Arlington (AGMR 2) - Naval Cruise Book

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Her cruises then took her to Caper Farwell, Green- land, down to Guantanamo, Cuba, to Aircraft Devel- opment Squadron Three back in Norfolk, and then to Canada where she transported U.S. Ambassador Steinhardt and Brigadier 'General Jean Allard, HMRCA up to the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. She then returned to Norfolk for reservist training in May, 1949. In the following September she was at Quonset'Point, Rhode Island where she embarked men of the 'Canadian Carrier of Florida. This duty was completed by 4 November when Development Squadron Three embarked at Norfolk for operations reaching off the Florida Coast and back to Norfolk. Her following training operations saw her in Cuba again, and then to the Mediterranean as flagship of Carrier Division 14 with the Sixth Fk-ret. She called at Gibralter, Tunis, Golfe Juan, Algiers, and Sicily in August 1951. Then it was home again and north for task force operations off Greenland. After several midshipman training cruises out of Norfolk again, SAIPAN departed on her world cruise on 28 September 1953. She transited the Pan- ama Canal, underwent brief training in Hawaii and went on to Yokosuka. Following coastal and inter- island reconnaissance off the West Coast of Korea, she carried Air Force and Army veterans for rec- reation at Hong Kong, before returning them to Inchon, Korea. She performed further reconnaissance on the West Coast of Korea and supported Marine Division assault landing exercises off Iwo Jima. She then went on to Tourane Bay, French Indo-China in April of 1954. The morning of the 18th of April she launched aircraft to French authorities on shore to aid in the defense of the besieged garrison of Dien Bien Phu. She served again along the Korean coast during May of that year prior to her homecoming back in the States. C

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HISTORY OF THE SHIP ARLINGTON was built as the small aircraft carrier SAIPAN by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. Her keel was laid 10 July 1944 and she was launched 8 July 1945, under the sponsorship of Mrs. John W. McCormack, wife of Congressman John W. McCormack of Massachusetts and Majority Leader of the House of Representa- tives. The small aircraft carrier was commis- sioned in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as SAIPAN CCVL-489 14 July 1946, Captain John G. Crommelin, USN, commanding. Having an overall length of 684 feet, displacement of 14,500 tons, draft of 28 feet and a designed speed of 33 knots, she is capable of carrying 234 officers, 1,487 men, and 50 aircraft. Her first mission after leaving Philadelphia 17 August 1946, was to train student aviators out of Pensacola, Florida as a unit of the Naval Air Train- ing Command. During her eight month stay in Flor- ida more than 1,200 landings were made on her flight deck. After a brief overhaul period back in Norfolk, and another brief tour out of Pensacola, she joined the Operational Development Force out of Norfolk, which helped pioneer jet operational techniques, carrier support tactics, and to test and prove new electronics devices. On 18 April 1948 she became the flagship of Carrier Division Seventeen and she hoisted the flag of Rear Admiral T. H. Robbins, USN. She left for Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where, on 3 May 1948 she em- barked Flight Squadron 17A. That forenoon she commenced launching FH-1 jet aircraft to introduce the first complete squadron of jet fighters into regu- lar fleet operations from a Navy aircraft carrier. On 6 May she demonstrated to the press the first jet launchings.

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The year of 1954 also saw helicopters launched from the SAIPAN's flight deck. During Hurricane Hazel which practically leveled Haiti, she launched the first of many helos on reconnaissance flights over the hurricane disaster area. From 14 October to 21 October, helos from SAIPAN helped avert famine, epidemics, and other disorders by flying in vast amounts of food, medical supplies and medical teams to assist hurricane victims. Her mercy mis- sion brought her the singular honor from the Haitian Government which voted her a Member of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Haiti. After another tour of training student aviators at Pensacola, she was to render like aid to other hurricane disaster areas of Tampico and Vera Cruz. 1 SAIPAN commenced the launch of helicopters the afternoon of 1 October 1955 when Rear Admiral M. E. Miles, Commander Panama Sector, Caribbean Sea Frontier, broke his flag in SAIPAN to direct the naval disaster relief operations. In eight days her helicopters flew over 3,000 individual missions. They delivered more than a half million pounds of food and medical supplies, transported 81 medical teams and rescued 6,171 persons. In addition to her helicopter operations, some 200 officers and men of SAIPAN formed a SAIPAN River Flotilla to oper- ate in the City of Tampico where they rescued un- told numbers of persons. f W ..