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USNS Watkins (T-AKR 315)

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USNS WATKINS is the sixth WATSON - class large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ship (LMSR) and the first ship in the Navy named after Army Master Sgt. Travis E. Watkins.

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Crew List:

This section contains the names of sailors who served aboard USNS WATKINS. 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 WATKINS is named in honor of Army Master Sgt. Travis E. Watkins, (1920-1950), who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his gallant leadership when an overwhelming enemy force broke through and isolated 30 men from his unit in Korea from Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, 1950.

Citation:

M/Sgt. Watkins distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When an overwhelming enemy force broke through and isolated 30 men of his unit, he took command, established a perimeter defense and directed action which repelled continuous, fanatical enemy assaults. With his group completely surrounded and cut off, he moved from foxhole to foxhole exposing himself to enemy fire, giving instructions and offering encouragement to his men. Later when the need for ammunition and grenades became critical he shot 2 enemy soldiers 50 yards outside the perimeter and went out alone for their ammunition and weapons. As he picked up their weapons he was attacked by 3 others and wounded. Returning their fire he killed all 3 and gathering up the weapons of the 5 enemy dead returned to his amazed comrades. During a later assault, 6 enemy soldiers gained a defiladed spot and began to throw grenades into the perimeter making it untenable. Realizing the desperate situation and disregarding his wound he rose from his foxhole to engage them with rifle fire. Although immediately hit by a burst from an enemy machinegun he continued to fire until he had killed the grenade throwers. With this threat eliminated he collapsed and despite being paralyzed from the waist down, encouraged his men to hold on. He refused all food, saving it for his comrades, and when it became apparent that help would not arrive in time to hold the position ordered his men to escape to friendly lines. Refusing evacuation as his hopeless condition would burden his comrades, he remained in his position and cheerfully wished them luck. Through his aggressive leadership and intrepid actions, this small force destroyed nearly 500 of the enemy before abandoning their position. M/Sgt. Watkins' sustained personal bravery and noble self-sacrifice reflect the highest glory upon himself and is in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the U.S. Army.

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USNS WATKINS History:

USNS WATKINS is a WATSON-class large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off vehicle cargo ship built to support the U.S. prepositioning concept - keeping Army vehicles, sustainment stocks, and related equipment forward so they can be issued rapidly in a crisis rather than shipped from the continental United States after an emergency begins. The ship's keel was laid at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) yard in San Diego, California, on August 24, 1999. Christened and named for Master Sergeant Travis E. Watkins, the ship was launched on July 28, 2000, and delivered to the U.S. Navy on March 2, 2001, entering Military Sealift Command service as a civil-crewed USNS unit rather than a commissioned warship. As a prepositioning ship, WATKINS' employment centered on readiness cycles, maintenance periods, and the controlled loading, stowage, and periodic refresh of an assigned Army equipment set. Sources describe the ship as assigned within the Diego Garcia-based afloat prepositioning structure supporting Army requirements in the Indian Ocean region, reflecting how these ships often operate from forward hubs rather than a traditional "homeport" pattern.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks and during the build-up of U.S. Central Command requirements in Southwest Asia, WATKINS became part of the Army Prepositioned Stocks effort tied to Kuwait-based infrastructure. From 2002 through January 2003, APS-3 ships offloaded equipment at Camp Doha, Kuwait, a period that included the VIGILANT HAMMER I and VIGILANT HAMMER II activities. WATKINS is specifically identified as one of the ships offloaded during that sequence as U.S. forces expanded posture and options ahead of major contingencies in the region. By January 24, 2003 - during the final months before the invasion of Iraq - open reporting placed WATKINS in Antwerp, Belgium, loading a large package of U.S. Army helicopters (including AH-64D Apache, CH-47 Chinook, and UH-60 Black Hawk types) associated with deploying Army aviation forces, illustrating how LMSRs could be tasked beyond "parked-and-ready" prepositioning to move urgent outsized cargo when strategic timelines tightened.

