Craig Rothhammer wrote on 1999-11-17 00:00:00.0
Comments: MILITARY SEA TRANSPORTATION SERVICE - ESCORT CARRIERS. The following commissioned United States Navy Escort Carriers (CVE) were operated as a part of the Military Sea Transportation Service - MSTS. These ships were combat veterans of the second world war, rapidly recommissioned for service to deliver United Nations personnel, vital war materials, and advanced jet fighter aircraft to the UN Forces engaged in the Korean War. They were operated by a composite crew consisting of USN, USNR, Merchant Marine & Civil Service seamen. Their contribution to the war effort was incalculable in stemming the communist agression on the Korean peninsula. Their efforts have not been forgotten. USS CAPE ESPERANCE (CVE-88) Displacement: 10,400 t. (full load) Length: 5123 Beam: 652 Extreme Width: 1081 Draft: 226 Speed: 20 k. Complement: 860 Armament: 1 5 Class: CASABLANCA Recommissioned 5 August 1950, CAPE ESPERANCE reported to the Military Sea Transportation Service for duty as an aircraft transport. During the next 9 years, she cruised widely in the Pacific, delivering aircraft to Japan for use in the Korean conflict, supporting atomic tests at Eniwetok, and making two voyages to bring aircraft to the Royal Thai Air Force at Bangkok. In 1952, she sailed to Hong Kong, to evacuate Chinese Nationalist aircraft in danger of seizure by the Chinese Communists. USS CORREGIDOR (CVE-58) CVE-58 Displacement: 7,800 t. Length: 5123 Beam: 662 Extreme Width: 1081 Draft: 226 Speed: 20 k. Complement: 860 Armament: 1 5 Class: CASABLANCA Recommissioned 19 May 1951, CORREGIDOR was assigned to operate with the Military Sea Transportation Service. She ferried men, aircraft and aviation cargo to NATO nations under the Mutual Defense Assistance Plan but also made five voyages through the Panama Canal to bring men and cargo to the United Nations forces in Korea in 1952, 1953, and 1954. USS SITKOH BAY (CVE-86) Displacement: 7,800 t. Length: 5123 Beam: 652 Extreme Width: 1081 Draft: 226 Speed: 19 k. Complement: 860 Armament: 1 5; 16 40mm Aircraft: 28 Class: CASABLANCA Maritime Commission standard type: S4-S2-BB3
On 29 July 1950, SITKOH BAY was recommissioned, Capt. C. W. Lord, USN, in command. She was assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service; and, for the next four years, she sailed between the west coast and Japan, supporting U. N. forces in Korea. Her major ports of call were San Francisco, San Diego, and Pearl Harbor and Yokohama and Yokosuka in Japan. SITKOH BAY departed from this west coast-to-Japan routine three times over those four years. In March of 1951, she delivered a load of Bearcat fighters (F8Fs) to the French forces at Saigon in French Indochina and then visited Manila, P. I., before returning to California-to-Japan runs. In September, she visited Pusan, Korea. SITKOH BAY ventured from her normal sea lanes again in May 1952 when she sailed, via Kodiak and Anchorage, Alaska, on her way back to San Francisco from Yokosuka. USS SITKOH BAY was awarded three battle stars for World War II service and one battle star for Korean War service. USS TRIPOLI (CVE-64) ...the erstwhile "hunter-killer" began her new career as an aircraft transport and ferry. Displacement: 7,800 t. Length: 5123 Beam: 65 Extreme Width: 1081 Draft: 226 Speed: 19 k. Complement: 860 Armament: 1 5; 16 40mm; 20 20mm Class: CASABLANCA Maritime Commission standard type: S4-S2-BB3 Communist aggression in Korea in the summer of 1950 resulted in the return of many of the Navy's reserve ships to active service to support American operations in the Far East. Accordingly, TRIPOLI was recommissioned at New York on 5 January 1952, Capt. Raymond N. Sharp in command. Assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), Atlantic Area, the erstwhile "hunter-killer" began her new career as an aircraft transport