Stuff You Should Know
USS Tularosa was a Mettawee-class gasoline tanker laid down on October 31, 1944 and launched on December 17, the same year. It was commissioned on January 10, 1945 under Lt. Rex Montgomery Stagner’s command with the hull number AOG-43 and it served in the US Navy for 1 year until it was decommissioned on April 23, 1946. During its activities, the ship carried a complement of 62 people onboard and had the main missions in Norfolk, Bermuda, Midway Island, Aruba, Panama, Oahu, San Diego or Pearl Harbor. After the decommissioning, the ship was struck from the Navy List on May 21, 1946 and sold to National Metal & Steel Corporation from Terminal Island in California in 1964.