Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

USS Sylvania (AFS-2)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - MIke - Yankee - Uniform
NMYU
Voice Call Sign -Debark-Tango (1971-73)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Navy Unit Commendation - Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation (2)
Second Row - Navy "E" Ribbon (2) - Navy Expeditionary Medal (4-Lebanon) - National Defense Service Medal (2)
Third Row - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (1-Lebanon) - Southwest Asia Service Medal - Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kuwait)

Mars Class Combat Stores Ship:

Laid down, 18 August 1962, at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA.

Launched, 15 August 1963

Commissioned, USS Sylvania (AFS-2), 11 July 1964, CAPT. Bernard A. Lienhard USN, in command

Decommissioned, 26 May 1994

Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Philadelphia, PA.

Struck from the Naval Register, 5 January 1995

Title transferred to the Maritime Administration, 28 July 2001

Current Disposition, laid up in the Maritime Administration Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Lee Hall, VA.

Specifications:
Displacement 9,200 t.(lt) 17,500 t.(fl)
Length 581'
Beam 79'
Draft 27' (max.)
Speed 20 kts.
Complement

(USS) 486

(MSC) 49 Navy, 125 civilian merchant seamen
Aircraft two UH-46 Sea Knight helicopters
Armament

two twin 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts

two Close In Weapons Systems (CIWS)

four .50 cal. machine guns
Propulsion three 580 psi Babcock and Wilcox boilers, one De Laval Turbine, single propeller

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By
	103k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway, circa spring 1964, probably during builders trials prior to commissioning. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, November 1968.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
	278k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2) delivering stores while underway alongside USS Springfield (CLG-7)** in the Mediterranean Sea, circa 1965.	William C. Swisher
	89k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2) and USS Aldebaran (AF-10)** conducting underway replenishment exercises at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 25 September 1964, their shakedown cruises. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, January 1965.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
	647k	Series of four photos depicting *USS Sylvania* (AFS-2) during an underway replenishment operation with USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV-42 and USS Charles W. Ware (DD-865)** in the Mediterranean Sea, in 1965	William C. Swisher USN CTR3 USS Springfield1962-66
	467k
	452k
	794k
	123k	Recovered wreckage of an *HC-6* helicopter assigned to USSSylvania (AFS-2) during her Mediterranean deployment in the Spring of 1969. When the helicopter arrived over the ship to make a delivery the front rotor blade hit one of the ships antennas. The Dets second helicopter rescued the crew from the water. The crew had only cuts, and bruises. A Navy Salvage ship later recovered the helicopter from the ocean and this was what was left. If anyone recalls the crew names of that morning please contact Barry Buchanan at bbrandd@roadrunner.com.	Barry Buchanan HC-6
	148k		Barry Buchanan HC-6
	114k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, April 1970.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
	141k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** in a Mediterranean moor, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, August 1971.	Stanley C. Svec
	73k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway in the Mediterranean Sea, May 1976.	© Richard Leonhardt
	85k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway in the Mediterranean Sea, August 1976	© Richard Leonhardt
	56k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** in port, Halifax, Nova Scotia, date unknown.	Photo by Peter Wilson
	85k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2) in port. Barcelona, Spain, 1 March 1977. Note, as of the date of this photo, Sylvania** still retained her original four twin 3"/50 gun mounts, with Mk.56 directors, while her SPS-40 air search radar had been removed.	Photo by Fabio Peña
	72k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2) in port. Barcelona, Spain, 11 March 1977. USS Rigel (T-AF 58)** is alongside, her masts and superstructure (note the MSC crest on her funnel) are partly visible.	Photo by Fabio Peña
	92k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway, date and location unknown.	Richard Leonhardt
	128k	(from right to left) *USS Sylvania* (AFS-2), USS Concord (AFS-5) and USS San Diego (AFS-6)** underway, date and location unknown.	Richard Miller BMCS USNR Ret.
	85k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** preparing to get underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, October 1986.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
	71k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, October 1986.	Tom Langford
	67k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2)** underway during a VERTREP, date and location unknown.	Robert Hurst
	1088k	An aerial view of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard looking west/northwest, 30 October 1995. The shipyard closed, 30 September 1995, but the Navy Intermediate Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF) continues to store decommissioned ships. Vessels visible , left to right: the battleships *USS Iowa* (BB-61), and USS Wisconsin (BB-64) at the DD wharf; USS Sylvania (AFS-2), USS Milwaukee (AOR-2) and USS Savannah (AOR-4) at pier 5; the aircraft carriers USS Forrestal (CV-59) and USS Saratoga (CV-60); at pier 4; the amphibious assault ships USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) and USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) at pier 2. In the back pool is the heavy cruiser USS Des Moines (CA-134)** and numerous destroyers and frigates.DOD photo # DN-SC-97-00422 PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (30 October 1995), a US Navy photo by Robert J. Sitar, now in the collections of Defense Imagery.mil.	Robert M. Cieri
	76k	*USS Sylvania* (AFS-2), USS Milwaukee (AOR-2), USS Savannah (AOR-4), and USS Kalamazoo (AOR-6)** moored together at Wharf L, Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, in November 1999. Photo from "Warship Boneyards" by Kit and Carolyn Bonner (Author's Collection).	Robert Hurst
MARAD James River Group Reserve Fleet
	51k	From left to right; *SS Cape Mendocino* (AKR-5064) ex USS Yellowstone (AD-41) and ex USS Sylvania (AFS-2)**, rafted together in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Lee Hall, VA., 8 April 2009	Photo by Mike Hibbard
	103k		Photo by Mike Hibbard