WASHTENAW COUNTY LST 1166

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

LST-1156 Terrebonne Parish Class Tank Landing Ship Keel Laid 29 November 1951 - Launched 22 November 1952 USS LST-1166 Commissioned 29 October 1953 USS WASHTENAW COUNTY LST-1166 Named 1 July 1955 USS WASHTENAW COUNTY MSS-2 Converted to Special Minesweeper Ship MSS-2 9 February 1973 Decommissioned 30 August 1973 Struck from Naval Register 30 August 30 1973 AL MANHAL 1 (Commercial Service) Sold 1973 to an unknown company and renamed EL CENTROAMERICANO (Commercial Service) Sold 1980 to Cooperative de Transportadores Centroamericanos R.L. Panama Scheduled to be converted to a “roll-on/roll-off” vehicle transport Arrived in tow at Portland, OR, October 1980, with mechanical troubles An insurance company had gained ownership after the ship partially sank due to leaky pipes which were cracked by a deep winter freeze Sold to Arthur A. Raz in 1983 who intended to restore the ship as a museum piece Purchased in 2003 from the Art Raz Estate by the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum, LLC (later renamed to LST 1166, LLC) Moved January 2003 to Dibblee Point on the Columbia River at Rainier, Oregon after spending 20 years on the Willamette River in Portland and much of 2002 at Scappoose Bay near St. Helens, Oregon. Restoration project halted due to excessive vandalism Reported in 2010 as being owned by the US Coast Guard As of 2024, still visible in Google Maps satellite view of Dibblee Point.

 

Conflicting History Data

Post-Navy history mostly comes from LST1066.com.

NavSource gives the following details

• Still [in Portland, OR] on January 19, 1984, when engine room flooded
• Sold to J.A. Leites & Associates, Inc., Portland, OR.
• Was undergoing restoration at Astoria, OR., by volunteers of the Amphibious Forces Memorial Museum/LST 1166 Partners, when completed she will be the center piece of their museum

The January 19, 1984 date for the engine room flood conflicts with the history given on the LST1066.com page - unless these are two different events. Also, I can find no information about J.A. Leites & Associates, Inc.

I can find no entry for AL MANHAL 1 in Lloyd's Register of Shipping. The first entry I found for EL CENTROAMERICANO was in the 1983-84 edition and shows prior names of "ex AL MANHAL 1-80", "ex WASHTENAW COUNTY (LST 1166)", and "ex LST 1166-55"
The Lloyd’s Register of Shipping 1985-86 entry for EL CENTROAMERICANO has the following notation: "IN PORT DAMAGED 1/84". This damage date matches NavSource.
The 1986-87 through at least 1989-90 editions still have an entry for EL CENTROAMERICANO but list the owner as "Banco de Costa Rica S.A."

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USS Washtenaw County LST-1166 Covers Page 1     (DATE RANGE)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 2(n+) USS

1967-09-06

Note:

 

Other Information

USS WASHTENAW COUNTY earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon (2 awards), the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon (2 awards), the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation Ribbon (4 awards), the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (3 awards), the Vietnam Service Medal w/ 15 Campaign stars, the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation Ribbon (15 awards) and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - A county in southeastern Michigan.

 

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