Harman Patil (Editor)

USS Fairfield (AK 178)

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Name
  
Fairfield

Laid down
  
1944

Launched
  
6 February 1945

Yard number
  
70

Construction started
  
1944

Namesake
  
Fairfield County, Connecticut, or Fairfield County, Ohio, or Fairfield County, South Carolina

Ordered
  
as type (C1-M-AV1) hull, MC hull 2374

Builder
  
Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Richmond, California

USS Fairfield (AK-178) was an Alamosa-class cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy during the final months of World War II. She served in the Pacific Ocean theatre of operations and was decommissioned shortly after war’s end.

Contents

Construction

The second ship to be so named by the Navy, Fairfield was launched on 6 February 1945 by Kaiser Cargo Inc., Richmond, California, under a Maritime Commission contract, MC hull 2374; sponsored by Mrs. Henry W. Creeger; acquired by the Navy on a loan-charter basis; and commissioned on 28 March 1945, Lieutenant C. R. Snyder, USNR, in command.

Fairfield completed shakedown and fitting out before 8 May, when she arrived at San Francisco, California, to load cargo for Manus, Samar and Calicoan Islands. In early July she loaded US Army cargo at Parang, Mindanao, and was en route to Agusan province when on the 14th she picked up six Filipino guerillas from the wreckage of their boat which had been cut in two and sunk by a submarine.

Fairfield continued her cargo operations among the islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean through October 1945 when she was drydocked at Newcastle, Australia, for a brief period before being assigned to carry Australian Army cargo from Sydney, Australia, to Borneo, Tacloban, and Manila, Philippines.

Post-war decommissioning

During December the Navy removed all excess gear and she steamed into Yokosuka, Japan, on the 25th. On 8 January 1946 a Japanese crew came on board for training and on the 11th she was decommissioned and turned over to the War Shipping Administration for disposal.

US Army service

Fairfield was transferred to the US Army on 5 February 1946, for an unknown period of time, however, on 29 April 1947, she was declared a total loss, but it is unknown what became of her after that.

References

USS Fairfield (AK-178) Wikipedia