Holland III AS-32

Holland III

(AS-32: dp. 19,000, 1. 599'; b. 83'; dr. 23'4"; s. 18 k.; cpl.
1,190; a. 2 5"; cl. Dunlop)

The third Holland was launched by Ingalls Shipbuilding Oorp., Pascagoula, Miss., 19 January 1983, sponsored by Mrs. John O. Stennis, wife of U.S. Senator from the State of Mississippi; delivered to the Charleston Naval Shipyard, Charleston, S.C.; and commissioned 7 September 1963, Captain Charles W. Styer, Jr., in command.

Holland departed Charleston on 14 October for shakedown training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returning to Charleston on 19 November. She commenced post-shakedown availability on 25 November.

While Holland is neither a submersible nor a combatant ship, she will be a vital link in support of our Nation's first line of deterrence—the Navy's Polaris Weapons 9ystem. She is capable of. making any submarine repair other than major overhaul, including servicing and maintaining the nuclear power plants of Polaris-flring submarines.

The opening of 1964 found Holland at Charleston, S.C., making preparations for deployment to the Polaris replenishmen,t anchorage at Rota, Spain. She arrived Rota 1 April and relieved Proteus (AS-19) as the FBM submarine tender shortly thereafter. Rolland continued her vital service to the Polaris submarines until relieved 4 November 1966. Holland arrived Charleston 22 November. There she tended submarines of the Atlantic Fleet into 1967.