Beaumont, Texas, on 15 September for inactivation and 16 December again decommissioned this time entering the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange, Texas. 1960–1969 After temporarily joining the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia 12 November 1960, Mauna Loa was reacquired and recommissioned the third time 27 November 1961. She sailed from Philadelphia 8 October for her home port, Bayonne, N.J. On 15 January 1962 the ammunition ship got underway from Norfolk for shakedown off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into late February. Following an off-base overhaul in Red Bank, Brooklyn, New York during the fall of 1963, the aft 3 inch- 50 guns were removed and replaced with a helo deck for VertRep ( vertical replenishment ) trials as the first ammo ship to develop this exercise. For the next seven years Mauna Loa continued a pattern of upkeep and supply service along the east coast out of Norfolk and Earle, interspersed with training cruises and exercises in the Caribbean. She departed Bayonne 9 October 1967 for a new and vital mission, supply operations off Vietnam. She transited the Panama Canal the 16th on her way to the Pacific, and soon thereafter arrived off Vietnam. From 1968 till 1970 her mission was rearming aircraft carriers, destroyers, and cruisers in the Mediterranean Sea. Fate USS Mauna Loa''' was finally decommissioned in February 1971. In 1984, she was scrapped in Spain. Awards and honorsMauna Loa'' received three battle stars for World War II service. References Lassen-class ammunition ships Type C2-N ships Ships built in Tampa, Florida 1943 ships World War II auxiliary ships of the United States Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States Vietnam War auxiliary ships of the United States