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

Rival (MSO 468)
ex-AM-468



Call sign:
November - Mike - Whiskey - Hotel
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 1 February 1952 by the Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, CT
  • Launched 1 February 1952
  • Commissioned USS Rival (AM-468), 3 September 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-468, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 15 May 1970
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 February 1971
  • Sold for scrap in August 1971 to Charles Gural of Rahway, NJ for $2,700.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: As built, one 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns, 40mm mount later replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesels, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Rival (MSO 468)
    Rival 375k c. 1954
    National Archives photo ARC Idntifier 6933264 from the Navy Bureau of Ships collection    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Rival (MSO 468)
    Rival 95k Richard Miller, BMCS, USNR, Ret.
    Rival 115k Bob Hawkins
    Crew member July 1959 to June 1961
    Ability, Notable, Rival 115k c. 1966
    Newport, RI
    Rival with Ability (MSO-519) inboard and Notable (MSO-460) outboard    		 © Richard Leonhardt
    Rival 158k c. 1966
    During her search for a nuclear bomb lost off Palomares, Spain    		 David Wright
    Rival 51k c. 1968
    Refueling from Chewauken (AOG 50)
    Rival 170k c. December 1968
    Refueling in mid-Atlantic from Traverse County (LST 1160)    		 © Jerry Search
    Commanding Officers
    01LT William Markey Georgen, USN - USNA Class of 19473 September 1954
    02LCDR William Benson Hooffstetter, USN1961
    03LT Buford Frederick Howell, USN - USNA Class of 19661970
    ??LCDR Joe Lee, USN
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Rival (MSO-468)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
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