Delta (AR 9) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 13 text:

After working out of San Diego for more than a year, DELTA headed over- seas in June 1952, to set up shop at Yokosuka, Japan. There she was part of Service Squadron THREE, supporting the United Nations Naval Forces in the Far East. In September, she was assigned to Task Force SEVENTY-SEVEN. In February 1953, DELTA returned to theWest Coast. She operated out of ' San Diego, and Long Beach, California for the next seven months, then went back to the Far East. This time she saw service at Sasebo and Yokosuka, Japan, and at Subic Bay, Philippine Islands. In July 1954, she returned to San Diego where she joined Service Squadron ONE. On DELTA's next Far East tour, which began in January 1955, she spent part of her time as the Flagship of Commander Blockading and Escort Force, Pacific Fleet. She returned to the West Coast that July, and the following month was ordered to the yard at Puget Sound, Bremerton, Washington for deactivation. She was decommissioned on 1 December, 1955, and became a unit of the Bremerton Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. Cold war was the word of the day for the next few years. World tensions in- creased and so did the need for more mobile repair facilities around the Pa- cific Fleet. On 31 October, 1959, the DELTA was recommissioned by the crew of the USS KERMIT ROOSEVELT, aninternal combustion. repair ship, at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington. She immediately sailed for Long Beach, California which was assigned as her new homeport. Her stay at home was short lived. On 12 April, 1960, she sailed once again for the Far East. As a unit of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and Service Squadron '4 THREE, she provided repair service in Sasebo and Iwakuni, Japan, and in Subic Bay, Philippine Islands. On 21 December, 1960, she returned to Long Beach for what was expected to be an eighteen month stay. ' Again the need for a repair ship in the Far East sent DELTA back to the Western Pacific on short notice. This time, she departed CONUS on 2 Feb- ruary, 1962, and provided repair service in Sasebo, Okinawa, and Subic Bay. Work was accomplished on Seventh Fleet ships supporting the U.S. Forces in Thailand, and the Taiwan Patrol Forces. DELTA returned from this Far East cruise on 20 August, 1962. From August 1962 until Christmas Day 1963, DELTA provided repair serv- ' 'ices to the ships homeported in Long Beach. On the 26th of December, DELTA deployed to the Far East, this time providing repair services in Su- bic Bay, Sasebo, Iwakuni, and Yokosuka. While in the Western Pacific, the DELTA not only served the fleet, but acted as a good will ambassador for the United States in Hong Kong, and Moji, Ja- pan, with outstanding success. With her tour completed, DELTA returned to Long Beach for a long awaited overhaul. Upon completion of her yard period, DELTA again became the workhorse of the fleet by rendering her time and talents in repairing units of the fleet homeported in Long Beach. On 1 July, 19515, the Homeport of DELTA was officially changed to Alameda, California, and on 22 July, 1965, DELTA deployed again to thef Western Pa-

Page 12 text:

I I 1 'Q 1 is 3 i I I 1 ..-D 11 ,I 1 4 1 I 1 l I I ri il 4 I l I I I I I DEL TA,S Hlsroar DELTA was built as SS HAWAIIAN PACKER and originally designed for o mercial use on the pineapple run between San Francisco and Honolulu. c m . . . Before completion, she was acquired by the Navy. She WGS C0H1ff11SS1011ed U1 June 1941 as a Cargo Ship qAK29J, and during her first year of service, made runs to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Iceland, Newfoundland, and NOVEL Scotia. On 1 July, 1942 she was placed in a reserve status for conversion to a.Fleet Repair Ship at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In her new capacity she sailed on 3 March, 1943 to join a convoy headed for North Africa. The convoy reached Mers-Elkebir, Organ on 19 March and DELTA moored alongside the mole where she immediately set to work repairing amphibious craft. During a short three months there she put in a total of 110,800 man-hours working on 467 ships. With the opening of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, DELTA moved to Bizerte, Tunisia, late in July 1943. The following month, despite a series of air attacks by the Luftwaffe, she worked on 248 ships and amphibious craft. The air raids reached their climax on the night of 6 Sept- ember. One of the planes shot down on that occasion was definitely credited to DELTA and another was recorded as a possible. As the war moved, so did DELTA. She set up shop in Palermo, Sicily, in March 1944 and at Pozzuoli, Italy, that July. At Pozzuoli her job was to get ships and landing craft ready for the invasion of Southern France. From there she went to Naples, Italy, in August to repair the damaged amphibs. On the last day of September 1944, the hard-working AR steamed for Bi- zerte, via Palermo, to repair landing craft being returned to the United States. She did that until November, when she was detached from the am- phibs and returned to Mers-El-Kebir for duty as a destroyer repair ship for Commander Destroyer Squadron SIXTEEN. In April 1945, DEL TA arrived back in the States -- but not for long. After armament modifications and general repairs, she left Norfolk, Virginia on 15 June, 1945 for Pearl Harbor, via the Panama Canal. She reached Pearl on 6 July, 1945, worked there for a month and then sailed for Eniwetok on 5 August. I The surrender of Japan was announced while DELTA was at Eniwetgky She was ordered to rendezvous with Commander Task Group 30.8 off the island of Japan, and on 28 August she entered the Sagami Sea with advance units. Two days later she moored off Yokosuka Naval Base, where she was assigned to general fleet repair work. One of the jobs she did there was to get the Japanese battleship NAGATO in shape for the 1946 atomic bomb at Bikini She saw China service in the year following the war's end. i IH AUg11St 1945, DELTA was placed out of commission, remaining in that status until the Korean conflict. She was put back into commission on 1 NO- vember 1950 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and after her shakedown, left the East Coast in February 1951 for duty in the Pacific Fleet at San Die o Cali- fornia under Commander Service Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet g ,

Page 14 text:

cific, providing repair services to ships of the Seventh Fleet, in slsuch ports as Yokosuka, Subic Bay, Manila, and Kaohsiung, TEUWHH- DELT ar' - 'f ' on 15 March, 1966, and rived at her new homeport of Alameda, Cali ornia i . began flying the flag of Commander Service Squadron SEVEN while serving th ir needs of the U.S. First Fleet. Cn 2 August, 1965, DELTATGPTS e repa sented Navy ships from the San Francisco area in the Seattle Sea Fair, re- turning to Alameda on 12 August, 1966. O 19 J r , 1967, DELTA set sail for her tenth overseas tour, her ninth n anua y to the Western Pacific, for duties in support of the Vietnam-exposed, but 18 thankful ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. Upon her return to Alameda on August, 1967, DELTA had spent a total of eight years overseas away from the United States . DELTA served during the year of 1968 in support of the U.S. First Fleet. She left her homeport of Alameda early in January, to spend the first quar- ter of the year in the Long Beach area, where her services were badly needed. She returned to Alameda in March, only to return to Long Beach in May, to serve there for two more months. She was once again privileged to represent the many ships from the San Francisco area in the Seattle Sea Fair during the first week of August. Up- on returning to her homeport, she spent the rest of the year in support of Navy Units there. - On 3 May, 1969, DELTA deployed to the Western Pacific once again. In the course of her tour, DELTA visited Hawaii, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, and Viet Nam, and returned to the United States in mid Decem- ber of 1969. The jobs DELTA does and will continue to do for the operating forcesof the Pacific Fleet, range from tightening the smallest bolt, to re- building boilers and engineering plants on the ships that she serves. No matter what the job, DELTA does her best to help the rest, in keeping with her motto of DILIGENCE, DEPENDABILITY, DEXTERITY.