Talk:USNS Sgt. Curtis F. Shoup

Air Force helicopters
While we can be rather sure Navy helicopters did operate with the ship (a number of the survey ships carried Naval helicopter detachments) the subject mission in the South West Pacific was in support of USAF requirements and Navy's DANFS, quoted exactly here in Wikipedia, states:

"On 16 January 1963, Sgt. Curtis F. Shoup was transferred to the Military Sea Transport Service (MSTS), and she was placed on the Navy list on 1 March. After conversion by Willamette Iron & Steel in Portland, Oreg., for service as a helicopter freighter, Sgt. Curtis F. Shoup was assigned to MSTS, Pacific Area. Reporting on 14 June, she teamed up with Harris County (LST-822) in the southwest Pacific, servicing survey sites which were being established to support the nation's missile and space projects."

"Air Force helicopter's flew from her deck, and she carried four to six oceanographers from the Naval Oceanographic Office in Washington. Charts and sailing directions for the historic World War II area were revised as a result."

There is video evidence of these operations at this web page where USAF markings are clear on the helicopter shown in this video. Palmeira (talk) 12:33, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

Erroneous "Alamosa class"
The one reference to "Alamosa class" is in the specifications line in DANFS, yet the text of DANFS makes clear the fact the ship was not. First the quote "Sgt. Curtis F. Shoup was designed to ferry war correspondents" which is most certainly not any function associated with that class. Then it is documented that Navy did not have an association with the ship until 16 January 1963 when the ship was placed under MSTS and immediately converted the ship into another unique "service as a helicopter freighter" and later into a survey ship. Palmeira (talk) 14:14, 10 June 2015 (UTC)