USNS Kingsport (T-AG-164)

USNS Kingsport (T-AG-164) began its career as Kingsport Victory (T-AK-239), which served as a cargo vessel during World War II. The ship was laid up in the James River Reserve Fleet after transfer to the Maritime Commission on 29 September 1947. On 8 August 1948 the ship was withdrawn from reserve to become USAT Kingsport Victory under charter to the Army until transfer to the Navy. The ship was involved in a legal case, JOHANSEN, v. UNITED STATES, involving rights of Army civilian crew in personal injury cases. Kingsport Victory was acquired by the United States Navy from the Maritime Commission on 1 March 1950, and carried military cargo for the next eleven years as USNS Kingsport Victory (T-AK-239). On 24 September 1961, she was delivered to the Portland, Oregon facilities of Willamette Iron & Steel Company where she underwent conversion to a satellite communication ship. On 14 November 1961 she was renamed Kingsport and reclassified AG-164.

Designed for use by the United States Army Satellite Communications Agency in the defense satellite communications programs, Project ADVENT, Kingsport Victory underwent extensive alteration during conversion. A special high frequency radio station was installed for ship-to-shore communications. She received advanced tracking and telemetry equipment and anti-roll stabilization tanks. In addition, a 30-foot, gyro-stabilized, computer-oriented, triaxial, parabolic antenna was installed on her afterdeck. Housed in a 53-foot, plastic, air-pressurized radome, this antenna permitted precision tracking of a high altitude satellite at any angle above the horizon.

In August 1963, President John F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C., telephoned Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa aboard the Kingsport docked in Lagos Harbor via Syncom 2, the first geosynchronous communication satellite. It was the first live two-way call between heads of state by satellite.

After completion of her communications support role the USNS Kingsport became a bathymetric and acoustic survey ship supporting undersea surveillance.

It was named in honor of Kingsport, Tennessee.

Kingsport was decommissioned on 31 Jan 1984 and donated for scrap 21 Jan 1992.