Article Index
Supporting Market Time Operations
Throughout 1964 Lucid continued training exercises off the U.S. West Coast, then departed Long Beach on 5 April 1965 on her fifth WestPac cruise. Arriving at Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands on 24 May, she prepared for Operation Market Time off the coast of Vietnam. From June to October the minesweeper continued patrol and surveillance of Vietnamese junk traffic. She boarded a total of 186 junks and steel-hulled ships, and contributed to a reduction of enemy infiltration of men and supplies by sea. Lucid returned to Long Beach on 14 December and operated off the southern California coast until May 1966 when she commenced overhaul at Harbor Boat Building Co. in San Pedro, California
WestPac deployment after 1966 Overhaul
In October 1966, having completed her overhaul, Lucid prepared for another WestPac deployment. She departed Long Beach on 6 January 1967. Lucid served once again with the Market Time forces, performing surveillance and search duties, as well as hunting mines in the harbors of South Vietnam. On 16 October 1967, she departed Subic Bay, homeward bound after a long deployment. Lucid arrived at Long Beach on 18 November. Following a brief overhaul period, and refresher training, she sailed for WestPac on 1 April. Along with patrol duty off the Vietnamese coast and upkeep periods at Subic Bay and Singapore, Lucid conducted minesweeping exercises with allied navies. Returning to Long Beach in mid-October, the minesweeper began a yard period where she (remained) into 1969.[1] In August 1969, Lucid completed an extensive shipyard overhaul which included major modifications and additions to operations and communications capabilities. Lucid was decommissioned at U.S. Naval Shipyard Long Beach, California on 23 December 1970. After remarks by her last commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander R. C. Wilgenbusch, USN, her ensign, jack, and commissioning pennant were hauled down, the watch was secured, and the ship was transferred to the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility, Long Beach
Civilian Service
Lucid was next converted to a houseboat W. Dean Kirkpatrick and his wife Vicki, and later Dan Keller and his wife Anneli, lived aboard for several years. They were moored in various locations including Pier 4 at the western end of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the Oakland estuary below Alameda's Park Street Bridge, and a Richmond shipyard. This ended in late 1986 when Dean gave up the ship to (William Gardner) who towed it up to Bradford Island in the Sacramento Delta where it sat for years. Gardner removed and sold everything of value from the ship and used it as a storage building, cutting a hole in the hull on the port side near the waterline to use as a door. On 7 September 2004, Gardner was fatally shot by his neighbor.
In 2005, Gardner's widow donated the ship to United States Navy veteran Mike Warren, who served on Lucid as an engineman in the 1960s. Since late 1999, Warren and his "Save an MSO Foundation" had unsuccessfully tried to save an Aggressive-class minesweeper as a museum ship as they were being decommissioned and replaced by the new Avenger class. The government refused to give one of the last six MSOs to the public, claiming that it was governmental policy not to donate wooden ships due to the cost and magnitude of the maintenance required for upkeep. Eventually, all six ships were dismantled at a cost to the government in excess of $3.5 million. Warren and a group of volunteers began the monumental task of restoring Lucid by first removing the tons of junk that had accumulated over the years and then repairing the hole in her side
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