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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Staff (MSF 114)
ex-AM-114



Call sign:
November - Alpha - Uniform - Bravo
Auk Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 28 November 1941 by the American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio
  • Launched 17 June 1942
  • Commissioned USS Staff (AM-114), 11 November 1942
  • Damaged by mine 15 July 1943 off Port Empedocle, Sicily at 37º17'N, 13º30'E. Skill (AM 115) entered the minefield and towed Staff to safety
  • Placed in commission, in reserve, 14 February 1946
  • Decommissioned 15 January 1947
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists out of commission, in reserve as December 1945
  • Recommissioned 14 January 1952
  • Reclassified as a Fleet Minesweeper (Steel Hull), MSF-114, 7 March 1955
  • Decommissioned 15 August 1955 at Green Cove Springs, FL
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 March 1967
  • Sold for scrap 17 November 1967 to the Southern Scrap Metals Co. of New Orleans, LA.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 890 t.
  • Length 221' 2"
  • Beam 32'
  • Draft 10' 9"
  • Speed 18.1 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, two 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, and five depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,766shp General Motors 12-278 diesel electric engines, Farrel- Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Staff (AM 114)
    Staff 98k Under construction Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    USS Staff (AM 114)
    Staff 123k Underway in the vicinity of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 22 February 1944, following repair of mine damage received during the Sicily operation on 16 July 1943. Photograph was taken from a Naval Air Station Norfolk, plane, flying at 200 feet altitude.
    U.S. Navy Photo 80-G-224589    		 Naval Historical Center
    am-114 95k USS Strive (AM-117), USS Sustain (AM-119), USS Steady (AM-118) and Staff (listed from left to right). Moored together, circa early 1946, probably at San Pedro or San
    Diego, California
    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 79735
    Tanager 14k c. 1953
    Marseille France
    Left to right: Staff, Towhee (AM 388), Tanager (AM 385), and Tercel (AM 386)    		 Bob Gerety, crew member
    Bob's Minesweeper Site
    Staff (MSF 114)
    Staff 93k Ship's bell prior to treatment
    Photo 67-382-1 from the collection of Curator Branch: Naval History and Heritage Command    		 Robert Hurst
    Staff 116k Ship's bell after treatment
    From the collection of Curator Branch: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Ralph Thomas McDaniel, USNR11 November 1942
    02LT Joseph Henry Napier, USNApril 1944
    03LT William Arthur Upton, USN13 January 1945
    04LT George Albert Rukavina, USNR6 November 1945
    05LTJG John Paul Burrows, USNR14 February 1946
    06LT Donald Paul Crumley, USN18 June 1946 - 16 January 1947
    07LT John Albert Gray, Jr., USN14 January 1952
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Staff (MSF 114)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Naval Minewarfare Association
    Association of Minemen
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Fleet Minesweeper (MSF) Photo Index
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