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USNS Pililaau (T-AKR 304)

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USNS PILILAAU is the fifth BOB HOPE - class large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship (LMSR) and the first ship in the Navy named after Army Private First Class Herbert K. Pililaau.

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Crew List:

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

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About the Ship's Name:

USNS PILILAAU is named in honor of Army Private First Class Herbert K. Pililaau, born October 10, 1928 in Waianae, Oahu, Hi., who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions near Pia-ri, Korea, on September 17, 1951.

Citation:

Pfc. Pililaau, a member of Company C, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. The enemy sent wave after wave of fanatical troops against his platoon which held a key terrain feature on "Heartbreak Ridge." Valiantly defending its position, the unit repulsed each attack until ammunition became practically exhausted and it was ordered to withdraw to a new position. Voluntarily remaining behind to cover the withdrawal, Pfc. Pililaau fired his automatic weapon into the ranks of the assailants, threw all his grenades and, with ammunition exhausted, closed with the foe in hand-to-hand combat, courageously fighting with his trench knife and bare fists until finally overcome and mortally wounded. When the position was subsequently retaken, more than 40 enemy dead were counted in the area he had so valiantly defended. His heroic devotion to duty, indomitable fighting spirit, and gallant self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit upon himself, the infantry, and the U.S. Army.

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USNS PILILAAU History:

PILILAAU (T-AKR 304) was built as a BOB HOPE-class large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off (LMSR) sealift ship - part of the U.S. government-owned surge and prepositioning capability meant to move heavy Army and Marine Corps equipment rapidly by sea, including in scenarios where port infrastructure is limited or damaged. The contract award for the ship is reported as November 26, 1996, and construction followed at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana: PILILAAU was laid down on June 29, 1998, launched on January 29, 2000, delivered on May 17, 2001, and entered Military Sealift Command service on July 24, 2001. From the outset, the ship's employment sat squarely in the post-Cold War "strategic mobility" framework that shaped U.S. military logistics after the 1990-1991 Gulf War - an era in which the United States increasingly relied on sealift and afloat prepositioning to sustain expeditionary operations and to reassure allies through visible, scalable movement capacity.

On September 28, 2005 - during the intense Gulf Coast disaster-relief period that followed Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) and then Hurricane Rita (September 2005) - PILILAAU was documented at New Orleans, Louisiana, loading U.S. Army High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) as Department of Defense forces mobilized under Joint Task Force Rita in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response efforts. On February 13, 2006, PILILAAU was documented at Naval Station Rota, Spain, where a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter was unloaded from the ship for onward movement by U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III - an example of how sealift, staging bases in Europe, and strategic airlift were combined to reposition equipment efficiently during the mid-2000s operational tempo.

In 2008, PILILAAU took a clearly recorded role in Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (JLOTS) 2008, Exercise Pacific Strike, a joint training event conducted from June 1, 2008, through August 1, 2008, that was designed both to sharpen ship-to-shore sustainment skills and to prepare deploying units for real-world missions. The exercise is documented as beginning when PILILAAU docked in Hawaii on July 12, 2008. Imagery and reporting place the ship off Oahu on that date and then off Camp Pendleton, California, later in the month while the joint force practiced moving vehicles and containers from ship to shore using temporary causeway and pier systems - precisely the kind of capability emphasized for wartime contingencies as well as humanitarian crises where ports may be unusable.

After 2008, publicly released, ship-specific movement and activity details become intermittent rather than continuous, so the next verified snapshots come from later Pacific-focused operations and exercises. On October 21, 2016, PILILAAU arrived in Port Vila, Vanuatu, as part of Project KoA Moana 16-4, delivering humanitarian assistance and disaster relief cargo and conducting community support activities - an example of U.S. engagement in Oceania that blends practical disaster-preparedness logistics with regional diplomacy.

On April 13, 2017, PILILAAU is documented off Pohang, Republic of Korea, during a Combined Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore (CJ LOTS) exercise in the Sea of Japan - training that reinforced U.S.-ROK interoperability in a period when Northeast Asian security dynamics remained sharply focused on deterrence and readiness. On February 6, 2018, PILILAAU is documented arriving at Laem Chabang, Thailand, delivering equipment in support of COBRA GOLD 2018. Reporting associated with that evolution describes the ship operating as part of Maritime Prepositioning Ships Squadron THREE, based in the Guam-Saipan area of the Western Pacific, illustrating how afloat prepositioning supports major multinational exercises intended to improve coalition coordination and responsiveness.

In fiscal year 2019 (October 1, 2018-September 30, 2019), PILILAAU was reported by Military Sealift Command as supporting both COBRA GOLD 2019 and BALIKATAN 2019 - large annual exercises that, in different ways, reinforce U.S. interoperability with Thai and Philippine partners and demonstrate regional logistics throughput - while also undergoing maintenance and regulatory dry-docking in the continental United States. On August 30, 2021, PILILAAU is documented taking part in MALABAR 21, the annual maritime exercise involving the Royal Australian Navy, Indian Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and U.S. Navy - an exercise set that has become increasingly associated with high-end interoperability among key Indo-Pacific maritime partners. During MALABAR, PILILAAU supported elements from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Uunit 5, and Naval Special Warfare Command.

On January 17, 2023, PILILAAU is documented at the Port of Gdansk, Poland, where 933 pieces of military cargo were loaded for the movement of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, returning to Fort Carson, Colorado - an evolution that fits within the broader post-2014 European security environment in which U.S. Army rotational presence and equipment movements to and from Europe have remained a major logistics driver. Most recently in the publicly documented record, on August 19, 2025, PILILAAU is documented at Marine Corps Support Facility Blount Island, Florida, where service members and partners backloaded M777 howitzers aboard the ship as part of the Marine Corps' maritime prepositioning rotation cycle - an event explicitly framed as part of a broader program of offload, inventory, maintenance, modernization, and re-stowage intended to keep afloat prepositioned equipment viable for rapid global employment.

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USNS PILILAAU Image Gallery:

The photos below were taken by me and show the USNS PILILAAU at Bremerhaven, Germany, on January 1, 2023. Note that the formerly open area below the bridge has been now been fully enclosed.

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