USS Aggressive

USS Aggressive (MSO-422) (originally designated AM-422) was an Agile-class minesweeper. She is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named Aggressive. This was later regarded as a mistake by President John F. Kennedy who stated that the ships should only be employed for "Peace keeping".

USS Aggressive (MSO-422)
History
United States
Name	USS Aggressive
Builder	Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, Connecticut
Laid down	25 May 1951
Launched	4 October 1952
Commissioned	25 November 1953, as AM-422
Decommissioned	2 July 1971
Reclassified	MSO-422 (Ocean Minesweeper), 7 February 1955
Stricken	28 February 1975
Homeport	Charleston, South Carolina
Fate	Sold for scrapping, May 1980
General characteristics
Class and type	Aggressive-class minesweeper
Displacement	853 long tons (867 t) full load
Length	172 ft (52 m)
Beam	35 ft (11 m)
Draft	10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion	4 × aluminum block, model 1D1700, Packard diesels, 2,400 shp (1,790 kW) 2 × shafts 2 × controllable pitch propellers
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	Active: 7 officers, 70 enlisted Naval Reserve Force: 5 officers, 52 enlisted plus 25 reserve
Sensors and processing systems	AN/SQQ-14 mine countermeasures sonar
Armament	1 × twin 20 mm gun mount 2 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) twin machine guns

She was built by Luders Marine Construction Co. of Stamford, Connecticut, sponsored by Mrs. Stephen M. Archer, and commissioned at Brooklyn, New York, in the New York Naval Shipyard.

Service history

For most of 1954, Aggressive remained in the shipyard for alteration. In February 1955, her designation was changed to MSO-422. Her first deployment, immediately afterwards, had her take part in a mine warfare exercise off the south-east coast of the United States. She took part in the landing of American forces during the Lebanon crisis of 1958.

The ship was home ported at Charleston for her whole naval career. She also provided services to the Naval Mine Warfare School, Charleston; Naval Mine Defense Laboratory, Panama City, Florida; Mine Evaluation Detachment, Key West, Florida; and the Naval Ordnance Laboratory Test Facility, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Aggressive also took part in several fleet exercises and operations along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean.

On 1 October 1970, preparations to deactivate the ship were begun, and she was decommissioned on 2 July 1971. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 February 1975, and she was sold to R. E. Williams in May 1980.

References

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Aggressive (AM/MSO-422) at NavSource Naval History
• hazegray.org: USS Aggressive (AM/MSO-422)