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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Al Grazevich


Left patch courtesy of Paul Haaze, center patch Wolfgang Hechler and right patch Mike Smolinski

Loyalty (MSO 457)



Call sign:
November - Juliet - Uniform - Romeo

ex-AM-457

Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 9 November 1951 at Wilmington Boat Works, Inc., Wilmington, CA
  • Launched 22 November 1953
  • Commissioned USS Loyalty (AM-457), 11 June 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-457, 7 February 1955
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1972
  • Sold for scrap 15 January 1974 by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Robert D. Perry of Vallejo, CA for $32,223.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 630 t.(lt), 755 t.(fl)
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 10'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 80
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal machine guns. Final configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remain
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines (both inboard engines replaced by Curtis-Wright [Packard] diesel engines), two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Loyalty 90k Photo from "Jane's Fighting Ships" Floyd Farrar
    Loyalty 68k USS Loyalty
    Web Site
    Robert Gladwin
    Loyalty 55k Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Loyalty 427k Inspecting a junk for contraband arms or supplies during Operation Market Time off the coast of South Vietnam
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Robert Hurst
    Loyalty 201k This Vietnamese boat used a clever sign to help facilitate Market Time searches. Sailors from USS Loyalty (MSO 457), an oceangoing minesweeper, perform the search of the vessel assisted by a Vietnamese naval liaison, who is wearing a beret with Junk Force insignia. MSOs such as Loyalty played a crucial role in Operation Market Time, especially early in
    the war
    U.S. Navy photo K-31206    		 Delta Squad
    Fortify 115k Pearl Harbor, HI
    Inflict (MSO 456), Loyalty and Fortify (MSO 446)    		 Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Loyalty 94k c. 1962. Off Long Beach, CA.
    Photo by George Arthur    		 Floyd Farrar
    Engage 316k 13 December 1966
    Mine Division 71 Welcome Home pamphlet    		 Tom Nutt
    Engage 173k
    Engage 169k
    Engage 181k
    Loyalty 130k c. 1969-70
    Off the coast of South Vietnam
    Loyalty approaching Niagara Falls (AFS-3) for replenishment
    Photo by William P. Jones, Medical Officer, USS Niagara Falls    		 William P. Jones
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Erben Matthew Riordan, USN11 June 1954 - 1955
    02LT Carl William Plath, Jr., USN1955 - 21 July 1956
    03LT/LCDR William Bruce Althoff, USN21 July 1956 - 1958
    04LCDR Robert Warren Strickler, USN1958 - 1960
    05LCDR Alan Franklin Barnes, USN - USNA Class of 19471960 - 16 March 1962
    06LCDR James Dewey Taylor, Jr., USN16 March 1962 - 27 June 1963
    07LCDR Peter Hill Orvis, USN27 June 1963 - 30 July 1965
    08LCDR Thomas Scott Witherow, USN30 July 1965 - 1967
    09LCDR Raymond Patrick Connell, USN7 March 1968 - 17 December 1969
    10LT/LCDR Larry Lee Emarine, USN17 December 1969 - 1971
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Loyalty (MSO-457)
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Ocean Minesweeper (MSO) Photo Index
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