USS Valor ( AM - 472 ) USS " Valor " ( AM - 472 ) was an built for the United States Navy in 1952 . She was the second U . S . Naval vessel to bear the name . " Valor " was laid down on 28 April 1952 at Manitowoc , Wisconsin by the Burger Boat Company ; launched on 13 May 1953 ; sponsored by Mrs . Walter J . Kohler ; towed through the Great Lakes and down the St . Lawrence River to Boston , Massachusetts ; and commissioned at Boston on 29 July 1954 with Lieutenant Charles R . Davis in command . Service history . Following preliminary trials , " Valor " joined Mine Division ( MinDiv ) 82 , Mine Squadron ( MinRon ) 8 , Mine Force , Atlantic Fleet , on 14 September . Immediately thereafter , she steamed to Key West , Florida where she conducted shakedown training through the end of the year . In February 1955 she entered the Charleston Naval Shipyard for an extensive overhaul . On the 7th of that month , she was redesignated ocean minesweeper USS " Valor " ( MSO - 472 ) . Atlantic Fleet Mine Force . " Valor " completed repairs and modifications in October and rejoined the Mine Force , though on a detached assignment at the Engineering Experimental Station at Annapolis , Maryland as an engineering prototype . That phase of testing ended on 23 November , and " Valor " returned to Charleston , but continued experimental duty until December . After that , the minesweeper began normal duty with the Atlantic Fleet Mine Force based at Charleston . That service , broken only by a voyage to Halifax , Nova Scotia in April and May 1956 , and by a six - month deployment to the Mediterranean from 29 August 1957 to 12 February 1958 , lasted until March 1958 . On 1 March 1958 she began a 10 - year association with the Navy Mine Defense Laboratory located at Panama City , Florida . On 16 March she departed Charleston and , on the 29th , arrived in her new home port . In July 1959 , after 15 months of duty at Panama City ( punctuated by an overhaul at Charleston during the winter of 1958 and 1959 ) " Valor " took her first break from mine countermeasures development work when she was deployed to northern European waters . Attached to the Belgian Navy . Departing Charleston on 24 July , the minesweeper arrived in Ostend , Belgium on 11 August . There , she changed operational control from the United States Navy to the Belgian Force Navale and joined the Belgian Minesweeper Division 191 . On 17 August she and the other elements of the division departed Ostend for a voyage to the waters surrounding the Belgian Congo . The warships arrived in Congolese waters on 9 September and commenced a series of multinational minesweeping exercises involving American , Belgian , and Portuguese units . The exercises ended on 21 September , and " Valor " and her division mates headed back to Ostend where they arrived on 17 October . " Valor " continued to operate locally out of Ostend , with the Belgian minesweeper division , until 15 January 1960 when she returned to United States Navy control and headed , via Rota , Spain , back to the United States . Return to the United States . The minesweeper arrived back in Panama City on 14 February 1960 . Over the next eight years , " Valor " continued to operate out of Panama City in support of the mine countermeasures development program of the Navy Mine Defense Laboratory . However , that routine was broken frequently , on three occasions by six - month deployments to the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean , but more often by overhauls , refresher training , and exercises in the West Indies . Her association with the Mine Defense Laboratory ended on 1 March 1968 when she received orders transferring her to MinDiv 44 and reassigning her to Charleston as her home base . The ship operated from that port for the remaining two years of her Navy career . During that period , " Valor " made one more deployment to the Mediterranean between April and August 1968 . Decommissioning and sale . Early in October 1969 the minesweeper began a pre - rehabilitation overhaul at Charleston in preparation for extensive modifications to update her equipment . She never finished those modifications , for early in 1970 a board of inspection and survey found her to be " beyond economical repair " and recommended that she be disposed of . She was decommissioned sometime in July 1970 and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 February 1971 . On 30 August 1971 , she was sold to Mr . Charles Gural of Rahway , New Jersey for $ 1 , 700 . 00 for scrapping .