Kiwi, USS - An 1871 two-masted schooner on the military adventure THE WACKIEST SHIP IN THE ARMY/NBC/1965-66. The USS Kiwi was a leaky wooden ship used by US Army Intelligence to track Japanese troop movements in the South Pacific during World War II. It was jointly commanded by naval Lt. Richard "Rip" Riddle (Gary Collins) and Army Major Simon Butcher (Jack Warden). The USS Kiwi was based on the real-life USS Echo, a leaky, two-masted schooner donated by the New Zealand government in 1942 to the United States to help fight the Japanese in the Pacific.