The 890-ton USS Requisite (AM-109) was an Auk class
minesweeper that was built by the Winslow Marine Railway & Shipbuilding
Company at Seattle, Washington, and was commissioned on 7 June 1943. The ship
was approximately 221 feet long and 32 feet wide, had a top speed of 18 knots, and
had a crew of 105 officers and men. Requisite was armed with one 3-inch
gun, two 40-mm guns, two 20-mm guns, and depth charges.
After being commissioned, Requisite escorted a convoy to
Honolulu, Hawaii, in August 1943 and underwent several months of training in
Hawaiian waters. In November 1943, Requisite participated in the
invasion of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. During this invasion, the ship
performed mine clearance, survey, landing craft control, and anti-submarine
escort duties. Requisite provided similar services during the subsequent
amphibious operations in the Marshall Islands from January to April 1944. Requisite
returned to the United States on 26 April and steamed to San Francisco,
California, for an overhaul. After the overhaul was completed in July 1944, Requisite
spent most of the summer of 1944 in Hawaii and then headed west to take part in
the amphibious assault on Leyte in the Philippines. Requisite swept for
mines throughout the Philippines from October to December 1944.
In January 1945, Requisite cleared mines during the Lingayen
Gulf landings in the Philippines, which was the opening phase of the assault on
the island of Luzon. From March to June, Requisite participated in the
enormous battle to seize Okinawa and several other Ryukyu
Islands. Minesweeping duties in the East China Sea followed in July.
When the Pacific war officially ended in September 1945, Requisite
commenced several months of mine clearance operations around Japan. The ship
returned to the United States and arrived at San Diego, California, on 17
January 1946. After that, Requisite was assigned to target towing duties
for the Atlantic Fleet. On 23 December 1947, the minesweeper was sent to
Orange, Texas, where she was decommissioned and placed in the US Navy’s Reserve
Fleet.
Requisite was re-commissioned in February 1950
and was thereafter employed as a survey ship. The ship worked in the Caribbean
and off Labrador and Greenland from 1950 to 1954 and was re-designated AGS-18
in August 1951. Requisite was sent to
the Mediterranean Ocean and conducted surveys in Turkish waters from November
1954 to February 1955.
In 1956, Requisite was transferred to the
Pacific, where she completed hydrographic and other scientific surveys from the
Arctic to the tropics. Returning to the Atlantic in 1959, she deployed twice to
the Persian Gulf and also served in the Caribbean, off America’s east coast,
and in the colder waters off Iceland and Greenland. Requisite was decommissioned for the last time and struck from the
Naval Register on 1 April 1964 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ship was sold
for scrapping in March 1965. USS Requisite
received eight battle stars for her service during World War II.
