Wheeling II (T-AGM-8)
A city on the Ohio border of West Virginia's panhandle. Wheeling is the seat of government for Ohio County.
II
The second Wheeling was laid down on 10 April 1945 as Seton Hall Victory by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corp. under a Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 686); launched on 22 May 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Ross Mclntyre; and delivered to the Maritime Commission on 21 June 1945. From July 1945 to September 1957, Seton Hall Victory was operated for the Maritime Commission by a succession of civilian contractors, beginning with the Olympic Steamship Line and ending with Pope & Talbot, Inc. In September 1957, she was placed out of service and was berthed in Virginia's James River with the National Defense Reserve Fleet.
Late in 1962, she was turned over to the Navy Department for conversion to a range instrumentation ship. On 19 March 1963, she was renamed Wheeling and designated AGM-8. On 28 May 1964, Wheeling was assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service to be operated by a civil service crew in support of operations on the Navy's Pacific Missile Range. She has spent the intervening years as a mobile tracking station recording data on missiles and satellites that were out of range of land-based stations. As of 1 April 1978, Wheeling continued in active service on the Pacific coast.
