Name USS Oahu Commissioned 4 April 1944 Honours and
awards 1 battle star (WWII) Length 135 m | Acquired 15 September 1943 Decommissioned January 1947 Launched 9 September 1943 | |
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Laid down 14 August 1943, as SS Caleb C. Wheeler Builders Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard, Balti | ||
USS Oahu (ARG-5) was laid down as Caleb C. Wheeler, MCV hull 1782, 14 August 1943 by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland; launched 9 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. O. F. Hurt; acquired by the U.S. Navy from the Maritime Commission 15 September 1943; converted by the Maryland Drydock Company, Baltimore, Maryland; and commissioned 4 April 1944, Comdr. Clyde Lovelace in command.
Contents
World War II Pacific Theatre Operations
Following a Chesapeake Bay shakedown, the repair ship Oahu departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, 16 May 1944, steaming south and then west. Transiting the Panama Canal, she headed out into the Pacific. On 8 July she arrived at Eniwetok and on the 11th began repairing the damaged vessels of the Pacific Fleet.
Oahu remained based at Eniwetok for the greater part of the next eight months. There she kept Allied vessels, naval and merchant, in trim and prepared them for the Philippine and Iwo Jima operations. Moving forward to Ulithi at the end of February 1945, she serviced the ships gathering for the invasion of Okinawa during March and then returned to the Marshalls. Oahu continued her work at Eniwetok until 6 December when she got underway for the United States.
Post-War return to Stateside
Arriving at San Pedro, California, 25 December, Oahu, having repaired over two thousand ships during the war, was ordered to San Diego, California, to complete repair and pre-inactivation work on vessels going into mothballs.
Decommissioning
On 22 November she herself was ordered inactivated, and decommissioned in January 1947. She was berthed at San Diego as a unit of the Pacific Reserve Fleet until transferred in July 1963 to the Maritime Administration and laid up at Suisun Bay. She remained there as a unit of the National Defense Reserve Fleet.
Awards
USS Oahu (AGR–5) received one battle star for World War II service.