USS Wacissa ( AOG - 59 ) USS " Wacissa " ( AOG - 59 ) was a acquired by the U . S . Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet , and to remote Navy stations . " Wacissa " was laid down on 11 November 1944 at Savage , Minnesota , by Cargill , Inc . ; launched on 15 June 1945 ; sponsored by Mrs . Albert Ford ; and completed on 20 May 1946 . Declared surplus to U . S . Navy needs on 1 June 1946 , the ship was authorized for disposal on the 5th . Struck from the Navy list on 23 April 1947 , " Wacissa " was delivered to the Maritime Commission during the following summer and berthed with the Maritime Commission Reserve Fleet at Lake Charles , Louisiana . She was then placed on a list of ships slated for disposal via sale . Temporary reserve status . The U . S . Navy , however , requested that the gasoline tanker be taken off the sale list . She was accordingly transferred to the Naval Reserve Fleet berthing area at Orange , Texas , on 3 April 1948 . However , as facilities for upkeep and preservation were minimal at Orange , " Wacissa " was towed to New Orleans , Louisiana , for a preservation process which would prepare the ship for retention in the Navy ' s inactive fleet . Towed back to Orange , Texas , the ship was reinstated on the U . S . Navy list on 30 April , inactivated on 2 May , and placed in reserve on the 3rd . Korean War activation . The onset of the Korean War caused an expansion of the United States Navy . On 18 February 1952 , " Wacissa " was transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service ( MSTS ) and received the designation T - AOG - 59 . She took part in Operation Sumac , exercises conducted in the North Atlantic from May through July 1952 , and subsequently carried cargoes of high test aviation gasoline and lubricating oils to Goose Bay , Labrador , and Argentia , Newfoundland . She ran aground at Polaris Reef , Baffin Bay , on 9 October . Floated free on the 16th , the tanker then put into Halifax , Nova Scotia , for repairs which lasted from 25 October to 19 December . She then resumed her operations along the east coast and continued them into the spring of 1954 . Reassignment to MSTS . On 25 May 1954 , " USNS Wacissa " was placed out of service , in reserve , and was assigned to the Florida Group , Atlantic Reserve Fleet . Berthed at the Mayport Basin of the Green Cove Springs facility , the gasoline tanker remained in reserve until returned to MSTS on 24 May 1956 . She carried a cargo of gasoline and oils from Aruba , Netherlands West Indies , to San Pedro and Long Beach , California , via the Panama Canal , and operated for a time off the west coast , stopping at Seattle , Washington , and San Francisco , California . She was then inactivated at the latter port and delivered to the Maritime Administration - the renamed Maritime Commission - and , on 16 October 1956 , was delivered to the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay , California . Transfer to the U . S . Air Force . Remaining in custodial status from that date , she lay there inactive until 8 April 1957 , when she was transferred back to MSTS to resume her lubricant and fuel carrying duties off the west coast . " USNS Wacissa " was transferred to the Department of the Air Force on 16 September 1957 . On loan to Canada . Soon thereafter , she was turned over to the Canadian government to operate with the Northern Transportation Co . , Ltd . — the firm which had assumed responsibility for the annual resupplying of Distant Early Warning ( DEW ) line radar stations in the central Arctic . The Canadian government operated the tanker in these northern climes until 1963 . Final decommissioning . " Wacissa " was returned to the United States Navy in 1963 . Struck from the Navy list on 1 December 1963 , she was transferred to the Maritime Administration in May 1964 and was then sold in the same month to the Nicolai Joffre Corp . , of Beverly Hills , California , for scrapping .