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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Al Grazevich


Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Valor (MSO 472)
ex-AM-472



Call sign:
November - Quebec - Sierra - Golf
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 28 April 1952 by the Burger Boat Co., Manitowoc WI
  • Launched 13 May 1953
  • Commissioned USS Valor (AM-472), 29 July 1954
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-472, 7 February 1955
  • Decommissioned 16 July 1970 at Charleston, SC
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 February 1971
  • Sold for scrap to Charles Gural of Rahway, NJ, for $1,700.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 88
  • Armament: As built, one single 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns; Final configuration, bow gun replaced by one twin 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns remained
  • Propulsion: Four Packard ID1700 diesel engines, replaced by four Waukasha Motors Co. diesel engines, two shafts, two controllable pitch propellers.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Valor 14k 102 Minesweeper
    Website
    Dick Lewis
    Al Hines
    Avenge 192k Navy Yard Charleston, SC
    Avenge (MSO 423) and Valor in Dry Dock    		 Robert Hall
    Valor 33k Ron Reeves
    Valor 73k
    Avenge 480k 17 March 1955
    Valor, Avenge (MSO 423) and an identified MSO in dry dock    		 Michael Mohl
    Valor 120k c. 1959
    Passing through the Strait of Gibraltar while pulling duty with the Belgium Navy
    U.S. Navy photo from the September 1960 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Charles Ronald Davis, USN29 July 1954 - October 1955
    02LCDR William Lester Sheppard, USNOctober 1955 - 9 February 1957
    03LCDR Harry Cline Dittler, Jr., USN9 February 1957 - 1958
    04LCDR Thomas Henry Nugent, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1948-B1958 - 17 June 1960
    05LCDR James Irvin Gresham, USN17 June 1960 - February 1963
    06LCDR Stanford William Coston, Jr., USNFebruary 1963 - 27 February 1965
    07LCDR Stanislaus Gregory Dyro, USN27 February 1965 - 25 July 1966
    08LCDR John Charles Fisher, USN25 July 1966 - 28 June 1967
    09LCDR William Leo Lipford, USN26 August 1967 - 10 July 1968
    10LT Jerome Anthony Nawrocki, USN(Officer-in-charge) 10 July 1968 - 9 September 1968
    11LCDR William Leo Lipford, USN9 September 1968 - 13 February 1970
    12LT William Albert Farnsworth, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 196513 February 1970 - 16 July 1970
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Valor (MSO-472)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    102 Minesweepers (MSO) Oceangoing Minesweepers
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Ocean Minesweeper (MSO) Photo Index
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