USS Guardian (MCM-5)

History

USS Guardian (MCM-5) was an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship of the United States Navy, and was the second Navy ship to bear that name. The hulls of the Avenger-class ships were constructed of wood with an external coat of fiberglass.

Guardian was laid down on 8 May 1985 by Peterson Builders, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin; launched on 20 June 1987; and commissioned on 16 December 1989. In 2010, she became the first mine countermeasures vessel in the Seventh Fleet modified for a mixed-sex crew, with separate head facilities.

On 17 January 2013, Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef, in a protected area of the Philippines in the middle of the Sulu Sea. The vessel was turned and pushed further onto the reef by wave action. Unable to be recovered, the vessel was decommissioned and struck from the US Naval Vessel Register on 15 February 2013. After removal of fuel and useful equipment, and after the upper superstructure was cut and lifted off of the minehunter, the wooden hull was sequentially chainsawed into four sections and lifted off of the reef by the dynamic positioning crane vessel MV Jascon 25. The bow section was cut and removed by crane on 26 March 2013. It was originally planned to cut the hull into three pieces, but the stern section had to be cut in half again. The last stern section was removed by crane from Tubbataha Reef on 30 March 2013.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Guardian (MCM-5), CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

1. 2013
   On 17 January 2013, following a port call and fuel stop in Subic, Guardian proceeded across the Sulu Sea, and entered the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park.
2. 2013
   The next day, 18 January 2013, the US Navy evacuated all 79 crew members from the minesweeper to USNS Bowditch, a survey ship and MV C Champion, a submarine and special warfare support vessel.
3. 2013
   On 29 January 2013, the US Navy announced the ship would be cut into three sections on the reef prior to removal, resulting in a total loss.
4. 2013
   On 8 April 2013, the US Navy turned over digital navigation charts and other evidence, documents and data of Guardian to the Philippine Maritime Casualty Investigating Team (MCIT) and responded to "Technical and Substantive" queries.
5. 2015
   On January 20, 2015, the United States government paid to the Philippine government a total of 87 million Philippine pesos, (or US$1.97 million).

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Guardian (MCM-5)”

More history

• Wikipedia: USS Guardian (MCM-5)