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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Left patch contributed by Mike Smolinski, right patch by Tom Rux, YNC(SW)

Enhance (MSO 437)
ex-AM-437

Call sign:
November - Bravo - November - Mike

Aggressive Class Minesweeper: Laid down 12 July 1952 as AM-437 at Maritinolich Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, CA; Launched, 11 October 1952; Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-437, 7 February 1955; Commissioned USS Enhance (MSO-437), 16 April 1955; Decommissioned, 31 December 1991; Struck from the Navy Register 21 February 1992; Scrapped 6 March 2000 by Crowley Marine Services, Long Beach, CA.

Specifications: Displacement 775 t; Length 172'; Beam 35'; Draft 12'; Speed 14 kts; Complement 8 Officers, 70 Enlisted; Armament, as built, one single 40mm gun mount, two .50 cal machine guns, final configuration, bow gun removed, two .50 cal. machine guns remain; Propulsion, four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.

Size	Image Description	Source
108k	.	Tom Rux, YNC(SW)
81k	Photo from welcome aboard pamplet	Tom Lawson
77k	.	David Buell
108k	Entering port at Tagbilaren, Philippine Islands, Enhance is the first U.S. ship to visit there in 14 years. U.S. Navy photo from the January 1962 edition of All Hands magazine	Joe Radigan
165k	c. mid-1960s U.S. Navy photo	Robert M. Cieri
137k	1 April 1969 Pearl Harbor, HI Returning from Market Time patrol in Vietnam	J. Haskell
83k	c. 1973. Enhance on fire. Photo taken from USS Pluck (MSO 464).	Mike Prager
37k	c. November 1987 Photo taken from the deck of USS LaSalle (AGF-3). Enhance was about to come alongside to enjoy some "liberty" on board LaSalle (note the India flag hauled up on the port halyard) in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Earnest Will. The crew was allowed to go aboard LaSalle to use the ship's store, get haircuts, eat on the mess decks, swap sea stories and drink soda. It was a real treat after having been underway in the minefields for quite some time. [QMCM(SW) Mike Harrison, USN]	102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers web site
152k	Persian Gulf U.S. Navy photo by PH1 Chuck Mussi from the March 1988 edition of All Hands magazine	Joe Radigan
233k	In the Persian Gulf alongside Inflict (MSO 456) and Mount Vernon (LSD 39). U.S. Navy photo by PH1 Chuck Mussi from the January 1988 edition of All Hands magazine	Joe Radigan
102k	c. fall 1989. Esteem (MSO 438), Conquest (MSO 488) and Enhance (astern of Esteem) inport at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain towards the end of Operation Earnest Will.	Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
52k	c. Winter 1989. Enhance and Conquest (MSO 488) at Basrac Shipyard, Bahrain	Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
78k	c. November 1989. Esteem (MSO 438), Enhance and Conquest (MSO 488) in the Arabian Gulf	Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
75k	c. April 1990. Esteem, Enhance and Conquest return to Seattle aboard the Super Servant 3 from the Arabian gulf. This apparently was the first multiship lift for the Navy.	Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
63k	c. April 1990. Esteem, Enhance and Conquest return to Seattle aboard the Super Servant 3 from the Arabian gulf.	Tom Womble, LCDR, USNR
147k	c. April 1990 Super Servant delivers the Navy minesweepers Esteem, Enhance (visable) and Conquest to their Puget Sound home port after two and one half years in the Persian Gulf U.S. Navy photo from the August 1990 edition of All Hands magazine.	Joe Radigan