NH 97986, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 250k USS Valcour (AVP-55) arrives in the Red Sea/Persian Gulf area to relieve USS Duxbury Bay (AVP-38) as flagship for Commander Middle East Forces in the spring of 1953. Carl Musselman
    Valcour 270k USS Valcour (AVP-55) arrives in the Red Sea/Persian Gulf area to relieve USS Duxbury Bay (AVP-38) as flagship for Commander Middle East Forces in the spring of 1953. Carl Musselman
    Valcour 292k Banner flown from USS Duxbury Bay (AVP-38) welcoming USS Valcour to the Red Sea/Persian Gulf area to assume flagship duties for Commander Middle East Forces in the spring of 1953. Carl Musselman
    Valcour 54k USS Valcour (AVP-55) illuminated at night, 17 April 1954, probably in a Middle East port. Her hull number is larger than it was earlier in the 1950s.
    US Navy photo # NH 97987, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 69k USS Valcour (AVP-55) viewed from a taxiing seaplane in an undated photograph probably taken no later than 1960. An aviation insignia was added in the mid- or late-1950s adjacent to her hull number. Her main battery consists of two quadruple 40mm mounts, one forward and one aft, and two twin 40mm mounts amidships.
    US Navy photo # NH 97988, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Valcour 84k USS Valcour (AVP-55) at anchor before departing her base at Little Creek, VA. for her fourteenth Middle East deployment in mid-1963. She now has a tripod foremast with a more modern air search radar, new ECM antennas around the stack, and a large communication antenna and a new deckhouse in place of her after 40mm gun mount, all probably fitted in an overhaul around 1960. She retains an aviation insignia adjacent her hull number.
    US Navy photo # NH 97989 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 65k USS Valcour (AVP-55) at anchor, date and location unknown. Don Weimer USS Valcour
    Valcour 82k USS Valcour (AVP-55) conducting a highline transfer with USS Boston (CAG-1). 10 May 1964. She no longer displays an aviation insignia adjacent to her hull number, probably because of her administrative transfer from an aviation to a cruiser-destroyer type commander in January 1964.
    US Navy photo # NH 97990 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 105k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway, circa 1964-1965.
    US Navy photo # NH 69837 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 77k USS Valcour (AVP-55) underway in a photograph released in September 1965.
    US Navy photo # NH 97991 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 54k USS Valcour (AVP-55) painted white for Middle East service at Norfolk in August 1964. In background is USS Gyatt (DD-712) © Richard Leonhardt
    USS Valcour (AGF-1)
    Valcour 57k USS Valcour (AGF-1) underway, date and location unknown. Hazegray and Underway
    Valcour 90k USS Valcour (AGF-1) departing Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 18 April 1966 for her new home port of Bahrain. This, her sixteenth Middle East deployment, lasted until she returned to Norfolk in 1972 to decommission.
    US Navy photo # NH 97992 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 83k USS Valcour (AGF-1) underway with awnings spread after 1965.
    US Navy photo # NH 97999 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 108k USS Valcour (AGF-1) underway in July 1970.
    US Navy photo # NH 1144277 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 92k USS Valcour (AGF-1) in her final configuration, in a photograph released in November 1972.
    US Navy photo # NH 98000 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 Robert Hurst
    Valcour 90k Ex-USS Valcour (AGF-1) moored at the Solomons Branch of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory after being towed there from Norfolk on 20 March 1973. The ex-Valcour was used to study the effects of electro-magnetic pulses on her electronic equipment at the EMPRESS facility at Point Patience. The poles of this facility, which transmitted EMP signals to the ship, are visible in the background.
    US Navy photo # NH 98001 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 Robert Hurst
    View the USS Valcour (AVP-55 / AGF-1)
    DANFS history entry located at the US Naval Historical Center
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S.Navy Memorial Foundation
    Fleet Reserve Association
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 6 June 2008