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and assumed operational control of Aviation Material Management Center.
The Army's "Aircraft Carrier"
On 12 April 1966 the most unusual Army aviation maintenance battalion of the 34th General Support Group steamed into Cam Ranh Bay. The unit was the 1st Transportation Corps Battalion (Depot) (Seaborne), the only Floating Aircraft Maintenance Facility in the Army. The idea for this floating facility originated during military operations in the Pacific Theater during World War II, when combat areas switched rapidly from island to island and sudden changes in the combat zones made ground aircraft maintenance facilities almost useless.
As early as 1962 the floating aircraft maintenance facility concept was being developed for use in the Vietnam combat zone, but it was not until 1965 that the Navy seaplane tender USS Albemarle was actually selected for conversion to this facility. On March 27, 1965 it was rechristened the USNS Corpus Christi Bay. An energetic Army aviator, Colonel John Sullivan, scurried from the Pentagon to the shipyard to the Aviation Material Command to consolidate the many facets of this unusual undertaking. The Army, which had been accused by the Air Force of beginning another "Air Corps" now was getting strange looks from the Navy with its attempts to get its own "aircraft carrier."
When the red tape had been cut (lengthwise), the ship was modified to carry approximately 370 Army maintenance personnel and supporting technicians and 130 civilian maritime crewmen to operate the ship. Thirty-seven different production and support services were established aboard the ship enabling the facility to perform all maintenance functions of a depot level repair facility, including overhauling and rebuilding aircraft components. One of the most remarkable innovations was a technical data library on board which contained a complete file of 180,000 engineer drawings on film of aircraft systems, components, and special tools. In its library they had 785,000 images that could be broadcast throughout strategic areas on a closed circuit TV. In a sense, the ship represented an extension of the large aircraft maintenance facility at Corpus Christi, Texas, directly to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam.
When the Corpus Christi Bay first arrived at Cam Ranh Bay, extensive security precautions were taken to protect the ship from enemy action. The most serious threat was envisioned to be sabo[tage]