USS Tucson (circa late 1940s) | |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Tucson |
Namesake | City of Tucson, Arizona |
Builder | Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Francisco, California |
Laid down | 23 December 1942 |
Launched | 3 September 1944 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. Emmett S. Claunch, Sr. |
Commissioned | 3 February 1945 |
Decommissioned | 11 June 1949 |
Reclassified | CLAA-98 18 March 1949 |
Stricken | 1 June 1966 |
Identification |
|
Honors and awards | 1 × battle stars |
Fate | Sold for scrap on 24 February 1971 |
General characteristics (as built) [1] [2] [3] | |
Class and type | Atlanta-class light cruiser |
Displacement |
|
Length | 541 ft 6 in (165.05 m) oa |
Beam | 53 ft (16 m) |
Draft |
|
Installed power |
|
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 32.5 kn (37.4 mph; 60.2 km/h) |
Complement | 688 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
|
Armor |
|
USS Tucson (CL-98) was a modified Atlanta-class light cruiser, sometimes referred to as an "Oakland-class". She was laid down on 23 December 1942 in San Francisco, California, by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation; launched on 3 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Emmett S. Claunch, Sr.; and commissioned on 3 February 1945, Captain Arthur D. Ayrault in command. [4] She was named after Tucson, Arizona.
Following outfitting at San Francisco and shakedown out of San Diego, Tucson sailed for the western Pacific on 8 May. She stopped at Pearl Harbor on 13 May for three weeks of additional training before resuming her voyage west on 2 June. She stopped overnight at Ulithi on 13 June and 14 June, then continued on to the Philippines, and reached Leyte on 16 June. The cruiser was assigned to the screen of the Task Force 38 (TF 38), specifically to that of Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan's Task Group 38.3 (TG 38.3) built around Essex, Ticonderoga, Randolph, Monterey, and Bataan. [4]
Tucson joined the fast carriers just in time to participate in their final rampage against the Japanese Empire and its inner defenses. On 1 July, she sortied from Leyte Gulf with TF 38 and headed north to the Japanese home islands. On 10 July, the flattops launched planes against Tokyo. On 14–15 July, TF 38's air groups struck Hokkaidō and northern Honshū. They returned to southern Honshū on the 17–18 July to blast Tokyo again and then left the area for almost a week. On 24 July and 28 July, she appeared with the carriers south of Shikoku while their planes hit shipping in the Inland Sea. On 30 July, they zeroed in on Kobe and Nagoya. After that, they retired south to fuel and replenish before striking out northward. By the second week of August, Tucson was off northern Honshū screening the carriers while their planes pounded the island once more. She then accompanied them south to pummel Tokyo again on 13 August. Two days later, Japan capitulated. [4]
Though hostilities had ceased in mid-August and the Japanese had surrendered formally on 2 September, Tucson remained in the Far East, steaming with TF 38 to the east of Honshū, covering the occupation forces moving into Japan. On 20 September, she cleared area and, two days later, stopped at Okinawa before shaping a course back to the United States. En route, she called at Pearl Harbor and then arrived in San Francisco on 5 October. On 23 October, the warship headed down the coast to San Pedro, where she participated in the Navy Day celebration on 27–28 October. On 29 October, she shifted to San Diego where she reported for duty with Pacific Fleet Training Command as an antiaircraft gunnery training ship. Between November 1945 and August 1946, the antiaircraft cruiser trained about 5,000 officers and men in the use of 5 in (127 mm), 40 mm, and 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. She interrupted her training duties periodically to represent the Navy at special events held in various ports on the Pacific coast. [4]
On 6 September, she entered the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for a three-month overhaul to get ready for duty under the Commander, Destroyers, Pacific Fleet. For the next two months, Tucson trained out of San Diego in preparation for a fleet exercise to be conducted near Hawaii. On 24 February 1947, the cruiser stood out of San Diego and cruised Hawaiian waters as an element of the force charged with the defense of the islands against an aggressor force moving in from the western Pacific. At the completion of the exercise, the warship put into Pearl Harbor on 11 March. However, she got underway again on 18 March to participate in the fruitless search to the northwest of Hawaii for survivors of the wrecked SS Fort Dearborn. [4]
On 27 March, Tucson returned to San Diego and resumed normal west coast operations until late summer. She again departed the west coast on 28 July and proceeded, via Pearl Harbor, to the Far East, arriving at Yokosuka, Japan, on the 15 August. For the next two months, the warship cruised the waters of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea making observations during the Communist-Nationalist struggle for supremacy in Manchuria and northern China. During that period, she visited Shanghai twice and Tsingtao once. Tucson returned to Yokosuka on 19 October, stayed overnight, and sailed the next day for the United States, arriving at San Diego on 6 November. The cruiser resumed west coast operations and, for the brief remainder of her active career, remained so engaged. [4]
On 9 February 1949, Tucson reported to Mare Island Naval Shipyard to begin preparations for inactivation. On 11 June 1949, she was decommissioned and berthed with the San Francisco Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. She remained in reserve at Mare Island until 1 June 1966 when her name was struck from the Navy list. The former warship served as a test hulk until 1970. On 24 February 1971, the hulk was sold to the National Metal & Steel Corp., of Terminal Island, California, for scrapping. [4]
The base of one of the rotating gun turrets was later surplussed to be used as the rotating mount of a giant Van de Graaf particle accelerator at the physics department of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. [5] [6] The beam line shot out by the accelerator was steered by rotating the entire accelerator assembly mounted on the turret base. It remained in use until the accelerator was decommissioned around 2005. The fact that a turret base of Tucson was surplussed to be used in Tucson, AZ is apparently a pure coincidence. [7]
Tucson earned one battle star during World War II.