and ferry. Over the next six years, TRIPOLI conducted 44 transport voyages, mostly to European and Mediterranean ports but with one visit to Hawaii and two to the Far East. Following the ship's third voyage to Europe, TRIPOLI was berthed at the Port Newark Terminal on 5 August 1952, where she loaded 45 Republic F-84 Thunderjet aircraft, 90 wingtip fuel tanks, and related gear for transport to the Far East. After going to sea on 7 August, bound for Japan, TRIPOLI steamed via the Panama Canal and San Diego and made port at Yokosuka with her vital cargo on 5 September, where cranes lifted the reinforcements ashore--soon to be in action in their ground attack role in Korea. After onloading battle-damaged aircraft for repairs in the United States, the carrier embarked 245 Navy and Marine Corps personnel for rotation back to Alameda Naval Air Station, Calif. Making port on the west coast on 22 September, she then put to sea for the Far East a second time, once again carrying jet aircraft to Yokosuka, as well as transporting men of the Sea Echelon of Boat Unit 1. Loading a cargo of helicopters and military passengers, TRIPOLI returned to the west coast and arrived at Alameda on Armistice Day, 1953. Subsequently making her sole Hawaiian voyage under MSTS, TRIPOLI then headed east to finish out her career with transport voyages to European and Mediterranean ports. WINDHAM BAY (CVE-92) Displacement: 10,400 t. (full load) Length: 5123 Beam: 652 Extreme Width: 1081 Draft: 226 Speed: 19.3 k. (trials) Complement: 860 Armament: 1 5; 16 40mm Aircraft: 28 Class: CASABLANCA The escort carrier stayed with the Reserve Fleet until hostilities erupted in Korea during the summer of 1950. On 28 October 1950, she was recommissioned at Bremerton, Wash., Capt. Charles E. Brunton in command. On 20 November, she steamed south to California, visiting San Francisco on the way to San Diego where she arrived on 2 December. After 11 days, the escort carrier returned to San Francisco whence she embarked upon a voyage to Pearl Harbor on the 19th. Returning to the west coast at Alameda on 2 January 1951, the warship headed west again five days later. She arrived in Yokohama, Japan, on the 24th and unloaded a cargo of aircraft for use in the Korean conflict which the United States had entered under the auspices of the United Nations. Departing Japan two days later, she visited Saigon in French Indochina and Manila in the Philippines before shaping a course back to the United States. WINDHAM BAY reentered San Francisco Bay on 24 February. At this juncture, the escort carrier settled into a routine of transpacific resupply voyages between the United States and Japan. Over the next 20 months, she made nine round-trip voyages, beginning each at either San Francisco or San Diego, stopping always at Yokosuka, and returning always to San Francisco. She broke that nine-voyage routine in October and November 1952 when she visited Takao, Japan, and Bangkok, Thailand before returning, via Japan, to the west coast at Alameda on 9 December. WINDHAM BAY continued her aircraft ferrying voyages between the United States and Japan during 1953. The war in Korea, however, began to subside in intensity at about the same time, and her passages began to take on more of a peacetime character. She began making more stops and side trips in addition to Yokosuka--notably to Hawaii, the Philippines, and at other Japanese ports. From: DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN NAVAL FIGHTING SHIPS
Keywords: MILITARY SEA TRANSPORTATION SERVICE, ESCORT CARRIERS, JET AIRCRAFT, MERCHANT MARINE, CIVIL SERVICE, USS CAPE ESPERANCE (CVE-88), ROYAL THAI AIRFORCE, CHINESE NATIONALISTS, USS CORREGIDOR (CVE-58), MUTUAL DEFENSE ASSISTANCE PLAN, PANAMA CANAL, UNITED NATIONS, USS SITKOH BAY (CVE-86), FRENCH INDOCHINA, USS TRIPOLI (CVE-64), BOAT UNIT 1, USS WINDHAM BAY (CVE-92),
|
