Guadalupe II (T-AO-200)
1992–
The second U.S. Navy ship named for a river that runs from Kerr County, Texas to San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico.
II
(T-AO-200: displacement 9,500; length 677'; beam 97'; draft 35'; speed 20 knots; complement 103; armament 1 .50-caliber machine gun, 2 20 millimeter Phalanx close in weapon systems (CIWS); class Henry J. Kaiser)
The second Guadalupe (T-AO-200) was laid down on 9 July 1990 at New Orleans, La., by Avondale Shipyard, Inc.; launched on 5 October 1991; and sponsored by Mrs. Diana Cumming Kendrick Untermeyer, wife of Director of Presidential Personnel Chase Untermeyer, Assistant to President George W. H. Bush. Guadalupe entered non-commissioned U.S. Navy service under the control of the Military Sealift Command (MSC) with a primarily civilian crew on 25 September 1992. She serves in the United States Pacific Fleet.
On 22 June 2004, Guadalupe rescued 13 fishermen from burning motor vessel Hsin Chin Chanz in the Pacific Ocean about 900 miles northeast of Guam. The distressed mariners, who had been adrift for five days with little food or water were saved from the approximately 65-foot Taiwanese-flagged vessel, and brought on board Guadalupe, where the oiler’s medical people treated two of the sailors for burns. The following morning, Hsin Chin Chanz’s master and several of his crew returned to the burned-out vessel, where they marked her as abandoned and scuttled her.
Pilots and flight crews from the U.S. Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade carried out deck landing qualifications on board Guadalupe, guided missile destroyers Chafee (DDG-90) and Hopper (DDG-70), and amphibious assault ship Tarawa (LHA-1) in the Hawaiian operating area (15-19 July 2013). More than 25 pilots from the 2nd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment; 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment; and the 3rd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment qualified during the training that certified them to operate from the decks of naval vessels at sea.
Detailed history under construction.
Paul J. Marcello
2 December 2015
