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USNS John Lenthall (T-AO 189)

USNS JOHN LENTHALL is the third of the 18 HENRY J. KAISER class underway replenishment oilers. Although retired on November 11, 1996, the ship was placed back in service with the Military Sealift Command on December 7, 1998.

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Crew List:

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

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USNS JOHN LENTHALL History:

USNS JOHN LENTHALL joined the fleet during the last decade of the Cold War and has spent her career as a quiet constant in U.S. naval operations: a HENRY J. KAISER - class oiler that makes other ships possible by delivering fuel, stores, and mail at sea. Built at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans, she was laid down on July 15, 1985, launched on August 9, 1986, and entered Military Sealift Command (MSC) service with a predominantly civilian crew on July 25, 1987. Assigned to the Atlantic, her early years were filled with carrier workups off the U.S. East Coast and routine Sixth Fleet support in the Mediterranean - steady strings of day-and-night UNREPs, logistics pauses in hubs such as Rota, Augusta Bay, and Souda Bay, and the occasional liberty anchorage when schedules allowed. As the post-Cold War drawdown took hold, she was placed in reserve on November 11, 1996, then reactivated on December 7, 1998, returning to the Atlantic routine that would carry her into the 21st century.

The tempo rose again with Middle East contingencies. During the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom in spring 2003, JOHN LENTHALL operated in the Mediterranean in direct support of deploying carrier and surface forces; photographs from April 3, 2003 show her alongside USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (CVN 75) for a large replenishment as the carrier group surged east, and on April 15, 2003, she was recorded steaming after an UNREP with USS SAN JACINTO (CG 56).

While pierside for maintenance at Valletta, Malta on April 17, 2004, JOHN LENTHALL was struck broadside by a merchant vessel that had lost steering while departing the harbor. The incident caused only limited topside damage and no injuries. After repairs and inspections she resumed tasking with Sixth Fleet.

As piracy surged off the Horn of Africa later in the decade, MSC ships adopted embarked security teams and layered defensive measures. On September 23, 2008, while transiting off Somalia, JOHN LENTHALL was shadowed by two small craft. After non-lethal measures failed to deter the approach, the security team fired warning shots into the water, ending the pursuit. The ship continued on schedule - another reminder that logistics hulls often pass through the same threat envelopes as the combatants they support.

Through the mid-2010s, she remained a familiar sight in the Mediterranean and adjoining seas. On December 8, 2015, JOHN LENTHALL arrived at Souda Bay, Greece, for a scheduled port visit - one of the key logistics hinges for Sixth Fleet operations. The following year she completed an eight-month deployment with the HARRY S. TRUMAN Carrier Strike Group, a period notable for sustained presence tied to operations against ISIS. Over that cruise she made 22 port visits, including Augusta Bay (Italy), Souda Bay (Greece), Fujairah and Abu Dhabi (UAE), Jebel Ali (UAE), and several stops in the Kingdom of Bahrain - each a short reset between long strings of UNREPs that kept the strike group on station.

Like all hard-worked auxiliaries, JOHN LENTHALL's life has been punctuated by regular yard periods that reset hull, machinery, and cargo-handling gear for the next cycle. Notably, she entered a 90-day overhaul and dry-docking at Boston Ship Repair under a contract announced February 18, 2020. Work included hull steel replacement, tank preservation, flight-deck non-skid, URN (underway replenishment) system repairs, diesel and structural work, and stability testing. She later executed another shipyard availability at Detyens Shipyards, North Charleston, beginning March 28, 2022, followed by sea trials and a return to tasking with MSC Atlantic. A subsequent regular overhaul/dry-dock was awarded again to Detyens in February 2025, scheduled to run from March 23, 2025 to September 18, 2025.

Even during maintenance-heavy years, her operational ledger stayed full. In 2020, amid COVID-19 constraints, she continued high-endurance logistics, including visible evolutions with major combatants (imagery records her working with USS GERALD R. FORD (CVN 78) in early October 2020). In January-February 2021, MSC temporarily shifted JOHN LENTHALL to the Pacific to cover for another oiler in maintenance. Over six weeks she served as duty oiler from San Diego, completing 30 replenishments with USS CARL VINSON's (CVN 70) 10-ship strike group and other Pacific units, delivering nearly 5 million gallons of F-76 ship fuel, about 3 million gallons of JP-5 aviation fuel, and more than 100 pallets of stores and mail.

