The Flint’s captain can’t estimate how many layers of wax have been applied to her linoleum floors, or the number of coats of gray paint that cover the imposing vessel. But those careful attentions are coming to an end.

At 564 feet in length, the 43-year-old Flint, an ammunition hauler, is the largest ship to be moored at Pensacola Naval Air Station since the aircraft carrier Oriskany in 2006. The Flint has been docked there since Oct. 9 and is destined to leave Friday on her last cruise to a scrap yard in Charleston, S.C.

“She has served her country with honor,” said Jonathan Olmsted, a captain in the Military Sealift Command, a civilian transportation and supply arm of the Navy that has run the Flint since the military decommissioned her in 1995.

Indeed, the Flint’s proud history since being launched in 1970 includes combat support missions for American campaigns in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. With a capacity to tote 6,000 tons of bombs, bullets and missiles, the Flint, when fully loaded, can supply an aircraft carrier with ammunition for up to a week of 24-hour operations.

“She was a Wal-Mart of ammo,” said Ursula Rutledge, the Flint’s chief mate.

Carrying a crew numbering more than 300 at times, the Flint’s vast storage holds allowed sailors to stack missiles, rocket boosters and munitions in 10-foot-high arrangements. From there, the deadly cargo could be transferred to the Flint’s two CH-46 Sea Knight Helicopters that would carry them to fighting ships.

But now, the helicopter pads are empty and the Flint has a skeleton crew of just 43.

Named after the city of Flint, Mich., the ship is the last of the Navy’s Kilauea class of ammunition ships. They’re being replaced by a new generation of larger ammo carrier that also can haul food and a variety of other supplies — not unlike a Wal-Mart being supplanted by a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The best public view of the Flint as she cruises out of Pensacola Bay on Friday should be from Fort Pickens between 2 and 3 p.m., according to Olmsted’s schedule.

Olmsted, who previously served on the Flint for nearly four years as a cargo officer before recently being assigned to her as captain, said, “It really means a lot to me to take her on her final trip and put her to bed.”

Follow Rob Johnson at twitter.com/RobJohnsonPNJ or atwww.facebook.com/RobJohnsonPNJ.