USS Brunswick (ATS-3)
The third USS Brunswick, she was laid down on 27 May 1968 at Lowestoft, England by Brooke Marine Ltd.; launched on 14 October 1969; sponsored by the wife of Vice Admiral David C. Richardson, USN (Ret.When Brunswick departed Singapore, she headed for the Malacca Strait where she rendezvoused with the task force leaving the Indian Ocean.Brunswick returned to Subic Bay on the 28th and spent the next week engaged in target towing duty in the local operating area.Brunswick reentered Pearl Harbor on 6 December and commenced a leave and upkeep period that lasted through the end of the year and into 1975.She spent two days at Numazu conducting sea bottom surveys for amphibious landing mats before moving on to Yokosuka.She arrived in San Francisco, California on the 28th and began preparations to tow the former USS Oriskany (CV-34) to Bremerton, Washington.On 18 April, after 10 days of preparations in Pearl Harbor, the salvage tug embarked upon another voyage to the west coast of the United States.Undocked on 14 November, the salvage tug moved to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to complete the overhaul.Salvage training, diver qualifications, and various general ship's drills constituted her activity until mid-October when she began preparing for another deployment to the western Pacific.That visit was significant in that the United States had recently severed diplomatic ties with that country to establish relations with the Peking government.Serving as a diplomatic barometer, she recorded fair weather as the Taiwanese greeted her and her crew warmly during the six-day call.She stopped at Guam and picked up an additional tow, USS Tuscumbia (YTB-762), at Midway Island before arriving back in Pearl Harbor on the afternoon of 24 May.Following the usual post-deployment leave and upkeep period, Brunswick resumed normal operations out of Pearl Harbor in late June.For the next year, the salvage tug conducted training operations in the Hawaiian Islands and underwent the usual series of inspections and evaluations.She arrived in Chinhae on 26 October and spent the next two weeks engaged in training exercises with divers of the Republic of Korea Navy.The salvage tug arrived in Pearl Harbor on 8 December and began the usual post-deployment leave and upkeep period.Her return to normal duty in the Hawaiian Islands lasted until 13 April when she began a two-month availability at pierside in Pearl Harbor.On 5 October the ship departed Pearl Harbor bound for the west coast with two floating drydocks (YRDMs) in tow.