Tuesday, February 19, 2013

USS Suisun (AVP-53)

Figure 1:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) off Houghton, Washington, on 17 September 1944, a few days after commissioning. She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5-inch gun and one quadruple 40-mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 2:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) off Houghton, Washington, on 17 September 1944, a few days after commissioning. She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5-inch gun and one quadruple 40-mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 3:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) off Houghton, Washington, on 17 September 1944, a few days after commissioning. She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5-inch gun and one quadruple 40-mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 4:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, on 5 October 1944. She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5-inch gun and one quadruple 40-mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives.  Click on photograph for larger image.


Figure 5:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, on 5 October 1944. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.  


Figure 6:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) off the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Washington, on 5 October 1944. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.   
 
Figure 7:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) passing a line to USS Castle Rock (AVP-35), off Javapog, Saipan, in April 1945. Photographed by Ensign Thomas Binford, USNR, from one of Castle Rock's 40-mm gun tubs. Note Suisun's Measure 32 Design 2Ax camouflage. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.  
 
Figure 8:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) at New York on 17 August 1946. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.   
 
Figure 9:  USS Suisun (AVP-53) underway in a photograph dated 1952. The quadruple 40-mm gun mount on her fantail was added in around 1948. Note the small aviation insignia just forward of her small bow number. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
 
Figure 10:  Reserve Fleet Ships at San Diego, California, photographed circa 1960. Identifiable ships from left to right include USS Izard (DD-589), Halford (DD-480), Wiley (DD-597), Suisun (AVP-53), Bryant (DD-665), and Haraden (DD-585). The destroyers are all Fletcher class ships. Note the large aviation star on Suisun's bow. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
 
Named after a bay on the coast of California, the 2,592-ton USS Suisun (AVP-53) was a Barnegat class small seaplane tender that was built by the Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton, Washington, and was commissioned on 13 September 1944. The ship was approximately 310 feet long and 41 feet wide, had a top speed of 18 knots, and had a crew of 367 officers and men. Suisun was armed with one 5-inch gun, eight 40-mm guns, and six 20-mm guns.
After completing her shakedown cruise off the coast of San Diego, California, on 21 November 1944, Suisun sailed for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December. After arriving at Pearl Harbor on 14 December, Suisun left for Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands four days later. From January to April 1945, Suisun tended to various seaplane squadrons in the Caroline and Marianas Islands. The ship steamed to Kerama Retto in the Ryukyu Islands with the Okinawa invasion force in April and remained there until the end of the war except for one trip to Saipan for supplies. Suisun was the eighth ship to enter Tokyo Bay in August 1945 and remained there until leaving for the United States in November 1945.
Assigned to the postwar Atlantic Fleet, Suisun arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in January 1946 and, after completing an overhaul, patrolled along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean. In October 1946, Suisun’s home port was shifted to Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone. The ship returned to the Pacific in April 1947 and began a series of deployments throughout the Pacific basin, including China, Japan, the central Pacific islands, Alaska, and Mexico. During several of these deployments, Suisun also supported seaplanes from Whidbey Island, Washington.
From July to October 1950, during the early months of the Korean War, Suisun tended to seaplanes which operated in the vicinity of the Pescadores Islands and monitored mainland Chinese military activity. Suisun was sent to the Far East again from 12 February to 6 August 1951 and from 26 November 1951 to 25 May 1952. Suisun was deployed to the western Pacific for three more tours of duty after that.
On 2 March 1955, Suisun was assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet. The ship was in commission but placed in reserve on 10 May and then decommissioned and in reserve on 5 August 1955. USS Suisun was struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1966 and was sunk as a target in October of that year. Suisun received two battle stars for her service during World War II and two battle stars for her service during the Korean War.
Small but well-armed tenders like Suisun not only maintained and assisted seaplanes around the world, but they made excellent patrol boats as well. Suisun’s extensive deployment throughout the Pacific over many years is ample evidence of how effective and useful these unique ships were.