Tate (AKA 70) - Naval Cruise Book

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'MA is fl ' U.S.S. TATE QAKA-70 HE KEEL of the U.S.S. TATE QAKA-701 was laid 22 July 1944 in the yard of the North Carolina Shipbuilding Com- pany Wilmington North Carolina. On the some day in Newport Rhode Isf land the First member of the crew assigned to the U.S.S. TATE Pre-commissioning Detail reported for duty at the Naval Training Station. Simultaneously at the U.S. Naval Amphibious Training Base Fort Pierce Florida the Landing Boat Group was in training These three elements were loaned on 25th November 1944 when the U SS TATE was placed in full commission at h Charleston Navy Yard Charleston South Carolina Lieutenant Commander Wiliam JORDAN assumed command The development and activity of the USS TATE followed in general the pro gram designed for transport and cargo assault vessels The Shakedown Cruise in Chesapeake Bay occupied the first two weeks of December when firing tests speed tests and other training exercises were conducted On December 16th Lieut Comdr R E LYON relieved Lieut Comdr Wiliam JORDAN as Commanding Officer and the ship sailed several days later on its first assignment to Davisville Rhode Island to load general cargo for Pearl Harbor The USS TATE left Davisville and the United States on a cold December morn mg and set her course for the Canal Zone and the troubled skies and waters of the Pacific After a brief stop at Cristobal and another at Pearl Harbor and Port Allen Kauai T H for discharging and loading cargo and personnel the ship sailed for Enlwetok in the Marshall lslands There she met her sister ships of transport uaclron 17 with whom she was to share so many adventures ln February in con voy for the first time she sailed for Leyte Gulf, P l On 22 February 1945 after stops in Ulithi Caroline Islands and Kessol loads Palau lslands the USS TATE ar rived in Leyte Gulf from which point she proceeded to Samar P l to discharge cargo and personnel It is to be noted that exactly seven months after her keel was laid, and less than three months after com- missioning the ship was completing its first mission in the forward area-her second wartime mission. ln March and April the U.S.S. TATE trained for and participated in the Am- phibious Operation for the capture of the Okinawa Gunto. She was combat loaded off Tarraguna Leyte with personnel and equipment of the U. S. Army 77th Infantry Regiment. On the 21st of March she sailed as a unit of the Western lslands Attack Group Rear Admiral KILAND in command for the assault and capture of the Kerama Retto a small group of lslands to the South and West of Okinawa Landing craft and personnel of this vessel participated in the invasions and subsequent transportation of personnel and supplies to the beaches of AKA SHIMA KUBA SHIMA YAKABI SHlMA and ZAMAMI SHIMA All operations were successfully completed and the ships with drew to a waiting area Three weeks later the USS TATE was again participating in the assault and cap ture of an enemy island IE SHIMA where the famous war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed From 1622 April her small boats successfully carried personnel ammu nation and cargo to the beachheads After 28 days in the Okinawa area the During these four weeks she had been sub pected to attacks by enemy aircraft subma runes and suicide boats Enemy suicide planes struck vessels ahead and abeam of her position in formation and an escort vessel was exploded and sunk On less strenuous duty the ship sailed to Saipan Marianas lslands and from there to Guadalcanal Solomon lslands where she loaded marine personnel and cargo for Guam In June she set her course from Guam for the United States and arrived in Seattle Washington After a short yard availability she sailed once again with a load of personnel and cargo via San Fran cisco where she took aboard a full comple ment of landing craft for Guam There only a few hours after arrival the news of the Japanese offer of surrender was an- nounced and with it the war time cruise of the U.S.S. TATE came to an end Subsequent to the Japanese surrender the ship has been as fully employed as ever before. The duties were of an occupational nature whereby we participated in the transportation of AsCom 24 army occupa- tion troops to Jinsen Korea and the 1st Marine Division to Tientsin China. The base of operations in both cases was Okinawa During the above operations we encoun tered two typhoons which gave us a first hand knowledge of the power of wind and sea The second one which caught us off Okinawa in the East China Sea was one of the most destructive and severe storms in the Pacific We had the misfortune to lose two boats number 6 LCM and number 14 LCVP After a short stay in Manila on Luzon Island in the Philippines we proceeded to Kowloon and Hong Kong where we assisted in the transportation of the 13th and the 8th Chinese Nationalist Armies to Chin wangtao and Tslngtao respectively We passed through the extended mine field in the East China Sea Yellow Sea area eight times without mishap We never failed to see mines so our gunners as well a great deal of target practice The field consisted of 12500 mines planted by our air forces in Japanese sea lanes as well as Japanese horned mines laid as an induce ment to keeping our ships from her west coast area We arrived in Seattle on 12 December after a one day stop in Okinawa to com plete our load of troops scheduled for dis charge and return to civilian life The U S S TATE had completed one year one half month of active duty in full com mission In this period she has traveled approximately 60 000 miles carried a total of over 18000 tons of cargo much of It combat loaded carried over 4000 troops expended 2471 rounds of ammunition in action against the enemy successfully tra versed many mme Eelds and anchored ln smoke screens made by her own boats a total of 64 hours to evade enemy detection I I , I 7 I I I I I I I I I 1 I I I I I ' I I , . . . . . . . . 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