Commissioned in 1959 the Nitro class contained three vessels Nitro, Pyro and Haleakala. Sometimes this class is lumped together with the Suribachi class, which are two slightly older (1958) vessels which are virtually identical to the Nitro class except for a different forecastle gun arrangement. The Nitro class are side by side, the Suribachi class are superfiring.
The Pyro (AE-24) was commissioned in July 1959, and spent much of her career in the Pacific Fleet and for her outstanding performance in servicing 7th Fleet units during the period 5 December 1964 through 23 October 1965, when she conducted 227 ammunition unreps, she received the Navy Unit Commendation ribbon. Through the 70s and 80s she remained active in the Pacific Fleet until she was decommissioned in May of 1994, she was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Bremerton, WA until 1997 when she was struck from the naval registrar and moved to National Defense Reserve Fleet, in Suisun Bay, Benecia, CA. In February of 2012 she was towed to New Orleans for scrapping.
![[ img ]](http://i.imgur.com/nzOPaej.png)
My first official naval drawing, I usually do merchant vessels, but have been changing it up a bit. some details may be somewhat of an approximation, but should be fairly accurate. I have other fleet auxiliaries in the works.
![[ img ]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64616014/USS_Pyro.jpg)