Twin Falls Victory was laid down under a
United States Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 167) on 27 December 1944 at
Portland, Oregon, by the
Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 6 February 1945; sponsored by Mrs. J. B. Pfietor. The ship was delivered on completion 4 April 1945 to the
War Shipping Administration (WSA) for operation by McCormick Steamship Company under a general agency agreement. On 24 June 1946 the Isthmian Steamship began operating the ship under a bareboat charter that continued under the
United States Maritime Commission (MC), successor to WSA, until brief operation by
General Steamship Corporation between 8 November and layup in the
Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet on 18 November 1948. The ship was briefly activated, operated by various companies under agreements and bareboat charters, placed in reserve fleets at Mobile, Alabama and in the
Hudson River. From 1950 to 1953,
Twin Falls Victory was operated by
States Marine Corporation. Between 1953 and 1958 American Export Lines operated the ship. and
Hungnam Evacuation, making her
merchant marine crew eligible for the
Korean Service Medal and the
United Nations Service Medal. On 25 February 1958 the ship was laid up with the
National Defense Reserve Fleet at its berthing area on the
James River in
Virginia. The ship was modified by equipping it with special navigation systems, AN/FPS-16 monopulse missile tracking radar, telemetry receiving equipment, AN/SPN-8 splash detection radar, AN/GMD-1A Rawinsonde tracking equipment and a balloon hangar, to house a Kytoon tethered blimp and as a weather balloon inflation shelter. The ship eventually was delivered to the
Atlantic Missile Range and operated by merchant marine crewmen and contractor technical staff. Pan American World Airways and its subcontractor RCA MTP operated the radar, telemetry, navigation and weather instrumentation aboard the ship. The ship was operated under the name USAF Twin Falls Victory until turned over to MSTS on 1 July 1964 at which time the ship was redesignated T-AGM-11
Twin Falls and continued to serve as a mobile tracking platform for recording data on
missiles and
satellites that were out of range of land-based
tracking stations. On 15 May 1963, she was positioned approximately 350 miles (560 km) ESE of
Savannah, Georgia (near ) as part of
Project Mercury, to track
Gordon Cooper's extended
MA-9 mission. In August 1964 the USNS Twin Falls sailed from Port Canaveral, FL. After a short stop at Ascension Island the Twin Falls sailed to Cape Town, South Africa, en route to the Indian Ocean to track a scheduled missile launch Plans were in place to resupply in Perth, Australia, but due to missile launch schedule changes, she sailed to Port Louis, Mauritius instead. After leaving Mauritius, the Twin Falls sailed to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, arriving there in Dec 1964. In early Jan 1965 the ship was again anchored at Ascension Island. Her next port-of-call was Trinidad and the next 6 months were spent in the Caribbean Sea area with Trinidad as her home port. In October 1969, the Air Force determined that
Twin Falls was no longer necessary to its mission. Placed in custody of the
Maritime Administration (MARAD) on 22 May 1970, she was slated for disposal. Presumably this was when she was redesignated T-AGS-37. On 2 November 1972 the ship was transferred on loan to the
New York City and she was struck from the
Naval Vessel Register on 6 November 1972.
Training ship On 30 November 1972 the ship was transferred to the
New York City Board of Education. She was returned to MARAD on 8 June 1982. == Fate ==