U.S. Navy service
Shelter was laid down on 16 August 1943 by Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Company of Winslow, Washington. The ship was launched on 14 November 1943, sponsored by Miss Patricia Whittenberg, and commissioned on 9 July 1944.
Shelter conducted shakedown training at San Pedro and sailed from San Francisco on 21 October as escort unit for a convoy which entered Pearl Harbor on 30 October. Returned to San Francisco escorting merchant ships. On Thanksgiving Day, Shelter left San Francisco and returned to Pearl Harbor. After assault minesweeping exercises off Maui she departed Pearl Harbor on 5 January with an amphibious assault force, which Shelter escorted to Saipan.
Shelter then continued to Tinian for supplies and then escorted USS Guide, flagship of COMMINEPAC to Iwo Jima that arrived off the island on 16 February 1945. She made pre-invasion sweeps with Mine Division 36 consisting of six ships, which were ordered to fire on shore, and to retire if fire returned which it did, possibly because one of the other ships destroyed a Japanese radar emplacement. A larger ship then attacked the revealed emplacements. Troops stormed ashore on 19 February and the Shelter remained on patrol and screening station until 28 February; then helped guard an amphibious (damaged LSTs) group to Saipan before proceeding to Ulithi, Western Caroline Islands, arriving on 9 March for logistics and preparations for the coming Okinawa campaign. At an unknown time prior to Okinawa, USS Shelter was refitted to add a combat operations center, which replaced the captain's bunk on the bridge (one level below the flying bridge). This was a possible reason for recommissioning in 1964. Shelter had only surface radar, so incoming flights were relayed with a bearing and the estimated time until arrival from a point ashore. This was converted to a bearing and time to arrival at Shelter and relayed from Shelter to the other ships in the battle group. [1]
On 19 March 1945, Shelter departed Ulithi with Mine Group 2 for exploratory sweeps in the Kerama Retto area, and the western side of Okinawa, from 26 March until the initial invasion landings on 1 April. Division 36 also, on D-Day minus one, destroyed mines at the landing site with gunfire, being too shallow to sweep. She made assault sweeps at Ie Shima on 8 and 14 April, served on antisubmarine patrol, and departed on 4 May for Ulithi, thence to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, Philippine Islands. Lieutenant Lancaster then assumed command. Here, she joined a convoy which reached Okinawa on the 29th. The following three weeks were largely taken up with sweeping of minefields off Myako Jima in the East China Sea. She stood out of Kerama Retto on 8 July 1945 as escort unit for LST Group 45 which entered San Pedro Bay on 13 July, and departed Leyte Gulf on 19 August with a convoy that reached Okinawa on the 24th. Six days later, she sailed with a minesweeping task unit that swept the Arcadia minefields in the Yellow Sea in preparation for the landing of occupation forces on the Korean peninsula by the Ninth Fleet on 7 September 1945. She then proceeded to the western coast of Kyushu, Japan, for minesweeping in approaches to Nagasaki and Sasebo, where Lieutenant Douglas Giddings assumed command, clearing 22 moored mines and obstructions from 9 to 16 September 1945.
Shelter departed Nagasaki on 26 September 1945 for repairs at Sasebo, then spent 11 to 17 October sweeping 83 Japanese mines in the Tsushima Strait. She repeated this operation 1 to 12 November, sweeping 69 more mines; then became reference ship for a unit of three Japanese Coastal Defense ships sweeping shallow mines line southeast of Tsushima until 16 November 1945. She joined Mine Squadron Twelve on 27 November acting as reference ship until completion of sweeping operations in Tsushima Strait on 4 December 1945. She departed Wakayama, Japan, for home on 11 December touching Eniwetok, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego, where LT JG Samuel F. Melcher Jr assumed command on her way to Galveston, Texas, arriving on 3 February 1946. She shifted to Orange, Texas on 5 April, was decommissioned there by Lt (Jg) John Redmond on 7 June 1946, and placed in the Texas Group, United States Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Shelter received six battle stars for service in World War II.
While she remained in reserve, her hull classification was changed from AM-301 to MSF-301 on 7 February 1955. The ship remained in reserve until 15 July 1963 when she commenced conversion to a patrol and escort craft in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. She was struck from the Navy List on 1 August 1963 and was transferred on loan to the government of South Vietnam on 24 January 1964, under terms of the Military Assistance Program.
USS Revenge (AM-110) was a World War II-era Auk-class minesweeper in the service of the United States Navy. It was the sixth United States vessel named Revenge.
USS Dorsey (DD–117), reclassified DMS-1 on 19 November 1940, was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for John Dorsey.
USS Zeal (AM-131) was an Auk-class minesweeper that served in both World War II and during the Korean War. As a steel-hulled fleet minesweeper, she was assigned to support the fleet by removing enemy mines whose purpose was to impede the path of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
USS Serene (AM-300) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Pacific Ocean and was awarded six battle stars. She was decommissioned and placed in reserve in 1946. In January 1964, the former Serene was transferred to South Vietnam as RVNS Nhật Tảo (HQ-10) in the Republic of Vietnam Navy. She was sunk in January 1974 during combat with Chinese forces in the Battle of the Paracel Islands.
