USS Frank Cable
 | This article needs to be updated. |
_and_USS_Frank_Cable_(AS-40)_at_Apra_Harbor,_Guam,_on_23_May_2002_(6640652).jpg) USS Salt Lake City pulls alongside USS Frank Cable. | |
| Career | 
|
|---|---|
| Awarded: | 20 November 1974 |
| Laid down: | 2 March 1976 |
| Launched: | 14 January 1978 |
| Commissioned: | 29 October 1979 |
| Fate: | Template:Ship fate box active in service |
| Homeport: | Guam |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 22,826 tons full, 13,758 tons light, 9068 tons dead weight |
| Length: | 649 ft |
| Beam: | 85 ft |
| Draft: | 26-29 ft |
| Propulsion: | two boilers, one propeller |
| Complement: | 81 officers, 1270 enlisted |
| Armarment | 2 × 40mm AA guns, 4 × 20mm AA guns |
| Motto: | "The Warship that fixes Warships." |
USS Frank Cable (AS-40) was built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company, Seattle, WA. The ship was christened on January 14, 1978 by Mrs. Rose A. Michaelis, wife of Admiral F. H. Michaelis, then Chief of Naval Material. She is named for Frank Taylor Cable, a electrical engineer who had worked as an electrician and trial captain for the USS Holland (SS-1) This was the first submarine of the US Navy built by the Holland Torpedo Boat Company at [Ret.] Navy Lt. Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Frank Cable was designed to a Submarine tender of the Los Angeles class submarines. The ship spent 1980 until 1996 as the repair ship for COMSUBRON FOUR and EIGHTEEN in Charleston, South Carolina, tending Sturgeon class attack submarines and Benjamin Franklin class submarines. Frank Cable began decommissioning in 1996, but then was reactivated and refitted to replace the USS Holland (AS-32) in the Western Pacific as Commander Seventh Fleet’s mobile repair and support platform.
Since arriving in Guam, Frank Cable has visited many Western Pacific ports in support of U.S. forces. In 1997, the ship was heavily involved with the rescue and recovery efforts following the Korean Airline Flight 801 crash on Guam, and also in the recovery and clean-up efforts following Typhoon Paka. From 1980 to 2003, Frank Cable garnered many awards as a unit of both the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, including seven Meritorious Unit Commendations, nine Battle Efficiency "E" awards and three Golden Anchor Awards. Frank Cable’s most recent recognition was a Humanitarian Service Medal for support provided in recovery efforts on Guam following Super Typhoon Pongsona in 2002.
Accidents
On December 1(Guam time), 2006, aboard the Frank Cable a steam line ruptured. Two sailors were killed and seven others injured.[1]
References
This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register as well as various press releases and news stories.