 USS Harnett County (AGP-821) in South Vietnamese waters, c. 1967–1970. Atop her flight deck is a Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw helicopter (left) and a Navy Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron Three (HAL-3) "Seawolf" UH-1B Huey gunship. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USS LST-821 |
| Builder | Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company, Evansville, Indiana |
| Laid down | 19 September 1944 |
| Launched | 27 October 1944 |
| Commissioned | 14 November 1944 |
| Decommissioned | March 1946 |
| Renamed | USS Harnett County (LST-821), 1 July 1955 |
| Namesake | Harnett County, North Carolina |
| Recommissioned | 20 August 1966 |
| Decommissioned | 12 October 1970 |
| Reclassified | AGP-821, 1970 |
| Honors and awards |
|
| Fate | Transferred to South Vietnam, 12 October 1970 |
 South Vietnam | |
| Name | RVNS My Tho |
| Namesake | Mỹ Tho |
| Acquired | 12 October 1970 |
| Identification | HQ-800 |
| Fate | Transferred to the Philippines, 5 April 1976 |
 Philippines | |
| Name | BRP Sierra Madre |
| Namesake | Sierra Madre |
| Acquired | 5 April 1976 |
| Identification | LT-57 |
| Fate | Deliberately grounded 1999 at Second Thomas Shoal (South China Sea).[1] 9°47′27.64″N 115°51′24.00″ECoordinates: 9°47′27.64″N 115°51′24.00″E Turned into an advanced outpost. In Commission.[2] Used as an outpost since 2014. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | LST-542-class tank landing ship |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 328 ft (100 m) |
| Beam | 50 ft (15 m) |
| Draft |
|
| Propulsion | 2 × General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders |
| Speed | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Boats & landing craft carried | 2 LCVPs |
| Troops | 16 officers, 147 enlisted men |
| Complement | 7 officers, 104 enlisted men |
| Armament |
|
USS LST-821, renamed USS Harnett County (LST-821/AGP-281), was an LST-542-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Harnett County, North Carolina and was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. She served the United States Navy in World War II and the Vietnam War. She was transferred to South Vietnam's Republic of Vietnam Navy, which named her RVNS My Tho (HQ-800).
After the Vietnam War, Harnett County was transferred to the Philippine Navy, which named her BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57). In 1999 the Philippine government deliberately had her run aground on Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands to serve as an outpost of the Philippine Marine Corps to assert Philippine sovereignty in the country's dispute with China over the ownership of the Spratly Islands. To this day, she still serves that function.
A PEEK INSIDE THAT RUSTY PHILIPPINE LST REEF OUTPOST
We’ve talked about the old BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57) several times in the past few years, you know, the Philippine Navy’s reefed landing ship that is used as a desolate outpost against the Chinese military might pushing into the PI’s EEZ. Well, PI SECDEF Delfin Lorenzana posted some images of a special airlift of Christmas dinner to the garrison last week.
While most of us celebrated Christmas with our families, there are others who did not have that chance to do so, like our soldiers who are manning our islands in the West Philippine Sea. So that they may have something to celebrate with, the Philippine Navy airdropped foodstuffs, including lechon [roasted baby pig], for their noche buena.
What can be seen in a light platoon (24~) men worth of Marines and supporting Navy common/corpsmen in the ship’s topside jury-rigged tin and wood structure.
On the bright side, it looks like the ship is intact after Super Typhoon Rai/Typhoon Odette, which claimed more than 400 lives in the archipelago earlier this month. Further, it shows that the vessel is in helicopter range of the PI Navy’s five short-legged AW109E light helicopters, aircraft capable fo carrying FN-made rocket and machine gun pods, especially important because the Chinese have been making it hard to accomplish seaborne resupply.
The PI last May acquired two Leonardo AW159 Lynx Wildcat ASW-capable helicopters, which could prove further use to the fleet.
PHILIPPINES FLEXING OVER DEMANDS THEY UNREEF THEIR ANCIENT LST
We’ve talked in the past about the 2,000-tons of tetanus shots that is the mighty BRP Sierra Madre (L-57), formerly the ex-USS Harnett County LST-821, which has been grounded on Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Reef) in the South China Sea since 1999, serving as a forward base for a squad-sized group of PI Marines and a Navy radioman. The move came as a counterstroke to China’s controversial, and likely unlawful, armed occupation of Mischief Reef— barely 200 kilometers from the Philippine island of Palawan– in 1995.
