Piedmont (AD 17) - Naval Cruise Book

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The primary mission of PIEDMONT is to help maintain the De- stroyer Fleet in a constant state of comhat readiness. During her 1963 Western Pacific employment, she has fulfilled her vital role as a mobile repair and supply facility by providing services to 56 de- stroyers alongside, and to an additional 151 ships, including carriers and cruisers, which require technical assistance. nit of the U. S. SEVENTH Fleet, PIEDMGNT Operating as a u has shared in the Fleet's mission of defending the interests of the United States and the free World in the Western Pacific. The shop facilities located in industrial areas throughout the ship account for only a part of PlEDlVlONT'S success as a tender. To the skills and dedication of the men who operate and maintain these machines, who keep the necessary supplies in stock, and who perform the myriad other jobs which must be done, go the HWell Donesw that PIEDMONT has earned.

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HISTORY USS PIEDMONT KAD-175, one of three 6'Dixie class destroyer tenders now operating in the Pa- cific, is the first ship of this name. Following the Navy's policy of naming such ships after locations and areas of the United States, USS PIEDMONT was named after the Piedmont region, which lies just east of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Authorized by an Act of Con- gress in May, 1938, PIEDMONT was built by the Tampa Ship Build- ing Company at Tampa, Florida. Her keel was laid on 1 December 1941, and she was launched on 7 December 1942. Her length is 530 feet, her beam 73 feet, she dis- places 8,000 tons standard f18,000 tons full loadj. PIEDMONT was commissioned a United States Ship on 5 January 1944. A recounting of the work done by the men of PIEDMONT dur- ing World War II would encompass manyhpages, too many for a short history of this kind. A few of the high points of PIEDMONTIS ac- tivities during that war should suf- fice to portray the unsung, yet vi- tally necessary role she played in helping to bring about victory. On 6 March 1944 PIEDMONT sailed from Florida for the Panama Canal, San Diego, and then Pearl Harbor. Less than twenty-four hours after her arrival at Pearl Harbor, PIEDMONT had taken her first Pacific Fleet destroyer along- OF USS Pl side. She remained there for the next two months during the fever- ish preparations for the Marianas Campaign. During the month of May, her crew set what was then a record in exerting a total Of 110,000 man-hours on repairs to other vessels. At one time, PIED- MONT had seven destroyers along- side and was working on jobs for fifty other destroyers moored in the area. In mid-.lune 1944 PIEDMONT sailed from Pearl Harbor to Ajoin other units of the fleet in the Mar- shall Islands, where she served task groups from huge Task Force 58, supporting the Marianas Campaign. In September she sailed into the Southwest Pacific to Manus Island, the largest of the Admiralty Islands, where other units of the fleet were preparing for the Philippines Cam- paign. Her next four months were spent sustaining U.S. destroyers in their battles with Japanese ships and uKamikazi', planes. ' In early January 1945 PIED- MONT sailed from Manus Island to Ulithi Atoll, in the Caroline Is- lands. The three months following saw United States Pacific Fleet units, during the long, bitter weeks of the Iwo-Okinawa operations, suf- fering more damage than at any other time in its history. PIED- MONT again employed her facil- ities to repair and 'cpatch up de- stroyers damaged during this cam- paign. In June 1945, with cessation of E DMQNT organized resistance on Okinawa, PIEDMONT sailed to the Leyte Naval Base, and then to Eniwetok Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. Here, on 14 August, the men of PIED- MONT received the news that fla- pan had accepted Allied peace terms. In addition, they learned that PIEDMONT had been selected from the Pacific Fleet destroyer tenders to move into Tokyo Bay with the first Naval occupation units. The ship departed Eniwetok, rendezvoused at sea with units of the THIRD Fleet, and, on 28 Aug- ust, dropped anchor in the Sagami Wan, south of Tokyo Bay. On the 30th she moved into Tokyo Bay, and on the following day moved to the dock at the Yokosuka Naval Base, 37 miles south of Tokyo. While moored at Yokosuka, PIEDMONT supplied provisions and clothing to the landing forces, and to ,the hospital ships standing by to care for released Allied prisoners of war. So permanent a feature did the ship become in Yokosuka that the dock was named HPIEDMONT Pierf' PIEDMONT remained in the Tokyo area sup- porting the occupation forces until sailing for the United States, arriv- ing at Alameda, California, on 15 March 1946. PIEDMONT's commendations earned during the War and the period following included the Navy Occupation Service Medal, Pacific, for the periods September 1945 to February 1946, June 1946 to Feb-