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USNS Mars (T-AFS 1)

- formerly AFS 1 -
- Military Sealift Command -
- decommissioned -
- sunk as a target -


USNS MARS was the lead ship of the MARS - class and the Navy's first Combat Stores Ship. On February 1, 1993, MARS became the second ship in her class to be transferred to the Military Sealift Command. Finally decommissioned in 1998, MARS spent the following years berthed at the NAVSEA Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance Office, Pearl Harbor, HI., and was sunk as a target during RIMPAC 2006 on July 15, 2006.

General Characteristics:Awarded: May 9, 1961
Keel laid: May 5, 1962
Launched: June 15, 1963
Commissioned: December 21, 1963
Decommissioned: February 1, 1993
MSC "in Service": February 1, 1993
MSC decommissioned: February 19, 1998
Builder: National Steel and Shipbuilding, San Diego, Ca.
Propulsion system: 3 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 580 psi (40.8 kg/cm2); 8250F (4400C); 1 De Laval turbine
Propellers: one
Length: 581 feet (177 meters)
Beam: 79 feet (24.1 meters)
Draft: 25 feet (7.6 meters)
Displacement: approx. 17,300 tons full load
Speed: 20 knots
Aircraft: two CH-46 helicopters
Armament: none in peacetime
Capacity: 7,300 tons of cargo
Crew: 49 Navy personnel, 125 civilian crew


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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS MARS. It is no official listing but contains the names of sailors who submitted their information.

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Accidents aboard USNS / USS MARS:

DateWhereEvents
May 27, 1966Tokyo Bay, Japan
USS MARS is slightly damaged in a collision with the merchant ship SEIWA MARU in dense fog at the entrance to Tokyo Bay.
May 14, 1979off Point Loma, Ca.
USS COOK (FF 1083) and USS MARS collide off Point Loma near San Diego, Ca., injuring seven.


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USNS / USS MARS Patch Gallery:

Operation Desert Storm 1991


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