The third USS Tillamook (ATA-192), originally USS ATA-192, a United States Navy tug in service from 1945 to 1971.
Construction and commissioning
Tillamook was laid down as ATA-192 on 19 October 1944 by the Levingston Shipbuilding Corporation at Orange, Texas, and launched on 15 November 1944. She was commissioned as USS ATA-192 on 23 January 1945.
World War II
After shakedown training in the Gulf of Mexico, ATA-192 departed Galveston, Texas, on 21 February 1945, transited the Panama Canal on 28 February 1945, and headed north. After visits to Acapulco, Mexico; San Diego, California; and Portland, Oregon, ATA-192 arrived in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 28 April 1945. On 10 May 1945, she departed Pearl Harbor for duty in the western Pacific.
During the waning days of World War II, ATA-192 towed ships between various anchorages in the western Pacific. She visited Guam late in June 1945 and Okinawa in mid-July 1945. From there, she moved south to Leyte in the Philippine Islands, where she remained from 20 to 30 July 1945. Early in August 1945, she headed eastward and proceeded via Ulithi Atoll and Pearl Harbor to the United States West Coast. She arrived in San Francisco, California, on 1 September 1945.
Operation Crossroads
After almost a month in port at San Francisco, ATA—192 got underway for Pearl Harbor, bound for the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. She spent four months in the Marshall Islands during Operation Crossroads, the designation for the tests, ferrying personnel, helping fight fires caused by the tests, and, on one occasion, towing the former Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Nagato, in use as a target ship for the tests. During her stay in the Marshall Islands, ATA-192 also was a frequent visitor to Kwajalein Atoll and Eniwetok Atoll. On 8 September 1946, she left Kwajalein Lagoon to return to the United States. After a five-day stopover at Pearl Harbor, she reached San Francisco on 12 October 1946 and began the procedure for her post-test radiation contamination clearance.
Service in the Territory of Alaska
On 15 November 1946, ATA-192 departed San Francisco and headed north. After stops at Bremerton and Seattle, Washington, she arrived at Kodiak, Territory of Alaska, on 1 January 1946 to begin an extended tour of duty in the 17th Naval District. In February 1947, she underwent repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, and, early in March 1947, she returned to Alaskan waters. Over the next 10 years, she steamed between various ports in Alaska and along the Aleutian Islands chain.
The name Tillamook became free in 1947 when the old tug USS Tillamook (YTM-122) was retired, and, on 31 May 1948, ATA-192 was named USS Tillamook (ATA-192).
Until 25 April 1952, Tillamook operated out of the City of Kodiak/Kodiak Island [17th Naval District], when she began operations out of Naval Station Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. In addition to the usual towing operations she performed, Tillamook also conducted search and rescue missions in the cold and treacherous waters of the Bering Sea, as well as humanitarian work for Native Alaskans. Her clandestine mission was electronic and visual surveillance of Soviet [spy] vessels penetrating U.S. Territorial Waters, including Soviet spy vessels disguised as fishing trawlers and fish factory ships.
Pacific Fleet service
On 27 May 1957, Tillamook was ordered to be decommissioned and placed in reserve. However, that order was rescinded on the following day, and she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet for duty with the Service Force, United States Pacific Fleet.
From then until well into the fall of 1960, the tug was homeported at Pearl Harbor and conducted towing operations for the Pacific Fleet Service Force.
Seventh Fleet service
In November 1960, Tillamook was reassigned again, this time to East Asian waters guarded by the United States Seventh Fleet. On 17 November 1960, she reached Japan at her new home port, Yokosuka.
During her first four years in the western Pacific, Tillamook performed towing operations between such bases as Sasebo and Yokosuka, Japan, and Subic Bay on Luzon in the Philippines. The highlight of this period of duty was a visit to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in April 1962.
Vietnam War
Late in 1964, when the American presence in South Vietnam began to increase, Tillamook also began to visit the ports of that country. However, her missions in Vietnamese waters in 1964 were brief port visits to deliver tows at such places as Da Nang and Vung Tau, South Vietnam.