USS Impeccable (AM-320) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was originally ordered as HMS Brutus (BAM-7) for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy under Lend-Lease, but was acquired and renamed by the United States Navy before construction began. She was commissioned in 1944 and served in the Pacific before being decommissioned in 1947. After the outbreak of hostilities in Korea, Impeccable was recommissioned in 1952 and served off Korea through 1952. She was decommissioned for the final time in October 1955 and placed in reserve. She was sold for scrapping in 1974.
USS Sheldrake (AM-62/AGS-19) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was named after the sheldrake duck. The ship earned four battle stars during World War II. She was converted to a survey ship and re-designated AGS-19 in 1952 and remained in commission until 1968. She was sold for scrap in 1971.
USS Swallow (AM-65) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was the second U.S. Navy ship named after the swallow. Swallow earned two battle stars for World War II service. She was sunk by a kamikaze aircraft off Okinawa on 22 April 1945. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1945.
USS Heed (AM-100) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She earned five battle stars for her World War II service. She was recommissioned during the Korean War. She was placed in reserve in 1954 and remained there until struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1967.
USS Pursuit (AM-108) was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.
USS Sage (AM-111) was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing naval mines.
USS Tumult (AM-127) was an Auk-class minesweeper acquired by the United States Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.
USS Excel (AM-94) was an Adroit-class minesweeper of the United States Navy. Laid down on 19 December 1941 by the Jakobson Shipyard, Inc., Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, launched on 10 May 1942, and commissioned on 11 December 1942. The ship was reclassified as a submarine chaser, PC-1598 on 1 June 1944.
USS Project (AM–278) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was decommissioned in 1947 after wartime service and transferred to the Philippine Navy in 1948 where she served under the name RPS Samar (M-33). She was stricken from the Philippine Navy in 1960; beyond that, her fate is not reported in secondary sources.
USS Superior (AM-311) was a steel-hulled Admirable-class minesweeper built for the U.S. Navy in 1944. Superior participated in the final struggle in the Pacific Ocean against the Empire of Japan during the end of World War II and remained behind, after the war ended, to clear minefields laid during the war.
USS Specter (AM-306) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was originally ordered, laid down, and launched as USS Spector (AM-306), but was renamed the correctly spelled Specter in March 1944. She was awarded four battle stars for service in the Pacific during World War II. She was decommissioned in 1946 and placed in reserve. While she remained in reserve, Specter was reclassified as MSF-306 in February 1955 but never reactivated. In April 1973, she was sold to the Mexican Navy and renamed ARM DM-04. In 1994 she was renamed ARM General Manuel E. Rincón (C52). She was stricken in July 2001, but her ultimate fate is not reported in secondary sources.
USS Spectacle (AM-305) was a steel-hulled Admirable class minesweeper built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. A trained crew boarded the new vessel, practiced with her minesweeping gear, and then proceeded to the Pacific Ocean to clear mines from Japanese beaches so that Allied forces could invade. While performing this dangerous task of mine clearance, a Japanese plane strafed her, and another deliberately crashed into her. When she returned to the United States, her battle damage was so severe that the U.S. Navy decided to scrap, rather than to repair, her. She was awarded two battle stars.
USS Amick (DE-168) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and then the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.
USS Recruit (AM-285) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was awarded 3 battle stars for service in the Pacific during World War II. She was decommissioned in August 1946 and placed in reserve. While she remained in reserve, Recruit was reclassified as MSF-285 in February 1955 but never reactivated. In 1963, she was sold to the Mexican Navy and renamed ARM DM-07. Although she is reported out of service, her ultimate fate is not reported in secondary sources.
USS Signet (AM-302) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She received four battle stars during World War II. She was decommissioned in December 1945 and placed in reserve. In February 1955, while still in reserve, her hull number was changed from AM-302 to MSF-302, but she was not reactivated. She was transferred to the Dominican Republic in January 1965 and renamed Tortuguero (BM455). She was employed as a patrol vessel in Dominican Navy service. Her pennant number was changed from BM455 to C455 in 1995. Tortuguero was stricken and hulked in 1997.
USS Skirmish (AM-303) was an Admirable-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. She received four battle stars during World War II. She was decommissioned in December 1945 and placed in reserve. In February 1955, while still in reserve, her hull number was changed from AM-303 to MSF-303, but she was not reactivated. She was transferred to the Dominican Republic in January 1965 and renamed Separación (BM455). She was employed as a patrol vessel in Dominican Navy service and renamed Prestol Botello in 1976. Her pennant number was changed from BM454 to C454 during a 1995 refit. As of 2007, Prestol Botello remained in active service for the Dominican Navy.
United States
South Vietnam
Philippines
