USNS Kingsport (T-AG 164)
USNS Kingsport (T-AG-164) began its career as Kingsport Victory (T-AK-239), which served as a cargo vessel during World War II. Kingsport Victory was acquired by the United States Navy from the Maritime Commission on 1 March 1950, and carried military cargo for the next eleven years. On 24 September 1961, she was delivered to the Portland, Oregon facilities of Willamette Iron & Steel Co. where she underwent conversion to a satellite communication ship. On 14 November 1961 she was renamed Kingsport and reclassified AG-164.
Designed for use by the United States Army Satellite Communications Agency in the defense satellite communications programs, Project ADVENT, Kingsport Victory underwent extensive alteration during conversion. A special high frequency radio station was installed for ship-to-shore communications. She received advanced tracking and telemetry equipment and anti-roll stabilization tanks. In addition, a 30-foot, gyro-stabilized, computer-oriented, triaxial, parabolic antenna was installed on her afterdeck. Housed in a 53-foot, plastic, air-pressurized radome, this antenna permitted precision tracking of a high altitude satellite at any angle above the horizon.
In August 1963, Kingsport relayed the initial live broadcast of a telephone conversation between President John F. Kennedy in Washington, DC and Prime Minister Balawa in Nigeria via Syncom, one of the first synchronous satellites launched.
