Figure 2: USS Sentry (AM-299), date and place unknown. Courtesy Vic Barnaby. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Sentry (AM-299) after she was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam’s Navy in 1962. The ship was renamed Ky Hoa (HQ-09). Courtesy Robert Hurst. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Sentry (AM-299) after she was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam’s Navy in 1962. The ship was renamed Ky Hoa (HQ-09). Courtesy Robert Hurst. Click on photograph for larger image.
The 945-ton USS Sentry was an Admirable class minesweeper that was built by the Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Company at Seattle, Washington, and was commissioned on 30 May 1944. The ship was approximately 184 feet long and 33 feet wide, had a top speed of 15 knots, and had a crew of 104 officers and men. Sentry carried one 3-inch gun, two 40-mm guns, six 20-mm guns, one “Hedgehog” depth-charge thrower, four depth-charge projectiles (known as “K-guns”), and two depth-charge tracks, which made her heavily armed for a ship that size.
After
completing her shakedown cruise, Sentry
left San Francisco, California, on 28 August 1944 and steamed to Manus Island, New
Guinea, arriving there on 6 October. She joined the American invasion fleet
that was headed for Leyte in the Philippine Islands. Sentry arrived off the coast of Leyte on 17 October and swept for
sea mines for the next three days. Sentry
continued sweeping during and after the initial landings on Leyte on 20 October
and then was ordered to escort transports on 24 October. Although there were
few Japanese submarines in the area, the threat from Japanese aircraft,
especially the dreaded kamikaze suicide planes, was almost constant. Sentry’s anti-aircraft guns were useful
in protecting vulnerable transports from this airborne menace.
Sentry continued steaming off the coast of
Leyte for the next six weeks and participated in many of the subsequent
amphibious landings in the Philippines. The group she was attached to, Mine
Division 34, carried out pre-invasion sweeps at Ormoc Bay on 6 December 1944,
Mindoro Island on 14 December, Lingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945, and Zambales
and Subic Bay from 29 to 31 January. For every landing except the one made at
Ormoc Bay, Sentry remained near the
beaches until after the initial troop landings, helping to extend the mine-swept
areas and providing antisubmarine and antiaircraft protection for merchant
ships and transports. Sentry located
few mines, but the kamikaze attacks were intense, so her antiaircraft guns were
on constant alert and were often used to protect other ships.
On 13
February 1945, Sentry and the other
minesweepers in her division began pre-invasion sweeps in Manila Bay in
preparation for the landings at Mariveles and Corregidor. While sweeping for
mines off Corregidor on 14 February, Sentry
came within 5,000 yards of the island and was repeatedly straddled by Japanese
artillery shells before supporting American warships arrived on the scene and
silenced the enemy’s guns with their own gunfire. Sentry continued sweeping in Manila Bay until 19 February and Mine
Division 34 received the Navy Unit Commendation for their brave conduct during
the operations off Corregidor.
For
approximately the next ten weeks, Sentry
completed various minesweeping operations in support of smaller amphibious
assaults in the Philippines, with the most notable one being the pre-assault
sweep for the landings at Legaspi, Luzon, on 1 April, and an eight-day sweep in
the Sulu Sea off Palawan beginning on 22 April. On 9 May, Sentry arrived at Morotai Island (located in present-day Indonesia)
in preparation for amphibious landings in the Netherlands East Indies.
From 7 to 18
June 1945, Sentry participated in the
landings at Brunei Bay, Borneo. From 22 June and 15 July, Sentry swept for mines in preparation for the amphibious assault on
Balikpapan, Borneo. During both operations, Sentry
and her sister ships came under intense fire from shore batteries. One ship,
USS Salute (AM-294), was sunk by a
mine on 8 June. Sentry’s minesweeping
division received a Presidential Unit Citation for its service off Borneo.
After an
overhaul at Subic Bay in the Philippines, Sentry
left on 8 September and arrived after the end of the war at Sasebo, Japan, on
20 October. Throughout the following weeks, Sentry
swept Japanese minefields off the Ryukyus Islands, in the Tsushima Strait, and in
the Van Diemen Strait. Sentry left Sasebo
on 9 December 1945 and headed back to the United States. She arrived at Orange,
Texas, on 2 April 1946 and was decommissioned there on 19 June. The ship was
placed in reserve and her classification was changed to fleet minesweeper
(steel hull) MSF-299 on 7 February 1955. Sentry
was struck from the Navy List on 1 February 1962 and was transferred to the
Republic of Vietnam on 31 August of that same year. She was renamed Ky Hoa (HQ-09) and her final fate is
unknown. USS Sentry was awarded six
battle stars for her service during World War II, an impressive number for such
a small ship.
Minesweeping is
incredibly dangerous even under the best of circumstances. But with shore
batteries firing at you or with kamikaze aircraft trying to destroy you, the
job became that much harder. USS Sentry
was a fine example of a ship doing a difficult job under extremely dangerous
conditions. No wonder the ship and her crew received so many awards during
World War II.