USS Salt Lake City (CL/CA-25) of the United States Navy was a Pensacola-class cruiser, later reclassified as a heavy cruiser, sometimes known as "Swayback Maru" or "Old Swayback". She had 11 battle stars for the eleven engagements she participated in. She was also the first ship to be named after Salt Lake City, Utah.
USS New Orleans (CL/CA-32) was the lead New Orleans-class cruiser in service with the United States Navy. The New Orleans-class cruisers were the last U.S. cruisers built to the specifications and standards of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 long tons (10,160 t) standard displacement and 8-inch (203-millimetre) calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers." Originally classified a light cruiser, because of her thin armor, she was reclassified, soon after being laid down, a heavy cruiser, because of her 8-inch guns. The term "heavy cruiser" was not defined until the London Naval Treaty in 1930.
The third USS Astoria (CL-90) was a Cleveland-class light cruiser of the United States Navy.
USS Yorktown (CV/CVA/CVS-10) is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She was named after the Battle of Yorktown of the American Revolutionary War, and is the fourth U.S. Navy ship to bear the name. Initially to have been named Bonhomme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while still under construction. Yorktown was commissioned in April 1943, and participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation.
USS Topeka (CL-67), a Cleveland-class light cruiser in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1949. From 1957 to 1960, she was converted to a Providence-class guided missile cruiser and redesignated CLG-8. The cruiser served again from 1960 to 1969 and was finally scrapped in 1975.
USS Arnold J. Isbell (DD-869), a Gearing-class destroyer, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Arnold J. Isbell, an aircraft carrier captain during World War II. The ship was laid down on 14 March 1945 at Staten Island, New York, by Bethlehem Mariners Harbor, launched on 6 August 1945 and commissioned on 5 January 1946. Constructed too late to see action in World War II, the vessel initially served as a training ship with the United States Atlantic Fleet, before transferring to the Pacific and deploying to Korea during the Korean War and off the Vietnam coast during the Vietnam War. In 1972 Arnold J. Isbell was made part of the reserve training fleet and in 1974, sold to Greece where the ship was renamed Satchouris and served with the Hellenic Navy until being sold for scrap in 2002.
USS Pensacola (CL/CA-24) was a cruiser of the United States Navy that was in service from 1929 to 1945. She was the lead ship of the Pensacola class, which the navy classified from 1931 as heavy cruisers. The third Navy ship to be named after the city of Pensacola, Florida, she was nicknamed the "Grey Ghost" by Tokyo Rose. She received 13 battle stars for her service.
USS Atlanta (CL-104) of the United States Navy was a Cleveland-class light cruiser during World War II. She was the fourth Navy ship named after the city of Atlanta, Georgia.
USS Porter (DD-356) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy. She was the third Navy ship named for Commodore David Porter and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter.
USS Louisville (CL/CA-28), a Northampton-class cruiser, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Louisville, Kentucky. She was active throughout the Pacific War. USS Louisville was the first large warship to be built in a drydock.
USS Nashville (CL-43) was a Brooklyn-class cruiser. She was laid down on 24 January 1935 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 2 October 1937, sponsored by Misses Ann and Mildred Stahlman and commissioned on 6 June 1938 with Captain William W. Wilson in command.
USS Reno (CL-96) was an updated Atlanta-class light cruiser - sometimes referred to as an "Oakland-class" - designed and built to specialize in antiaircraft warfare. She was the first warship to be named for the city of Reno, Nevada. Reno (DD-303) was a destroyer named for Lt. Commander Walter E. Reno.
The second USS San Diego (CL-53) was an Atlanta-class light cruiser of the United States Navy, commissioned just after the US entry into World War II, and active throughout the Pacific theater. Armed with 16 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal DP anti-aircraft guns and 16 Bofors 40 mm AA guns, the Atlanta-class cruisers had one of the heaviest anti-aircraft broadsides of any warship of World War II.
USS Wilkes-Barre (CL-103) was a Cleveland-class light cruiser of the United States Navy that served during the last year of World War II. She was named after the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
USS Taylor (DD/DDE-468) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Rear Admiral William Rogers Taylor (1811–1889). She was laid down on 28 August 1941 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 7 June 1942, sponsored by Mrs. H. A. Baldridge; and commissioned on 28 August 1942 at the Charlestown Navy Yard near Boston, Mass., Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Katz in command.
USS Izard (DD-589), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Lieutenant Ralph Izard (1785–1822),
USS Taussig (DD-746) was an American Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer. It was named for Edward D. Taussig, a rear admiral of the United States Navy whose career spanned over 50 years. Adm. Taussig is remembered for claiming Wake Island for the United States on January 17, 1899 while commanding the gunboat Bennington and for accepting the physical relinquishment of Guam from Spain, ending 300 years of Spanish colonial rule.
USS Blue (DD-744), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, was the second United States Navy ship of that name, for Lieutenant Commander John S. Blue (1902–1942).
USS Arctic (AF-7) was an Arctic-class stores ship acquired by the United States Navy shortly after World War I, which saw extensive service in World War II. She served in the Pacific Ocean, delivering food and household items to ships and bases.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.
Purchased With AEC Funds: Gun mount for magnet . . . Acquisition Cost: 2,000.00
Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Tucson (CL-98) . |