Willard J. McNulty

Willard J. McNulty of Spokane, Washington (1918-2004), (USN), commanded the early and storied U.S. Navy survey ship the (namesake of the famed astronomer and hydrographer Matthew Fontaine Maury). Originally, an Artemis-class attack cargo ship named the USS Renate (AKA-36), the USS Maury was later converted for hydrographic missions and renamed. The U.S. Navy originally deployed these survey ships to gather what it called “environmental intelligence” and which the U.S. Navy early realized could be to enormous advantage in naval combat operations.
McNulty was a commander of the Maury during that critical period in the late 1950s and early 1960s of such vessels historical transition from primarily Hydrographic survey or cartographic charting vessels, serving Naval Oceanographic Office (evolved from the U.S. Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office through the later separated Hydrographic Office) and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency primarily military and maritime safety purposes, to more substantially scientific survey and oceanographic research ships. Often, they now cooperate with civilian research institutions. They were also deployed during the conflict in Southeast Asia.
Through the 1950s and early 1960s, U.S. Naval survey ships, including United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ships engaged by the U.S. Navy, made major discoveries in Earth science. In 1955 for example, scientist aboard the first observed the ocean floors magnetic striping while the ship towed the first marine magnetometer (developed at the University of California’s Scripps Oceanographic Research Institute) along the United State’s western coastal waters during the “Pioneer survey”. The discovery of magnetic stripping in combination with the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s seismologically active central valley was critical to the later development of the theory of plate tectonics. As to the Maury, itself, newly expanding oceanographic research aboard survey ships of the 1950s and early 1960s also concentrated heavily on the interaction between ocean and atmosphere. ”In 1958 … in July … her (the Maury’s) North Atlantic resurvey missions were extended and she crossed the ocean to chart the waters in and around the Shetland and Faroe Islands. Throughout this period, while fulfilling her primary assignment of correcting navigational charts, she added to meteorological knowledge by studying the North Atlantic’s weather patterns, particularly with regard to hurricanes.”
Capt. McNulty commanded the Maury in Southeast Asian waters from July, 1961 - August, 1962. During this period of Capt. McNulty’s command and with the , the Maury (AGS-16) charted and collected data on the Gulf of Siam, Strait of Malacca, and Andaman Sea in prelude to U.S. troop and war ship involvement in Vietnam. In addition to standard charting, the extensive U.S.S. Maury (AGS-16) and Serrano (AGS-24) oceanographic and hydrographic surveys completed for these bodies of water included, also, studies of the physical and chemical make-up of both their water and ocean floors by echo sounding casts, bathythermic observations and core, eve and bottom samplings. The USS Maury (AGS-16) and the USS Serrano (AGS-24) were again teamed in the Gulf of Thailand in 1963-1964, and the USS Maury (AGS-16), itself, saw significant action in the Vietnamese War from 1966-1968, particularly in the Mekong Delta. Its sound boat GS-16-2 was there deployed, and to serve U.S. Vietnam combat operations urgent needs for environmental intelligence, the Maury’s printing plant there generated and printed on board for immediate distribution multicolored field survey charts for the first time in naval history in 1967, receiving for that year’s operations the Secretary of the Navy’s Meritorious Unit Citation.
Capt. McNulty prior commanded the also storied escort destroyer (4 Battle stars for World War II service) during its later non-combat operations. See that article for detail. He was a veteran of both the Korean War and Vietnam War, where during he commanded other escort destroyer and served as a base commander.

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