In 2023, JOHN LENTHALL's schedule reflected the renewed NATO focus on North Atlantic logistics. On March 10, 2023, she refueled USS ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG 51) in the North Sea during a Sixth Fleet deployment, then in early March 2023 she executed a proof-of-concept visit to Norway's Namsen Fuel Terminal (Namsos) to verify truck access through a tunnel to the pier and demonstrate crane/forklift operations - small but consequential checks that expand allied fueling options in northern waters. By July 5, 2023, she was again on the hose with USS CARNEY (DDG 64), part of the drumbeat of UNREPs that quietly enable continuous operations from the High North to the Mediterranean.

After completing that surge of underway logistics, LENTHALL entered a scheduled Mid-Term Availability at Alabama Shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, beginning September 11, 2023, and running through November 30, 2023. The 81-day yard period - awarded in July - returned the oiler to material readiness for another multi-ship training and deployment cycle. She emerged from the availability in late autumn, conducted the customary post-maintenance trials and pier periods, and resumed her Military Sealift Command Atlantic tasking from Norfolk.

By April 2024, the ship was back at sea supporting an unusually diverse slate of evolutions. On April 28, she was photographed in company with USS PORTER (DDG 78) as the destroyer prepared to come alongside for a replenishment in the Atlantic. The wider operating picture that week placed LENTHALL in the middle of overlapping tasking that included integrated training for the WASP (LHD 1) Amphibious Ready Group as well as the opening phase of Southern Seas 2024. On May 4, she again refueled PORTER at sea, and on May 20 she conducted a vertical replenishment with USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73) in the Atlantic as the carrier group moved south into U.S. Southern Command's area of responsibility. On June 1 she passed fuel to GEORGE WASHINGTON by connected replenishment, then shifted into a steady cadence of combined RAS and VERTREP evolutions with the carrier throughout June.

Through June 2024, LENTHALL was a core enabler of Southern Seas 2024 as USS GEORGE WASHINGTON, USS PORTER and embarked aircraft worked with partner navies around the continent. On June 4-5 the group transited the Strait of Magellan with Chilean Navy escorts, a visible midpoint in an itinerary of at-sea engagements and planned port visits with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay. LENTHALL's track included vertical and connected replenishments with the carrier on June 14 and June 25 in the Pacific, while the strike group executed bilateral serials with Chilean and Peruvian forces in mid-to-late June. Southern Seas 2024 concluded on July 4 after the task group completed a full circumnavigation of South America.

After the South American deployment, LENTHALL returned to the Western Atlantic. As East Coast carrier and surface groups reset for the new training cycle, she supported GERALD R. FORD (CVN 78) strike group workups. On November 9, 2024, she conducted a replenishment at sea with USS FORREST SHERMAN (DDG 98) during the strike group's Group Sail phase, a multi-unit event that tests underway logistics as much as it does tactical integration. These late-2024 evolutions fit a broader Navy-wide effort to preserve deployment timelines amid a tight civilian-mariner labor pool by concentrating CLF support on the highest-payoff training and certification windows.

LENTHALL began 2025 still in full operating status. On January 31, she fueled USS TRUXTUN (DDG 103) during fleet training in the Western Atlantic, one of her last documented at-sea logistics events before shifting into an extended overhaul. In mid-February, the Navy awarded Detyens Shipyards in North Charleston, South Carolina, a firm-fixed-price contract for a 180-day regular overhaul and dry-dock availability, with work scheduled to start March 23 and complete by September 18, 2025. The award moved the oiler from Norfolk to the Charleston area in March. Local documentation through the summer shows the ship repositioned from pier to drydock as the package progressed. The overhaul - part of MSC's life-extension strategy for the KAISER-class while JOHN LEWIS-class oilers phase in - was scoped to restore hull and machinery condition and prepare the ship for continued Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf employment.

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USNS JOHN LENTHALL Image Gallery:

The photo below was taken by Karl-Heinz Ahles while USNS JOHN LENTHALL was inport Norfolk, Va., May 11,1999.

The two photos below were taken by Fabio Peņa when USNS JOHN LENTHALL visited Barcelona, Spain, on December 17, 2000.

The photos below were taken by me and show the USNS JOHN LENTHALL at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on November 9, 2008.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the USNS JOHN LENTHALL at the Naval Fuel Depot at Norfolk, Va., on October 23, 2014.

The photo below was taken by Michael Jenning and shows the USNS JOHN LENTHALL at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on December 26, 2021.

The photos below were taken by Michael Jenning and show the USNS JOHN LENTHALL at Naval Base Norfolk, Va., on September 6, 2022.

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