WATKINS also appeared in experimentation tied to the mid-2000s shift toward "seabasing" and flexible offshore logistics. On October 12, 2005, WATKINS and the heavy-lift ship MV MIGHTY SERVANT I moored side-by-side off San Diego, California, for a Mobile Landing Platform demonstration in which cargo was transferred from WATKINS to MV MIGHTY SERVANT I and then moved ashore by hovercraft, a proof-of-concept event aimed at sustaining forces where ports might be damaged, constrained, or politically unavailable. Publicly released, date-stamped records for WATKINS' routine prepositioning cycles and intermediate movements between this period and the mid-2010s are intermittent, but the next clearly documented sequence shows the ship cycling back to the United States for maintenance and cargo work associated with keeping an afloat equipment set serviceable and compliant with regulatory requirements.

In April 2014, WATKINS returned to the United States for cargo maintenance and a regulatory dry-docking cycle before resuming prepositioning duties. Later that year, the ship conducted a documented on-load in support of overseas prepositioning: WATKINS arrived at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, on December 5, 2014, to load Army equipment as part of the APS-3 enterprise, with the Army Strategic Logistics Activity-Charleston and the 841st Transportation Battalion supporting inspections, preparation, and staging for embarkation. Official imagery tied to that evolution shows loading activity on December 10, 2014, December 15, 2014, and December 20, 2014, with reporting indicating the ship was being filled with more than 1,200 pieces of military equipment before departing to a prepositioned overseas location - an example of how the ship's readiness mission regularly required concentrated port periods to refresh, modernize, and accountability-check the equipment set.

Operational requirements then kept WATKINS forward longer than planned. In April 2019, WATKINS - originally scheduled to return to the continental United States earlier - remained deployed to Diego Garcia until that month. After completing cargo discharge, the ship loaded 110 pieces of U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps vehicles and containers in order to participate in the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore exercise RESOLUTE SUN off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia, a scenario designed to practice moving heavy equipment across a shoreline without relying on fully capable fixed port facilities. During that exercise sequence, a dated operational snapshot shows Roll-on/Roll-off Discharge Facility activity at Joint Expeditionary Base Fort Story on June 16, 2019, with Amphibious Construction Battalion TWO conducting the RRDF evolution alongside WATKINS. After completing the RESOLUTE SUN commitment, WATKINS entered Reduced Operating Status, and its next dry-docking commenced in July 2019 - consistent with the pattern of alternating operational tasking with deep maintenance needed to keep a high-capacity sealift ship continuously eligible for surge or contingency employment.

Following completion of that regulatory dry-docking cycle, WATKINS resumed a major APS mission shift in the Pacific. In May 2020, WATKINS loaded a U.S. Army infantry brigade combat team and joined USNS SODERMAN (T-AKR 317) and USNS CHARLTON (T-AKR 314) at Saipan, reflecting an Indo-Pacific posture in which Army prepositioned sets and associated shipping were oriented toward rapid response and regional reinforcement options even as the fleet managed COVID-19 risk controls. The ship's later documented maintenance activity includes its presence at Bayonne Drydock & Repair in New Jersey, where, on April 21, 2023, U.S. Transportation Command commander General Jacqueline Van Ovost visited WATKINS while it was at the facility - an indicator that WATKINS was again in a shipyard availability cycle within the broader strategic-sealift enterprise overseen by USTRANSCOM and executed in partnership with commercial repair yards.

By 2024, WATKINS was again visible in major allied exercise activity on the Korean Peninsula. On August 16, 2024, USNS WATKINS was at Pier 8 in Busan, Republic of Korea, in connection with exercise ULSHI FREEDOM SHIELD 2024 (UFS 24), a combined U.S.-ROK exercise framework with participation from United Nations Command member-state militaries. Imagery and accompanying official descriptions place WATKINS in that Busan port context immediately prior to participation in UFS 24.

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