The USS COMPETENT AFDM6 was decommissioned in August of 1997 after serving the fleet for more than fifty years. Yard Floating Dock (YFD) 62, as she was originally designated, was built by the Everett Pacific
Company in June 1944 as part of an effort to build one hundred and fifty-five dry docks to serve the growing United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Pacific theater from 1944 through the end of the war when she was re-designated Auxiliary Floating Dock Medium (AFDM) 6.
It wasn't until 1979 that she received a name. The Secretary of the Navy designated her USS COMPETENT after the original COMPETENT, a highly decorated mine sweeper that served during
W.W.II and Korea.
After spending twenty-three years in Pearl Harbor, COMPETENT moved to Subic Bay, Philippine Islands to continue to serve the Pacific Fleet providing docking services.
Upon successful completion of her duty in the Philippines, she underwent a complete overhaul at the shipyard in Guam, M. I. When the USS LOS ANGELES SSN-688 visited Guam during WESTPAC 79, the dry dock's familiar shape could be seen across Apra Harbor.
COMPETENT made her last at sea deployment in 1980 when she left the shipyard at Guam, her overhaul complete, to return to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
