Japan and other ports Nitro returned to Davisville on 12 March 1973. Later service and retirement While operating in the Med during the spring of 1981, Nitro suffered a class "B" fire in the engineering space on 1 June 1981 which caused a significant amount of damage to the entire starboard side of the engineering space and many other spaces due to subsequent fires. Six personnel were injured. Nitro was towed to Souda Bay, Crete, by the where she started emergency repairs and off-loaded ammunition. The ship was then towed to Hellenic Shipyard in Athens by the where she underwent a 30-day availability for extensive repairs prior to returning to operations in the Med. Nitro then steamed back to the US, where she underwent major refitting in the Brooklyn Naval Yard. After continuing her alternating service with the 2nd and 6th Fleets into the 1990s Nitro was decommissioned on 28 April 1995 and struck from the Naval Register on 14 August of the same year. She was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Portsmouth (Virginia, USA). On 31 March 2000 she was turned over to the Maritime Administration for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Fort Eustis, Virginia. In July 2008, the Nitro was sold to Esco Marine of Brownsville, Tx. for scrapping. References Nitro-class ammunition ships Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States Ships built in Baltimore 1958 ships