TAPPAHANNOCK AO 43

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.

Mattaponi Class Fleet Oiler Keel Laid December 24 1941 Launched April 18 1942 as JORKAY Acquired by U.S. Navy May 29 1942 USS TAPPAHANNOCK AO-43 Commissioned June 22 1942 Assigned to Naval Transportation Service (NTS) July 1 1947 Assigned to Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) October 1949 Decommissioned February 3 1950 Laid up in Reserve Fleet Recommissioned March 9 1951 - Decommissioned January 1955 Assigned to Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) USNS TAPPAHONNACK T-AO-43 Placed In Service December 12 1956 - Out of Service November 18 1957 Laid up December 3 1957 in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Beaumont Group USS TAPPAHANNOCK AO-43 Recommissioned May 31 1966 - Decommissioned March 6 1970 Laid up October 16 1970 in National Defense Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay Group Struck from Naval Register July 15 1976 Sold September 16 1987 for scrap

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. Covers Page 1     (1942-46)

 

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	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

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1st Commissioning June 22 1942 to February 3 1950

 

Locy Type 3z (BTB)

1942-08-12

Censored wartime (WWII) use

 

Locy Type 9uz*

1943-11-15 to 1943-11-29

Mark from back of cover

 

Other Information

TAPPAHANNOCK earned 9 battle stars for World War II service and 7 campaign stars for Vietnam War service

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons...
Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive, April 7 1943) - China Service Medal (extended) - American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (9) - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp) - National Defense Service Medal (2) - Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (1-Korea, Oct.66) - Vietnam Service Medal (7) - Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal

NAMESAKE - The cognate name for Virginia's Rappahannock River in Essex County, Va., and the name of an Indian village founded on its southern bank in about 1680

 

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