USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg

The unnamed C4-S-A1-design transport was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC Hull No. 702) on 22 February 1943 at Richmond, California, by Kaiser Co., Inc., Yard 3; named General Harry Taylor (AP-145) on 2 October 1943; launched on 10 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Mamie M. McHugh; acquired by the Navy on 29 March 1944; placed in ferry commission on 1 April 1944 for transfer to Portland, Oregon, for conversion to a transport by Kaiser Co., Inc., Vancouver, Washington; decommissioned on 10 April 1944; and commissioned on 8 May 1944 at Portland.

Following shakedown off San Diego, General Harry Taylor sailed from San Francisco on 23 June 1944 with troop reinforcements for Milne Bay, New Guinea. After returning to San Francisco on 3 August with veterans of the Guadalcanal campaign embarked, she continued transport voyages between San Francisco and island bases in the western Pacific. During the next 10 months, she steamed to New Guinea, the Solomons, New Caledonia, the Marianas, the New Hebrides, the Palaus, and the Philippines, carrying troops and supplies, until 29 June 1945 when she departed San Francisco for duty in the Atlantic.

With the European war over, General Harry Taylor made two "Magic Carpet" voyages to Marseilles and back, carrying returning veterans of the fighting in that theater. Next she sailed twice to Karachi, India, via the Suez Canal. Returning to New York on 3 January 1946, the transport then began the first of four voyages to Bremerhaven, Germany, and Le Havre, France. She reached New York again on 21 May 1946 and decommissioned on 13 June at Baltimore. She was stricken from the Navy Register on 3 July 1946.

General Harry Taylor served for a time with the U.S. Army Transport Service, but was reacquired by the Navy on 1 March 1950 for use by the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). She was reinstated on the Navy List on 28 April 1950. Her early duties consisted mainly of carrying troops, dependents, and large numbers of European refugees. USNS General Harry Taylor (T-AP-145) operated in a typical year to the Caribbean, Mediterranean, and in northern European waters. In 1957, she took part in the Hungarian Relief program, transporting several thousand refugees of the short-lived Hungarian Revolution to Australia. She was placed in ready reserve on 19 September 1957; stricken from the Naval Register on 10 July 1958 and transferred back to the Maritime Administration the same day. She was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas.

General Harry Taylor was then transferred to the U.S. Air Force, on 15 July 1961, and was renamed USAFS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg on 11 June 1963.

On 1 July 1964, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was acquired by the Navy and designated T-AGM-10, as a missile range instrumentation ship, one of ten such ships transferred from the Commander, Air Force Eastern Test Range, to MSTS. in 1974 the ship commanded by Captain Anderson deployed to Dakar, Senegal, to participate in the Global Atmospheric Research Experiment. "Equipped with extremely accurate and discriminating radar and telemetry equipment," she tracked and analyzed "re-entry bodies in the terminal phase of ballistic missile test flights," carrying out those missile and spacecraft tracking duties in both Atlantic and Pacific waters until her retirement in 1983.[2] She was ultimately stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 April 1993.

General Hoyt S. Vandenberg at Key West docks in May 2009

General Hoyt S. Vandenberg at Key West docks in May 2009

In 1998, some scenes of the horror/sci-fi film Virus were filmed aboard the ex-General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship substituted for a fictional Russian vessel called the Akademik Vladislav Volkov, and some of the Cyrillic lettering applied for the film is still visible on the hull today.[1]

The ship was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 May 1999. Her projected transfer to the state of Florida, for use as an artificial reef, received approval on 13 February 2007. The ship was sunk 6 miles (10 km) off the Florida Keys in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The sinking was originally set to take place on 15 May 2008 but was postponed because the ship was placed under "Federal Arrest" by a US Federal Court for failure to pay shipyard fees related to the clean-up and preparation for the sinking. She was later ordered to be sold at auction to pay the shipyard fees. A group of banks and financiers from Key West was able to arrange to pay the fees and title of the ship was transferred to the city of Key West.

On 12 April 2009, the Vandenberg left the shipyard and began the long tow to Key West. On 22 April 2009 she arrived in the Key West Harbor where she was moored at the East Quay Pier. The sinking took place on Wednesday, 27 May 2009.[6][7]

USNS Vandenberg in 2015.

The Vandenberg was deployed by Key West–based economic development company Reefmakers. Beginning in 1996, Reefmakers set out to create an artificial reef that benefited the local economy and ecosystem of whichever city it was set to be deployed in.[8] From the pre- to post- USNS Vandenberg deployment period, there was a 40.1% increase in the total number of users (scuba divers, snorkelers, and others) on the surrounding natural reefs. A 23.5% increase in recreational scuba diving use occurred on the natural reefs representing 5,214 dives, which is in contrast to a 442% increase (34,394 dives) in the share of recreational scuba diving that occurred on artificial reefs. However, the share of total use on natural reefs did decline from 67% in the pre-deployment period to 46.5% in the post-deployment period. However, the increase in total demand effect dominated the substitution effect of switching from natural to artificial reefs resulting in an increase in total use on the surrounding natural reefs. Thus, the hypothesis that introduction of the USNS Vandenberg as an artificial reef would reduce use (pressure) on the surrounding natural reefs is not supported in a study made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.[9]