New tugboat joins Army fleet in Kuwait

By Chief Warrant Officer Darren ReeseMay 27, 2010

New tug joins Army fleet in Kuwait
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

KUWAIT NAVAL BASE, Kuwait - After a 38-day, 9,000-nautical-mile journey from Baltimore, Md., the newest member of the 2nd Battalion, 401st Army Field Support Brigade, reported for duty with Army Prepositioned Stocks-5 here May 8.

The ocean-going tug, United States Army Vessel Col. Seth Warner (LT-806), will be inventoried, inspected, and preserved for storage prior to being put into the care of supplies in storage maintenance program. This will coincide with the official retirement and sale of another vessel, the fuel barge BG 6448, within the next few months.

"The arrival of the USAV Colonel Seth Warner and retirement of the fuel barge are both long-awaited changes and an incredible capability increase for the APS-5 Kuwait Watercraft Section," said Lt. Col. Michael Wright, battalion commander. "It is a great start to a new future for the APS fleet across the battalion as the theater experiences transitions over the next couple of years."

The Col. Seth Warner is the first of two 128-foot coastal and ocean-going tugs that will be part of the equipment set at APS-5 Watercraft. The 800-series tugs are the Army's true "beasts of burden," used for coastal and ocean towing and docking/undocking operations with large ocean vessels. The large tug is capable of towing up to five 120-foot barges loaded to their maximum weight of 733 long tons (2,200 pounds) per barge, or a 567 foot-long guided missile cruiser with a displacement 9,600 long tons.

The LT-806's primary mission is towing and maneuvering the APS-5 Watercraft 115-ton floating crane to any theater of operation.

The process of integrating the LT-806 into APS-5 will take from seven to ten days, and will require the efforts of several different agencies. More than 1,600 lines of on-board spare parts and basic issue items will be removed, inventoried, and stowed back aboard the vessel in a more user-friendly configuration. A top-to-bottom, stem-to-stern technical inspection will be conducted to ensure that all faults are identified and repaired prior to preservation.

Preserving an Army watercraft consists of draining and changing various fluids, preserving the engines with preservative oils, sealing every exterior opening, and connecting the vessel to a dehumidification unit that circulates dry air throughout the vessel.

Once integrated into the COSIS maintenance program, the LT-806 will receive monthly and quarterly maintenance, and annual dock and sea trials. As with every other COSIS vessel, the tug will undergo on-condition cyclic (depot-level) maintenance at five-year intervals.

The tug's namesake, Col. Seth Warner, was born in Woodbury (now Roxbury), Conn., May 6, 1743, and died there December 26, 1784. Warner first became prominent among a group of settlers forcibly resisting claim to the area. On Nov. 27, 1771, the governor of New York offered 20 pounds British Sterling for Warner's arrest. The General Assembly declared him an outlaw in 1774. A leader of the "Green Mountain Boys" and serving under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, Warner participated in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, New York, from the British on May 12, 1775. Warner was elected lieutenant-colonel commandant of the "Green Mountain Boys" on July 26, 1775. Participation in several other important battles preceded his appointment to brigadier general by the Vermont Assembly in 1778.