USS Graffias ( AF - 29 ) USS " Graffias " ( AF - 29 ) , a , is the only ship of the United States Navy to have this name . The name " Graffias " is another name for the star Beta Scorpii in the constellation Scorpius . The " Graffias " was originally laid down in 1943 as " Topa Topa " , a Maritime Commission type ( C2 - S - E1 ) hull under Maritime Commission contract ( MC hull 1610 ) at the Gulf Shipbuilding Company , Chickasaw , Alabama . The ship was acquired by the United States Navy on 19 February 1944 and subsequently converted by the Bethlehem Steel Company , Baltimore , Maryland . The " Graffias " was commissioned at Baltimore on 28 October 1944 , with Lieutenant Commander B . P . Caraher in command . Initial operations . After a brief shakedown along the East Coast , " Graffias " sailed for the Pacific on 25 November as a unit of ServRon Ten . Reaching Ulithi on 31 December , she discharged her valuable cargo of provisions and returned to San Francisco , California , a month later . Laden with foodstuffs and provisions for the staging areas and the front , " Graffias " made two more San Francisco - Ulithi voyages through May 1945 . The refrigerator - cargo ship returned to Pearl Harbor on 31 May and from there sailed again to Ulithi with provisions , returning to Hawaii on 14 July . After repairs at Pearl Harbor , " Graffias " sailed to Adak , Alaska , reaching port on 18 August . With the Japan ese capitulation , she began a new task : bringing desperately needed provisions to the starving island and to American occupation forces . " Graffias " reached Ominato , Honshū , on 9 September , and after replenishing American bases at Wakayama , Nagasaki , and Sasebo , sailed for the United States with home and discharge - bound passengers . Putting in at Seattle on 26 October , she disembarked her passengers and checked into Bremerton Navy Yard for overhaul . By January 1946 , " Graffias " was well embarked on the routine which she was to follow until the Korean War , replenishing scattered American bases across the Pacific . Taking on cargo at Seattle or San Francisco , she would discharge provisions at such far - flung points as Wake Island , Eniwetok , Kwajalein , Bikini , Okinawa , the Philippines , Guam , Saipan , Formosa , Shanghai , Hong Kong , and Yokosuka . These Pacific replenishment cruises , whose duration was 2½ months on the average , were supplemented by periodic overhauls and participation in various fleet exercises . Korean War . When war broke out in Korea in June 1950 , " Graffias " sailed to Sasebo , Japan , her new home port , to begin the vital task of provisioning United States and United Nations ships and troops . For three years she shuttled between Sasebo and various at sea replenishment areas to effect cargo transfer , as well as making frequent stops along the Korean coast . As the conflict ended with an armistice in August 1953 , " Graffias " remained on duty with the 7th Fleet to continue her task of replenishing ships and troops . Replenishment cruises took her across the ocean to Hong Kong and Formosa as well as Okinawa and the Philippines . During the intensification of the Quemoy - Matsu situation in the summer of 1955 , and thereafter , " Graffias " made frequent stops at Formosa to provision American and Chinese Nationalist forces as well as an enlarged 7th Fleet . In the decade that followed , " Graffias " operated almost continuously out of Sasebo supplying American naval ships in Far Eastern ports especially , in the Philippines , Formosa , Hong Kong and Vietnam . She departed Sasebo on 26 February 1964 for her new home port of San Francisco . Vietnam War . Following a thorough overhaul , she headed westward again on 27 June and reached Yokosuka on 13 July . On the last day of July , she sailed for Subic Bay after the Gulf of Tonkin incident . With and in the Gulf of Tonkin 4 August , " Graffias " was ordered to the area to provide logistic support . A week after the attack , she replenished the two destroyer s and subsequently supplied many other ships of the 7th Fleet . After setting a replenishment record during the deployment by transferring supplies at an average rate of 168 . 9 short tons per hour , " Graffias " steamed home via Hong Kong , Yokosuka , and Pearl Harbor , arriving in San Francisco on 12 October . Following two deployments to the Far East in 1965 , supporting the Allied forces in Vietnam , " Graffias " operated along the Pacific Coast in 1966 until sailing for Oriental waters on 10 December . On the last day of 1966 she departed Yokosuka to resume underway replenishment operations supplying ships of the 7th Fleet fighting off Vietnam in 1967 . USS Graffias returned to her homeport in April 1967 after a port call in Hawaii where one of her boilers was repaired . She sailed again in August 1967 to the western Pacific and the waters off the coast of Vietnam , under the command of Captain Thomas B . Hayward . Captain Hayward departed Graffias in June 1968 for duty in Washington , D . C . He eventually was promoted to Admiral and concluded his illustrious career as the Chief of Naval Operations . Captain Hayward was instrumental in bringing the ship and her crew home for Christmas on 23 December 1967 , the ship ' s first Christmas in the United States since 1950 . Graffias again set sail in late July 1968 to support the war effort off the coast of Vietnam , returning to San Francisco in November 1968 . USS Graffias was decommissioned in 1969 . " Graffias " earned eight battle star s for Korean War service and seven campaign star s for Vietnam War service .