The third United States Navy ship to bear the name Mars, USS Mars (AFS‑1), was laid down by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California, on 5 May 1962; launched on 15 June 1963, sponsored by Mrs. Clyde Doyle, widow of Representative Clyde Doyle of California; and commissioned at Long Beach Naval Shipyard on 21 December 1963, with Captain Russell C. Medley in command. Mars was the first of a new class that was intended to replace three types of supply ships: the AF, AKS, and AVS. Two innovations were Boeing UH‑46 helicopters and an automatic highline shuttle transfer system to make a rapid transfer of supplies possible. To speed replenishment processing, Mars became the first ship in the Pacific Fleet to be equipped with a 1004 Univac computer system.

Assigned to Service Squadron 1, Mars left San Diego on 16 March 1964 for Acapulco, Mexico, for shakedown, returning to San Diego Easter Sunday. On 1 September she departed for the western Pacific, arriving at Yokosuka, Japan, on the 23rd. With Yokosuka as home port, the combat storeship operated from the Philippines to the South China Sea through the rest of the year.

A new class, a new ship, a new crew. These photos take you on a journey documenting the first years in the life of this innovative new addition to Service Force Pacific (ServPac) in the early 1960's. As a part of the first crew, I was privileged to be a "plankowner". I was aboard from the beginning as we took the show "on the road": The commissioning ceremony, the shakedown cruise and subsequent yard period in Long Beach; the trip to Oakland to load supplies; the Dependent's cruise; the departure (from the foot of Broadway in San Diego) to Yokosuka by way of Pearl Harbor, and our first underway replenishments (unreps) with some other "firsts".