CHARA AE 31

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

USS CHARA AKA-58
Commissioned June 14 1944
Assigned to Naval Transportation Service 1946
Decommissioned October 1 1949
Transferred to Military Sea Transportation Service
Recommissioned June 1950 - Decommissioned April 21 1959
Redesignated Ammunition Ship (AE) November 1 1965
USS CHARA AE-31
Recommissioned June 25 1966 - Decommissioned March 10 1972

Struck from Naval Register March 10 1972
Sold November 12 1972 to Zidell Explorations, Portland, OR for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

Chara Covers Page 1 (1945)

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.

>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

1st Commissioning June 14 1944 to October 1 1949

Locy Type
9efu

1945-07-20
to
1945-08-02

As AKA-58
Mark from back of cover

3rd Commissioning June 25 1966 to March 10 1972

Locy Type
2(n+) (USS)

1966-10-18

As AE-31

Other Information

CHARA earned the Combat Action Ribbon, the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (w/ 4 Battle stars), the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp), two (2) National Defense Service Medals, the Korean Service Medal (w/ 7 Battle stars), the Vietnam Service Medal (w/ 8 Campaign stars), the United Nations Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal during her Naval career.

NAMESAKE - A star in the constellation Canes Venatici.

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.