USS Ozark (LSV-2) - Operating As MCS-2

Operating As MCS-2

Ozark’s hull classification was changed 7 February 1955 from LSV–2 to MCS–2. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register 1 September 1961, she was returned to the Maritime Administration and placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and berthed at Beaumont, Texas.

She was reacquired by the Navy 19 June 1963 for conversion to a mine countermeasures support ship by the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation and reinstated on the Naval Register 1 October 1963. Recommissioned USS Ozark (MCS-2) on 24 June 1966 (complete with the ship's bell from second Ozark) she was assigned to MinRon 8, homeported in Charleston, South Carolina where she became flagship for Commander, Mine Forces, U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

After shakedown and intensive training at Guantanamo Bay, she remained in port for the rest of the year. With the Navy’s first minesweeping launches (MSL, Mark IV) and helicopters (RH3A) on board, Ozark conducted her first mine countermeasures training in the Charleston area early in 1967.

After a cruise to several western European ports in 1967, she continued to operate in the Charleston, South Carolina, area until deploying to the Mediterranean 18 November. Returning to Charleston 14 February 1969 she began material maintenance and upkeep followed by periodic deployment to the West Indies and the South Atlantic Ocean. Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 1 April 1974, she was towed to Destin, Florida and anchored there while being used as a target by the Air Force from Eglin Air Force Base. Ozark was hit multiple times with large practice (non-explosive) bombs but was not sunk. In September 1979, Ozark was ripped loose from her anchorage by Hurricane Frederic and driven onto the beach near Perdido Key, Florida. Naval units from Norfolk, Pearl Harbor and Hawthorne, Nevada participated in a salvage effort that began in October 1979. She was returned to Destin, and unintentionally sunk with a Maverick missile launched from an F-4 from Eglin AFB in 1981. The wreck currently lies upright and intact in 330 feet of water.