Feds Say Kawishiwi No Longer a Sink Option

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Feds Say Kawishiwi No Longer a Sink Option
California Ships to Reefs Proposes New Ship for Dana Point Site
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Plans to make the USS Kawishiwi the next artificial reef in California ended this month when the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) withdrew the ship from the list of vessels consideredsuitable for reefing.

California Ships to Reefs (CSTR) had been working vigorously to obtain the ship for reefing on a site southwest

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[Tom Winters]

I drove alongside Kawishiwi all over the Pacific Ocean a bunch of times for UNREPs when she was a USNS fleet oiler - pretty much all civilians with a 20-man Navy detachment for comms and guns. We never had a problem with her - she'd be where she was supposed to be and the UNREPs always went ok, even when we'd be alongside for 3 hours or so taking on fuel, sometimes water, transferring personnel, mail, and food in all sorts of weather conditions.
The replacement ship for scuttling mentioned in the article, USS Willamette, was homeported at Pearl Harbor. During fleet maneuvers out there, she somehow managed to shear the nose off USS Jason, an ancient repair ship, killing one sailor in the process. Since there was a berthing compartment in the bow, there were clothes all over the crumpled bow of the oiler.
Forever after in the Pineapple Fleet in Pearl Harbor, she was known as the WillRamIt.