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Araucano [4] replenishment oiler

In an official ceremony on the deck and headed by the Commander in Chief of the army of Chile, Edmundo Gonzalez Robles, was decommissioned the tanker 53 AO "Araucano", after nearly 44 years of service to the country. At the ceremony, the Commander of the "araucano", Captain of vessel Juan Widow Lira, stressed the impeccable career of this unit of square and made a recognition to the former commanders of the tanker and its respective constables, who attended the farewell ceremony and to whom surrendered them a commemorative Award from this date as a thank you for services rendered aboard the historic unit.

During its history in the Navy, AO 53 "Araucano", affectionately called "Cuerpo de Hierro" ["body of iron"], sailed more than one million miles, met 73 commissions abroad, and made more than 2500 maneuvers of replenishment at sea. AO 53 "araucano" was the fourth ship of the Chile Navy to bear this name, the previous ones were two bergatines at the beginning of the 19th century, the second of which formed part of the first national squad, and the third was the remembered mother ship for submarines that served between 1930 and 1959. As a fleet tanker had to share that role with three tankers named AO. 52 "Montt" different, something that few units of the Navy of Chile can be displayed in their history. In his last words of the speech, and after that the quota of the Araucano sing the official anthem of the unit, the Commander dismissed the legendary oil tanker with a sense: iron body, mission accomplished, bravo zulu!