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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

AFDM-3
ex
 USS YFD-6 (1943 - 1945)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Alpha - Hotel - Yankee
 NAHY
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal
AFDM-3 Class Medium Auxiliary Floating Dry Dock:
  • Built by Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. as Yard Floating Dock YFD-6
  • Laid down, January 1943
  • Delivered and commissioned, 09 December 1943
  • Reffered to as USS Repairer in contemporary documents, but name appears to have been unofficial
  • Asisigned to NOB Trinidad, December 1943-December 1944
  • Assigned to Panama, January 1945 to unknown date
  • Redesignated Auxiliary Floating Dock Medium AFDM-3, August 1946
  • Decommissioned and inactivated, date unknown
  • Laid up in the Mobile AL. area
  • Leased to the Bender Shipbuilding and Repair Company, Inc. in 1999
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 15 November 2000
  • Final Disposition, disposed of by Navy sale, 1 April 2002
    Specifications:
    Displacement 6,800 t.(lt) 8,000 t.(fl)
    Length 622'
    Beam 124'
    Draft 7 to 15 ft.
    Complement 4 Officers, 146 Enlisted
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    AFDM-3 165k USS YFD-6 on her delivery voyage to Trinidad, 21 December 1943. Photographed by a blimp of ZP-22, based at Houma, LA.
    National Archives photos 80-G-271497 and 80-G-271520.    		 Tracy White
    AFDM-3 181k
    YTB-229 124k The center section of USS YFD-6 is being towed by Alarka (YTB-229) (center) and USS ATA-209 (left) through Culebra Cut in the Panama Canal, circa May-June 1945. Navy SeaBees turned YFD-6s center section on its side and installed a thousand pontoons atop the wing wall to allow the drydock to float on its side during the canal transit. The photograph was released for publication on 25 June 1945.
    US Navy photo # NH 98829 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    AFDM-3 59k The center section of USS YFD-6 is tilted on end while passing through the Panama Canal. The dock is being towed by ex-USS Favorite (IX-45). Favorite was on loan from the Navy to the Panama Canal Mechanical Division from 1 November 1943 to 13 January 1948.
    US Navy photo for "All Hands" magazine, issue, December 1946    		 Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
    Favorite 73k Favorite (IX-45) towing the center section of the Navy floating dock USS YFD-6 into the Pedro Miguel Locks in the Panama Canal enroute to the Pacific assisted by several Navy tugs. To get the 124-foot wide dock through the 110-foot wide canal locks, Navy SeaBees installed a thousand Navy pontoons on one of its wing walls and then careened it onto that side to pass through the canal.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo # 80-G-60348.    		 Mike Green
    There is no DANFS history currently available for USS YFD-6 / AFDM-3 at NavSource
    Officers in Charge
    01LCDR Moura, Joseph J. USNR09 December 1943 -
    02LT/LCDR Schruers, Edwin J. USNR(March 1944 - September 1945)
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log
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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo and is maintained by David L. Wright
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 17 January 2016