STOCKTON, Calif. - Five chief petty officer (CPO) selects from Navy Reserve Center (NRC) Alameda, NRC San Jose, and NRC Sacramento chipped and scraped paint off USS Lucid (MSO-458) during a CPO select season community relations project on Aug. 25, 2024.
Using scrapers and orbital sanders, the Sailors furthered an ongoing 12-year effort to refurbish the historic Lucid, which is poised to become the eventual centerpiece of the Stockton Maritime Museum. According to Stockton Maritime Museum President David Rajkovich, the finishing work the CPO selects contributed is just the latest in a long line of repairs and restoration for the Lucid.
“Because this ship was built out of wood and it hasn't been maintained for the last 50 years, it was pretty much abandoned. There's a lot of deferred maintenance and this ship was in derelict condition when we acquired it,” said Rajkovich. “The hard work has been done. The internal, the missing bulkheads, the rotted decks, overhead spaces, and the carpentry work has been done. Now we're just finishing up the exterior of the superstructure, sanding down to the bare wood, priming, painting, caulking, and repairing some little rot here and there.”
The Lucid is one of 101 all wood Aggressive-class minesweepers (MSO) ever built and the last salvageable MSO in the United States. According to Rajkovich, the specific purpose of the ship's design was to evade mine detection by having nothing magnetic aboard.
“Minesweepers from World War II were built out of steel. Some Soviet influence mines could detect a steel ship passing by its magnetic signature, or detect a change in water pressure as the ship passed over it and identify the type of ship it was and then either trigger or not trigger itself off. So, these ships were designed immediately after that.”
Built in Stockton in 1953, the Lucid was in service for 15 years completing five Western Pacific cruises and four tours in Vietnam. Upon completion of its refurbishment, this highly decorated ship is slated to take on a new mission as the cornerstone of the Stockton Maritime Museum.
“Not a lot of people know about that Navy history here. So, we're going to talk about that and the 10 shipyards that existed here at Stockton,” said Rajkovich. “At the peak of World War II, there were 10 shipyards here working 24-7 building smaller vessels, but also some larger ones. The largest floating dry docks ever built during World War II were built right here in Stockton and then deployed out to the Pacific.”
With sanders humming and scrapers scraping, Chief Operations Specialist (Select) Luis Montiel, assigned to Navy Reserve Center (NRC) Sacramento who began his Navy career as a Deck Seaman, was sentimental about both his early Navy days and the Lucid.
“It's kind of nostalgic going back to my active-duty days and just walking about the ship and seeing my fellow shipmates and, you know, just doing the day's work,” said Montiel. “This is a relic, if you will, a piece of Navy heritage and we're helping this old wooden ship come back to its glory. Eventually this will be a ship that the community gets to come and visit and learn something about the Navy.”
As guardians of Navy history and heritage, Chief Master-at-Arms (Select) Michelle Ibanez, assigned to Navy Reserve Center (NRC) San Jose, was keenly aware of how this project ties into the Chief initiation training she is participating in.
“I really enjoyed the scraping. We are chipping off the paint, scraping it off to get back to its bare bones so that it can be repainted and restored,” said Ibanez. “Being up there, singing Anchors Aweigh with other selects, and the Chiefs listening…it's kind of cool.
For Rajkovich, the CPO selects work helps get Lucid one step closer to its final destination. In approximately two years, the ship is scheduled to move from its current location at the Building Futures Academy to the downtown Stockton Waterfront at Weber Point where he believes many more people will be exposed to this vital regional and historic relic.
“This is such a unique piece of Navy history. I mean, being a relatively modern Navy ship built out of wood…most people have never seen or heard of anything like this before.”
For more information about the Stockton Maritime Museum and the USS Lucid, visit https://stocktonhistoricalmaritimemuseum.org/;
https://www.facebook.com/UssLucid; https://www.youtube.com/@stocktonmaritimemuseum7908.
| Date Taken: | 08.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.27.2024 09:41 |
| Story ID: | 479476 |
| Location: | STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 88 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Northern California Chief Selects Volunteer Aboard USS Lucid, by CPO John Pearl, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
