USS Viero

[Daltron]

Viero was a tiny little craft only roughly 180 feet long, built as a minesweeper.

 

This ship is like the R2-D2 of the US Navy.

 

You know, a ship whose sole job is to save gigantor ships like Pennsylvania and South Carolina from being transformed into massive puddles of suck and fumes wafting above the surface of the ocean while the crew drowns all because of a three foot diameter explosives-filled orb of doom.

 

Yes, indeed a Death Star.

 

She first served the East coast and Cuba until 1920 making sure none of these MLG pro -7 perception-modified mines of ultimate murder-death-kill were lurking underwater for some hapless battleship to derp its way into it.

 

She still served actively even though some of her sisters were being mothballed.

 

She had the distinction of towing out those old piece of crap German war-prize dreadnoughts out to sea so that BILLY FREAKING MITCHELL could prove to the world (almost unsuccessfully) that aircraft could uber-pwn any ship floating.

 

'To drop bombs from a plane will do as much good as dropping bags of flour. It would be my pleasure to stand on the bridge of any ship while it is under aerial attack.' ~ Newton Baker, the idiotic US MINISTER OF DEFENSE.

 

Right. Well anyway, she got sent to the Pacific and was sent to Pearl in 1940, towing target rafts, ships, and performing minesweeping duties.

 

From September to October 1941 she was sent ot Mare for an overhaul, and then sent back to Pearl. That's when the Japanese proceeded to curb-stomp the Americans with enough firepower to make even the toughest sailor crap his pants while praying to God that he wasn't about to get shot, but what he didn't realize is he was already shot in the chest so well crap now I'm dying.

 

The Viero's engines were dismantled due to repair or some other bogus reason, but that didn't restrain her gunners from entering ULTRA BERSERKER MODE +6 THAT GRANTS A +10 BOOST TO ALL DEFENSE ROLLS AND SAVING THROWS HECK YEAH 'MURRICA

 

Well the crew was so pissed off they assembled the engines right there and started flipping and dipping and skipping and tripping all over the harbor, even downing a Japanese plane in a massive ball of 'screw you' that vaguely resembled a middle finger. Or a [edited]. Whichever is more humiliating.

 

 

Well California wasn't lucky at all, so Viero was sent over to help salvage efforts. In very early 1942 (i.e. as soon as Enterprise got back) Viero served as her personal tender because Enterprise is so awesome it can get ships to stop what they're doing and come over to help because lol screw you do you know who I am I am an F-B-I AGENT.

 

I mean... USS Enterprise.

 

She mine-sweeped for a while until May 1942.

 

 

Well before the battle of Midway the Viero and another ship were reclassified as fleet tugs and sent to Midway. The Yorktown got hit, so Viero was called in to tow. Her engines were so small that the ship found it insanely difficult to tow Yorktown. It's like if I got out and try to pull a semi to my home, and the semi driver is like 'but lol bro it's in neutral'.

 

The destroyer Hammann came along side to help with repairs. I think you all know where this is going.

 

The Japanese sub I-168 fired a salvoe of torpedoes at Yorktown, breaking Hammann's back (killing many in the water due to the depth charges) and dooming Yorktown. I can't get why the destroyer screen didn't pick up the sub. I like to think this is because they were watching XXX porn on their iphones with their headphones in while muttering under their breath how much she liked it when in reality she's faking because she's only doing that to get paid, you're wasting your life away in front of a screen.

 

​Anyway, the destroyers had a large conniption fit and started depth charging random areas in a pissed-off blood rage, but it was inadequate, and I-168 slunked away to be sunk at a later date.

 

Well balls. Not only is there massive loss of life from the Hammann, the Yorktown is about to flop about and the depth charges from Hammann severely damaged the Viero's already small rudder. She said 'well screw you too' and took as many survivors onboard as she could and ran aground on Midway.

 

She was towed back to Pearl for repairs, and they made her into a straight-up fleet tug. Which is a promotion of sorts, I guess?

 

She was sent to Guadalcanal and helped tow gasoline and bombs to Henderson Airfield so that, you know, they'd have the very minor commodity of gas for the airplanes. She was helped by several destroyers. She was spotted by planes, and there were reports of surface ships around, so the Viero was abandoned so the much faster destroyer could get the crap out of Dodge, since Viero was like a grandma sitting in a smart car powered by a two-toed sloth who was making love to a tortoise.

 

But then the Zuikaku's aircraft played the Trolololo Card, which immediately sank the destroyer.

 

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

So all the Viero's men scrambled back onboard. She was left dead in the water completely, and a destroyer had to be called in to tow her back to Espiritu Santo. She made a full recovery.

 

After a break in Australia, she was sent back to Guadalcanal to help in the repairs of the blown apart cruisers left over from the crazy-insane battle of Tassafaronga. After that she towed target rafts off Guadal to help train destroyer crews. This got incredibly boring after a while.

 

She was sent to Paupa in 1943 just as Admiral Yamamoto initiated an attack on the island.

 

A destroyer was towing an LST or some crap right next to her and got pounded by the Japanese planes. Viero tried to take her under tow but she sank three miles out of Tulagi.

 

And THEN she went out to help the cripples that came from the Battle of Kula Gulf.

 

THEN she did her thing off Okinawa and the Phillipines.

 

As do it work it do it makes us harder better faster stronger tugs entered the fleet, the Viero wasn't needed anymore. She was decommissioned in 1946 and scrapped in '47.

 

Wiki stats:

 

Displacement: 840 tons

Length: 187 ft 10 in (57.25 m)

Beam: 35 ft 5 in (10.80 m)

Draught: 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m)

Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox header boilers, one 1,400shp Chester Shipbuilding   200psi saturated steam vertical triple expansion reciprocating engine, one shaft.

Speed: 15 knots

Complement: 186 (minesweeper)

72 (tug)

Armament: two 3" guns

 

Ordered: as Minesweeper No. 52

Laid down: 20 November 1918

Launched: 26 May 1919

Commissioned: 16 October 1919

Decommissioned: 18 April 1946

Struck: 8 May 1946

Fate: transferred from the Maritime Commission for disposal on 4 February 1947

[Wunderwaffen1945]

Slow down with that requests for +1s......and if you give us topic, it should be more useful or funny too  :Smile_trollface:

[Daltron]

Wunderwaffen1945, on 02 February 2013 - 07:31 AM, said:

Slow down with that requests for +1s......and if you give us topic, it should be more useful or funny too  :Smile_trollface:

I'm not doing this for +1s. Honestly, I don't even know what they do. I just love learning and making people laugh. That's all. Plus it was a good suggestion and I totally forgot about this ship.

Sorry it's not so good, it's 1:30 in the morning here lol

[Wunderwaffen1945]

Dont worry, it is not critic.......just try to slow down for a bit... cause topics go Down too fast and i cant read them all

PS: 10:30 here CET

[Krieg]

The "Little Tug that Could".

 

This could make for  a great childrens book  :Smile_veryhappy:

[Wunderwaffen1945]

Krieg, on 03 February 2013 - 01:50 AM, said:

The "Little Tug that Could".

This could make for  a great childrens book  :Smile_veryhappy:

Affirmative