Well, in recent weeks, the Chinese have aggressively prevented resupply and rotation of the guard force on the Sierra Madre, warning off civilian vessels approaching the condemned LST with water cannons.
Finally, on 22 November, two civilian boats, Unaizah May 1 and Unaizah May 3, were able to tie up next to the Sierra Madre and unload, while a Chinese coast guard ship in the vicinity sent a RIB with three persons to closely shadow the effort, taking photos and videos, acts the Philipines described as “a form of intimidation and harassment.”
To this, China says Ayungin Shoal is “part of China’s Nansha Qundao (Spratly Islands)” and has told the PI to quit the reef and scrap the rusty outpost.
From Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana on China’s demand to remove BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal:
Ayungin Shoal lies within our EEZ where we have sovereign rights. Our EEZ was awarded to us by the 1982 UNCLOS which China ratified. China should abide by its international obligations that it is part of.
Furthermore, the 2016 Arbitral award ruled that the territorial claim of China has no historic nor legal basis. Ergo, we can do whatever we want there and it is they who are actually trespassing.
With that, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief, Lt. Gen. Andres Centino, on Monday said that his leadership would ensure better living conditions of the troops manning the BRP Sierra Madre, refurbishing the vessel in place as a permanent government post.
Mic drop.
WRECKS, RATS, AND ROACHES IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA
The loneliest warship in the world isn’t going away any time soon. Yup, you know I’m a sucker for the tales of the BRP Sierra Madre (Ex-USS Harnett County LST-821, in Philippines service as LT-57). You know, the poor old WWII landing ship hard aground (on purpose) in the South China Sea serving as a forward base for a group of PI Marines and a Navy radioman.
Well it looks like a CNN reporter paid em a visit and the place looks like 2000-tons of tetanus shots. Not just any reporter but Tomas Etzler– a journalist and filmmaker who has covered everything from the war in Afghanistan to the 2011 Japanese tsunami during a career that has spanned nearly three decades. Great videos on the page, go there now and be ready to cry.
WARSHIP WEDNESDAY MARCH 19, THE TALES OF HARNETT COUNTY
Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week.
– Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday March 19, The Tales of Harnett County
Here we see the utilitarian beauty that is the LST-542-class tank landing ship USS Harnett County (LST-821). Most LST’s, first conceived during WWII to drop troops and supplies right on a beachline from their scissor doors on the bow, are named for counties, and Harnett County (named after a North Carolina county which is a part of the greater Raleigh–Durham–Chapel Hill area) is the only US Navy ship ever on the Navy List to hold this name.
(Not LST821, but shown to give you an idea of the LST doors)
But she didn’t always have this moniker. When she was laid down 19 Sept 1944 at the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Company, Evansville, Indiana, she just had her hull number as a reference (LST-821). You see the Navy built so many of these 4000-ton, 328-ft long ships that they were just given numbers. She did not pick up the USS Harnett County dub until 1955.
The LST-542 class provided yeoman’s service across both the European and Pacific TOs during WWII. These ships were improvements from the older 491-class and added a navigation bridge, the installation of a water distillation plant with a capacity of 4,000 gallons per day, the removal of the tank deck ventilator tubes from the center section of the main deck, the strengthening of the main deck to carry a smaller Landing Craft Tank (LCT), and an upgrade in armor and armament, with the addition of a 3″/50 caliber gun. She could float in as little as 2-feet of water when unloaded and carry a landing team of 16 officers, 147 enlisted men.
When commissioned 14 November 1944, she was rushed to the Pacific and landed men and cargo on Okinawa during the pivotal battles there in 1945. The, when peace broke out, she was decommissioned and placed into reserve. She won a battlestar for that campaign.
