[Olefin]

figured it would be fun to resurrect this thread

I would add the USS Oklahoma City to the list of ships that were brought out of mothballs for sure. At the time of her storage she was still operational, fully fitted out with flagship accommodations and communications gear. She was supposed to get extensive upgrades but due to cutbacks to the military she was instead stored in 1979 in the reserve fleet.

Given the need to get the ship into operation as quickly as possible she most likely would have been brought back as a pure gun cruiser - she still had one fully operational Mark 16 turret with three 6 inch guns and one Mark 32 mount with two 5 inch guns.

June 1997

As naval casualties mount the USN begins to reactivate useable ships form the Reserve Fleet. The guided missile cruiser Oklahoma City is pulled out of storage in June of 1997 from Suisun Bay and sent north to the Bremerton shipyards to be brought back to fully operational status. As she is needed back in service as quickly as possible the decision is made to bring her back as a gun cruiser only.

Parts are sent with her that have been removed from other light cruisers that were refitted into missile cruisers, including replacement gun barrels for her six and five inch guns. Parts needed for her engine room are obtained from several sources including the USS Little Rock, which is a museum ship in Buffalo NY.

TDM

The refit of the Oklahoma City, almost 50 percent completed, is halted due to the breakdown of civilian authority after the nuclear strikes in Washington State. A skeleton crew continues to remain aboard her, both to guard her and to keep working as they can to finish the job. As the Soviets begin their drive on Seattle all military resources are dedicated to stopping that drive, putting all work at the shipyard on the back burner.

June 2000

With the Soviet drive stopped and fighting having stopped in the Pacific Northwest, work is started again on the Oklahoma City. She is fitted with several .50 caliber machine guns as part of the refit for use against targets that aren’t worth a 5 or 6 inch shell.

March 2001

The Oklahoma City is re-commissioned into the USN and readied for her first mission, which will be to attack the Soviets who are on dug in on Queen Charlotte Island in order to remove the last threat to the Pacific Northwest from Soviet forces.