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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Roy Reel

Observer (MSO 461)
ex-AM-461

Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 20 July 1953 as AM-461 at Higgins Inc., New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 19 October 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-461, 7 February 1955
  • Commissioned USS Observer (MSO-461), 31 August 1955
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 September 1977
  • Sold for scrap 1 April 1979 by Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to Union Minerals and Alloys Corp. of New York, NY for $20,250.

    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 (40mm mount later removed and replaced with two .50 cal. machine guns mounted on the bridge wings)
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Observer 31k - Ronie Mooney and Dick Lewis
    102 Minesweepers Web Site
    Observer 60k . Robert Hurst
    Notable 80k c. 1968
    Observer outboard of Notable (MSO 460)
    Photo by EN3 Frank Bosler    		 Tom Lawson
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Paul Henry Barkley, USN31 August 1955 - 1956
    02LT Franklin Peter Faughman, USN1956
    03LCDR Leonard H. Nettnin, USN? - 1960
    04LCDR Robert W. Bauman, USN1960 - 1962
    05LCDR William Hugh Robinson, Jr., USN1959
    06LCDR Robert King, USN.
    07LCDR John L. Mhoon, USN1966 - 1967
    08LCDR William Clarence Wheaton, USN1967 - 1969
    09LCDR Theodore C. (Ted) Lockhart, USN - Retired as RADM1969 - 1971
    10LCDR Gary Zwerzig, USN1971 - 28 July 1972
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Observer (MSO-461)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    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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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joe Radigan
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