USS Sperry (AS-12)

She was stationed at Guam from 11 July 1945 – 11 January 1946. During those six months, her stay in the Marianas was interrupted only once, in late November and early December, when she joined submarines Blenny, Blower, Blueback, Charr, Redfish, Sea Cat, and Segundo in a training cruise. They visited Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands and Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands before returning to Apra Harbor 15 December.

Eleven days into the new year, Sperry weighed anchor at Apra and headed for Long Beach, California. She arrived at Terminal Island on 20 February and began an extensive overhaul which was completed in July 1947. Unlike many of her sister ships, Sperry remained an active unit of the fleet, operating out of San Diego, California. She earned the coveted battle efficiency "E" three years in a row in 1948, 1949, and 1950. In 1949, she participated in Operation Miki, a war game which simulated the recapture of an enemy-occupied Oahu; and, while returning to San Diego, she operated in support of the first publicized firings of missiles from submarines. From 1950-1953, she serviced and supplied many of the submarines recommissioned for the Korean War. In 1952, she made her only voyage to the western Pacific, sailing sailed via Pearl Harbor, where she stayed from 6 August-21 September, and serving at Chi Chi Jima in the Bonin Islands from 2–9 October. She returned to the west coast of the United States on 25 October.

In December 1951, the battle lines in Korea were more or less stabilized along the 38th parallel, and hostilities slowly decreased over the next two years; Sperry gradually returned to her peacetime routine. Over the next 10 years, she continued to operate out of San Diego, spending most of her time in port servicing the submarines of the fleet, but occasionally getting underway for training cruises along the west coast. Her area of operation extended from Mexico north to Canada.

From April–September, 1961 Sperry was at Long Beach Naval Shipyard being brought up to date by a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization overhaul. In mid-September, she returned to her duties as submarine tender at San Diego, though now with the capability to service ballistic missile submarines.

Sperry serviced submarines out of San Diego for another twenty years, until finally decommissioned there on 30 September 1982 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register that same day. The old tender was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 February 1999, and was initially available for possible use as a museum ship.

On 9 August 2011, Sperry was sold by MARAD to ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Tx for $1,526,726 to be dismantled.[1] Sperry departed the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet on 28 September 2011 to be cleaned of marine growth and loose exterior paint by Allied Defense Recycling at the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard.[2] On 17 October 2011, Sperry departed Mare Island in tow behind the tug Rachel en route to the Panama Canal and transited the Panama Canal on 17 November 2011 being towed by Rachel.[3] Sperry subsequently arrived in Brownsville and was scrapped.

As of 2019, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named Sperry.