Nueces (APB-40)
1945-1975
A county in the southern part of the state of Texas.
(APB-40: displacement 2,176; length 328'0"; beam 50'0"; draft 11'2"; speed 10 knots; complement 141; armament 8 40 millimeter, 6 20 millimeter; class Benewah)
Nueces (APB-40) was laid down at Boston Naval Shipyard, Boston, Mass. 2 January 1945; launched 6 May 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy E. Dunnell; and commissioned 30 November 1945, Lt. Leonard I. Berkowitz in command.
Nueces provided quarters for deactivation crews at Green Cove Springs, Fla. Her status changed March 1946 to inactive in commission but her service to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet continued until 1947 when she was assigned to the 6th Naval District. APB-40 decommissioned 30 September 1955 and at the end of the decade joined the mothballed ships at Orange, Tex.
During the escalating war in Vietnam, operations to deny the Communist forces use of the waterways in the South brought her reactivation. Converted to provide a mobile operating base for river patrol squadrons or as a command ship in support of army infantry battalions, Nueces recommissioned 3 May 1968. Before the end of the year she crossed the Pacific Ocean and was positioned at Vung Tau near the coastal access to Saigon. Into 1970 this barrack type ship continues to support the defense of freedom in the Far East.
