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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Two right patches courtesy of Jack A. Frost

Lucid (MSO-458)
ex-AM-458



Call sign:
November - India - Lima - Whiskey
Aggressive Class Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 16 March 1953 as AM-458 by the Higgins Shipyard, Inc., New Orleans, LA
  • Launched 14 November 1953
  • Reclassified as an Ocean Minesweeper, MSO-458, 7 February 1955
  • Commissioned USS Lucid (MSO-458), 4 May 1955
  • Decommissioned 23 December 1970 at Naval Shipyard Long Beach, CA
  • Struck from the Naval Register 15 May 1976
  • Sold for scrap 30 December 1976 by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to W. Dean Kirkpatrick of San Francisco, CA for $40,250 (Dean and his wife Vicky lived on her for a number
    of years)
  • On 13 June 2005 MSO-458 was donated to the "Save An MSO Foundation"
  • Acquired by the Stockton Historical Maritime Museum of Stockton, CA in a collaborative effort with an At-Risk School and the San Joaquin County Office of Education and is in the process of
    being restored.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 775 t.
  • Length 172'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 78
  • Armament: As built, one 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 remain
  • 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
    USS Lucid (MSO 458)
    Lucid 118k - 102 Minesweeper Website
    Dick Lewis
    Lucid 69k Color photo from Dan Keller Tom Lawson
    Lucid 88k U.S. Naval Institute photo Robert Hurst
    Lucid 323k Photo from the Stockton Historical Maritime Museum
    Lucid 170k Dry docked in Japan
    Photos from the collection of Duane Leary    		 Duane Leary
    Lucid 194k
    Lucid 92k
    Lucid 114k
    Lucid 92k
    Lucid 67k Duane Leary on the right
    Photo from the collection of Duane Leary
    Lucid 114k Duane Leary on the left
    Photo from the collection of Duane Leary
    Lucid 42k Coronet Rocky Vintage lighter 'P' Vietnam War Tommy Trampp
    Lucid 36k
    Lucid 122k Lucid entering the dry dock Windsor (ARD 22) at Subic Bay, Philippines
    U.S. Navy photo from the April 1968 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory)
    Lucid 182k c. 1968
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Robert Hurst
    Lucid 301k c. February 1970
    Underway in the Pacific Ocean
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo USN 1143191
    Lucid (MSO 458)
    Lucid 80k 23 May 1972
    Mare Island Reserve Facility
    Lucid and the Advance (MSO-510), along with two other unidentified Aggressive class minesweepers. In the background can be seen the mothballed Markab (AR-23)
    Photo from "Warship Boneyards," by Kitt and Carolyn Bonner    		 Robert Hurst
    Lucid
    Lucid 118k Lucid in a very sad state with a crane barge alongside at Bradford Island, in the Sacramento Delta
    Photo from http://www.dan.keller.com/lucid.html    		 Robert Hurst
    Lucid 59k 6 August 2000
    This has been confirmed as being the Lucid. The hull number is pretty clear from on-scene observation. The "58" is clear on the starboard and the "4" is clear on the port side. Supposedly scrapped in 1977 (Scrap sale 30 December 1976) by W. Dean Kirkpatrick of San Francisco, CA, $40,250    		 "The Silent Defenders."
    Lucid 8k Tommy Trampp
    Lucid 40k
    Lucid 8k
    Lucid 92k Probably taken while moored at Oakland Estuary below the Alameda Park Street Bridge. Photo shows image of Anneli Kellerman (at right foreground) and her dog Lotta on
    board Lucid
    Photo from http://www.dan.keller.com/lucid.html    		 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John Henry Graham, USN4 May 1955 - 1956
    02LT Hollis T. Rodgers, USN1956 - 1958
    03LCDR Valerio M. Duronio, USN - USNA Class of 19491958 - 1959
    04LCDR Marvin White Zumwalt, USN1959 - 11 April 1961
    05CDR John Paul Peterson, USN11 April 1961 - 10 July 1963
    06LCDR/CDR Robert Irving Backstrom, USN10 July 1963 - 20 July 1965
    07LCDR Walter Benjamin Frick, USN - USNA Class of 195420 July 1965 - 29 August 1967
    08LT/LCDR Floyd Harrison Fields, Jr., USN29 August 1967 - 16 September 1969
    09LCDR Ronald Charles Wilgenbusch, USN - Awarded the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Achievement Medal w/Combat V and the Combat Action Ribbon
    Retired as RADM    		16 September July 1969 - 23 December 1970
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Lucid (MSO-458)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Stockton Historical Maritime Museum, Home of the USS Lucid
    USS Lucid Restoration Photos
    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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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo & maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright
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