Stuff You Should Know
USS Rio Grande was a Patapsco-class gasoline tanker laid down on June 30, 1942 and launched on September 23, the same year. It was commissioned on April 10, 1943 under Lt. Comdr. Lawrence J. Hasse’s command with the hull number AOG-3 and it served in the US Navy for 9 years until it was decommissioned on January 6, 1956. During its activities, the ship carried a complement of 131 people onboard and had the main missions in Alaska, Seattle, Norfolk, French Indochina, Korea, Shemya Island or San Diego. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on July 1, 1960 and sold to General Metals in 1972, where it was subsequently scrapped.