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 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.
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.