In Vietnam, note the shallow water mud stir, the tiny 26-foot PBRs alongside, and the choppers on deck
When Vietnam came she was dusted out of her decade in mothballs in 1966 to provide logistical and troop support during that conflict, taking part in more than a dozen operations over the course of four years, winning 3 Navy Unit Commendations, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, and 9 battlestars. For a long time she served as a Patrol Craft Tender, gassing up Navy PBR’s, Navy SEAL teams and Seawolf helicopters, and USCG units and as such was re-designated USS Harnett County (AGP-821). As such she was a proud member and mothership of the Mekong Delta Yacht Club
In October 1970 she was decommissioned as part of the US draw-down in Indochina and transferred the same day to the South Vietnamese Navy.
In the distance as part of the exiled RVN fleet in 1975 sailing into Subic
There, her name was changed to the RVNS My Tho (pennant number HQ-800) and continued to serve extensively in that conflict for another five years under a new flag. When South Vietnam fell in 1975, the My Tho, along with a flotilla of more than 30 other RVN ships, sailed, packed with refugees to the Philippines. There, they were an exiled fleet in being for a country that no longer existed for nearly a year.
On 5 Apr 1976, after a year in limbo, the old LST was turned over to the Philippine Navy in a deal where she was added to that country’s navy list as the BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57), to be used to carry PN marines around the huge archipelago, which she did for the next 23 years.
As a show of territorial stakes claiming, the Philippine Navy grounded BRP Sierra Madre on the semi-submerged Ayungin Reef (Second Thomas Reef) 9.795°N 115.856°E, part of the Spratly Island chain in 1999 to serve as something of a semi-fixed outpost in the South China Sea some 105nm from the Philippines itself. This reef is disputed between China and the Philippines, so with the Sierra Madre outpost there, Manila has a much more tacit claim to the reef and its adjacent waters (and sea bed). Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam also claim the Spratlys for themselves.
She still has a 40mm forward mount and the PI Navy has several of these old guns that work, but whether the 40mm shown still fires is anyone’s guess.
For the past 15 years, a rotating detachment of 8 marines led by a senior Sergent, a Navy corpsman, and a Navy radio operator (with a pair of satphones) have called the grounded, rusting, 70-year old ship home.
From a 2013 NYT article about the life of these lonely detachments :
Yanto lived alone at the stern of the boat, in a room with a bed, a mosquito net, an M-16 propped against the wall and nothing but a tarp wrapped around a steel bar to separate him from the sea. He also took care of the three fighting cocks on the boat. They were lashed to various perches at the stern and took great pleasure in crowing at anybody who tried to use the “toilet,” a seatless ceramic bowl suspended over the water by iron pipes and plywood.
Yanto has a wife and a 6-year-old son back in Zamboanga City. Like the others, he is able to talk to his family once a week or so, when they call in to one of the two satellite phones that the men take care to keep dry and charged. “It’s enough for me,” he said, of the 5 or 10 minutes he gets on the phone with his family. “What’s important is that I heard their voice.”
Like Yanto, Loresto was wearing a sleeveless jersey with “MARINES” printed across the front and a section of mesh between the chest and waistline, uniforms for the world’s most exotic basketball team. “It’s a lonely place,” Loresto said. “But we make ourselves busy, always busy.”
The remote crew spends their time aboard the Sierra Madre as best they can. (NYT photo)
The Chinese of course are not very happy with the BRP Sierra Madre and recently have prevented exchanging personnel on and delivering supplies to the grounded ship hoping the Philippines would quit their claim. This had led to the PI switching to aerial resupply from the main islands.
And so goes the ongoing saga of the Harnett County.
If ships could talk.
Specs
Displacement: 1,625 long tons (1,651 t) light
4,080 long tons (4,145 t) full
Length: 328 ft (100 m)
Beam: 50 ft (15 m)
Draft: Unloaded :
2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) forward
7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) aft
Loaded with upto payloads between 1600 and 1900 tons as well as troops
8 ft 2 in (2.49 m) forward
14 ft 1 in (4.29 m) aft
Propulsion: 2 × General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) (grounded since 1999, inoperable)
Boats & landing
craft carried: Two LCVPs
Troops: 16 officers, 147 enlisted men
Complement: 7 officers, 104 enlisted men (current, 10-man detachment of Philippine Navy and marines)
Armament: • 1 × single 3″/50 caliber gun
• 8 × 40 mm guns (most removed 1966)
• 12 × 20 mm guns (removed 1966)
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