USS Butte (AE-27)

The second USS "Butte" (AE-27) was a "Kilauea"-class ammunition ship in the United States Navy.

"Butte" was laid down July 21, 1966 by General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division at Quincy, Massachusetts and was christened and launched August 7, 1967. She was commissioned on December 14, 1968 in the Boston Naval Shipyard and assigned to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, originally homeported in Norfolk, Virginia.

During the crisis in Jordan in 1970, "Butte" was awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation for her peacekeeping role in that operation.

From December 1972 to July 1973 she operated in the Tonkin Gulf and was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal with one battle star.

Shortly after getting underway from Norfolk on 3 September 1974, "Butte" suffered a major fire in the main switchboard, disrupting all ship support electrical supply. She was towed back to the naval base for repairs which included replacing the switchboard.

In July 1978, "Butte"'s homeport was temporarily shifted to Brooklyn, New York where she underwent a major overhaul. In June 1979, her homeport then became Naval Weapons Station Earle, New Jersey. "Butte" underwent another major overhaul in Mobile, Alabama from August 1985 to May 1986 and a short Phased Maintenance refitting yard period from April 1990 to September 1990.

"Butte" was a big part of Operation Goldenrod during a 1987 Mediterranean deployment when she helped with the arrest of two Lebanese terrorists in international waters off the coast of Lebanon.

In September 1995, "Butte" began her last deployment as part of the USS America's Battlegroup. She spent October operating in the Adriatic Sea, supporting air strikes in Bosnia as part of Operation Deliberate Force. The ship also visited Cannes, France as the U.S. Navy's representative to the annual Admiral de Grasse birthday celebration. In mid November, "Butte" headed south through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. The ship delivered turkeys and other supplies for holiday meals to United States embassies in Jordan, Eritrea, Yemen and Djibouti. Upon departure from the Persian Gulf, "Butte" returned to the Adriatic, supporting the NATO Peace Implementation Forces in Operation Joint Endeavor. Between operations in the Adriatic in January and February, she spent her time completing ammunition exchanges and "rollback" among the ammunition facilities in the Mediterranean. On her way home across the Atlantic in February 1996, "Butte" and "America" conducted the last underway replenishment operation for "America" prior to her decommission. "Butte" was scheduled to return to port on 24 February, 1996, however, offsetting winds around Sandy Point, kept her from entering port until 3 days later.

She was decommissioned in 1996 and placed in service with the Military Sealift Command, where she became USNS "Butte" (T-AE-27). Like five of the six other ships of her class, she was overhauled upon the transfer: accommodations were improved, the main armament was taken out and she was outfitted for reduced civilian crewing. On May 24, 2004, she was put out of service by the MSC, stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred to the NAVSEA Inactive Ships Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia awaiting her disposal. On July 3 2006, "Butte" was sunk as a target off the east coast of the United States using Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles and a Mark 48 torpedo fired from USS "San Juan". Coincidentally, the previous USS "Butte" was also sunk deliberately in 1948 after use as a target ship in Operation Crossroads.

External links

* [http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/AE27.htm AE-27]
* [http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-ae.html Ammunition ships]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/0527.htm USS "Butte"]
* [http://navysite.de/ae/ae27.htm USS "Butte"]

The USS Butte was in Brooklyn, NY til Sept 1990. During the Brooklyn yard period the ship was outfitted to accommodate it's new female crew members. The shipyard did substandard repair work on the ship and went bankrupt while the ship was in dry dock. This caused the U.S. Navy to send the ship to the shipyards at Naval Station Philadelphia for inspection of work already done by the Brooklyn yard and to finish the repair work. The Butte then returned to NWS Earle in January of 1991.