VIREO ATO 144

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.

Lapwing Class Minesweeper Keel Laid 20 November 1918 - Launched 26 May 1919 USS VIREO Minesweeper No. 52 Commissioned 16 October 1919 USS VIREO AM 52 Reclassified (AM) 17 July 1920 USS VIREO AT 144 Reclassified Fleet Tug (AT) 1 June 1942 USS VIREO ATO 144 Reclassified Fleet Tug Old (ATO) 15 May 1944 - Decommissioned 18 April 1946 Struck from the Naval Register 8 May 1946 Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal 4 February 1947

 

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 incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). 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 Vireo AM-52 / AT-144 / ATO-144 Covers Page 1    (1935-46)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). 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 3r (A) "GUANTANAMO / BAY, CUBA"

1929-01-09

AM-52

 

Locy Type 3r (AC-BBT) "SAN PEDRO / CALIFORNIA"

1937-12-25

AM-52. Christmas Day, cachet by Walter G. Crosby

 

Locy Type 3z

1946-04-15

ATO-144. Struck after POD (1945-05-31)

 

Locy Type F "LABOR OMNIA / VINCIT" USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. V-11

1934-09-03

AM-52. Labor Day, cachet by Henry Kraus

 

Locy Type F "AMERICA DISCOVERED / BY CHRISTOPHER / COLUMBUS IN 1492"

1934-10-12

AM-52. Columbus Day, cachet by Henry Kraus
NEW Discovery, not listed in the USCS Postmark Catalog Vol. 5 (1997). From the collection of John Young

 

Other Information

NAMESAKE - Named for a group of exclusively New-World birds, mostly residing in the Nearctic and tropics. In general rather small nondescript mostly yellowish or greenish with varying amounts of gray, black or white

USS VIREO earned the American Defense Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 7 Battle Stars and the World War II Victory Medal during her Naval career.

USS Vireo was at Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941.

Two ships of the US Navy have borne the name VIREO - USS Vireo ATO-144 and USS Vireo MSC-205.

 

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