Overview and identity
USS Ozark is one ship documented from LSV-2 through conversion to MCS-2.
USS Ozark can be distinguished by the hull or pennant designation LSV-2 and MCS-2, membership in Catskill MCS class, and service with United States Navy. Its history belongs to Cold war and Vietnam war and to the broader development of mine warfare. Mine-warfare vessels operated against weapons intended to deny access without requiring an enemy ship to remain nearby. Their work demanded precise navigation, specialized sweep or hunting equipment, low signatures, careful seamanship, and repeated exposure to hazardous waters.
Keeping identity evidence separate from similarly named ships is essential. Hull numbers, service names, class membership, construction dates, and operator changes provide the checks needed to prevent one vessel's photograph or history from being assigned to another.
Construction and class context
USS Ozark was built by Willamette Iron and Steel Corp., Portland, Oregon. The construction chronology records laid down 1941-07-12, launched 1942-06-15, and completed 1944-09-23.
The Catskill MCS class consists of the two former LSV hulls Catskill and Ozark physically converted into MCS-1 and MCS-2. The conversion program added the launch, aviation, EOD and support facilities that documented the fullest 1960s development of the dedicated MCS concept. The class history explains the common design; this article concentrates on the evidence specific to this ship.
Construction dates place the vessel within the wider program and help distinguish original design features from later changes. They also show whether the ship entered service under the assumptions that shaped the class or after wartime and technological developments had already altered those assumptions.
Service history
Redesignated MCS-2 in 1956, converted under the 1963 shipbuilding and conversion program, recommissioned in June 1966 and decommissioned in February 1970.
The operating context of the Catskill MCS class included mine countermeasures command, minesweeping-launch support, airborne mine countermeasures support, and eod and logistics support. A class-level role helps explain why the ship existed, but it should not be turned into a claim that this particular vessel took part in an undocumented operation.
A fuller operational history would require dated deployment records, war diaries, action reports, refit files, or equivalent primary documentation. In their absence, the profile preserves the confirmed chronology and avoids filling the gaps with events drawn from another member of the class.
Technical configuration
The class record identifies vehicle landing ship conversions and mine countermeasures support ship and notes converted amphibious hull, minesweeping launches, and embarked helicopters. Those characteristics provide design context for the ship.
The exact equipment carried by an individual ship could change with refits, wartime alterations, new sensors, revised defensive weapons, or conversion to another role. Unless a source dates a configuration to this vessel, class-level characteristics are presented as context rather than as a permanent ship-specific fit.
Later service and disposition
The recorded status is sunk on 1981 at Gulf of Mexico. After transfer to MARAD and later Air Force use, Ozark sank unintentionally in the Gulf of Mexico after a Maverick missile test hit.
Preservation evidence records wreck from 1981 weapons-test sinking and Gulf of Mexico. Transfers, renaming, reclassification, reserve periods, museum service, wreck discovery, and disposal can all extend a ship's history beyond its active commission.
Historical significance
USS Ozark provides an individual case within the wider history of the Catskill MCS class, allowing the common design to be compared with one documented service career.
The value of an individual-ship article lies in the details that cannot be supplied by the class page: where and when the ship was built, the identities it carried, the assignments and alterations that can be documented, and the circumstances of its final disposition or preservation.
Class relationship
This ship is recorded as a member of Catskill MCS class. Shared design history belongs on the class page; this page concentrates on the individual hull where evidence is available.
Sources and further reading
- Mine Countermeasures Support Ship (MCS) Index ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-20
- USS Ozark (MCS-2) / LSV-2 ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-20
- USS Catskill (MCS-1) / LSV-1 ↗NavSource Naval History · accessed 2026-09-20