USS Yancey
USS Yancey (AKA-93) in 1965
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Yancey |
Namesake | Yancey County, North Carolina |
Builder | Moore Dry Dock Company, Oakland, California |
Yard number | 280[1] |
Laid down | 22 May 1944 |
Launched | 8 July 1944 |
Sponsored by | Miss Beverly Bartlett |
Commissioned | 11 October 1944 |
Decommissioned | March 1958 |
Recommissioned | 17 November 1961 |
Decommissioned | 20 January 1971 |
Stricken | 1 January 1977 |
Homeport |
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Honors and awards |
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Fate | Sunk as an artificial reef off Morehead City, NC, 1990 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Andromeda-class attack cargo ship |
Type | C2-S-B1 |
Tonnage | 4,450 long tons deadweight (DWT) |
Displacement | 13,910 long tons (14,130 t) (fully loaded)[2] |
Length | |
Beam | 63 ft (19 m)[2] |
Draft | 26 ft 4 in (8.03 m)[2] |
Propulsion | 1 × steam turbine[3] |
Speed | 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h)[2] |
Boats & landing craft carried | |
Complement | 368[2] |
Armament |
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USS Yancey (AKA-93/LKA-93) was an
Yancey's
After spending most of the next decade in duties in the Western Pacific, Yancey was
The ship was decommissioned for the final time in January 1971, and struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1977. After being stripped of salvageable materials, the ship was sunk as an artificial reef off the North Carolina coast in 1990. The ship is intact and rests on her starboard side at a depth of 160 feet (49 m).
Design and construction
Yancey was
Yancey was equipped to carry eight LCMs ("
World War II
The ship was
Iwo Jima
After remaining at Pearl Harbor until 27 January 1945, Yancey departed for the
On 29 February, after the tactical situation ashore had improved sufficiently, Yancey anchored off "Red" beach to unload her general cargo. During this time the ship was hit by one long-range mortar shell, but suffered no casualties among her crew. Slowed by nightly air raids, and high surf that required cargo to be offloaded to
Okinawa
Yancey sailed on 25 March as a part of TG 51.3, the designated "mobile reserve" for the
After a short rest-and-recreation stop at Guam, Yancey rejoined her squadron at Ultihi and underwent boiler repairs and intensive antiaircraft training; her crew won numerous five-case "beer prizes" for shooting down target sleeves. Getting underway again on 8 May, Yancey spent the next two months shuttling men and materiel from rear area bases, calling at Manus in the Admiralty Islands; Finschhafen, New Guinea; Tulagi; Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea; and finally Guiuan, on the island of Samar, in the Philippines. She rejoined TransDiv 47, TransRon 16, at San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf, on 16 July and sailed with the rest of the division to Iloilo, on the island of Panay, to conduct amphibious training exercises with the United States Army's 43rd Infantry Division.[2]
Yancey was in the Philippines when word of the
After completing the loading process on 23 August, Yancey weighed anchor on the 25th as a member of Task Force (TF) 33. However, the ships had to turn back because of a tropical storm in the vicinity. The typhoon delayed the task force for only a day, as the ships weathered the fringes of the storm at Subic Bay before again getting underway soon thereafter. Yancey entered Tokyo Bay on the morning of 2 September, the day Japan signed the formal articles of surrender on the deck of the battleship Missouri anchored there. Shortly after the conclusion of those ceremonies, the attack cargo ship headed into Yokohama harbor, the third ship in her squadron to enter that port and the first to start unloading. The ship completed her unloading in 19 hours and then proceeded to an anchorage off Yokohama.[2]
During her World War II service, Yancey was awarded two
Post war
Yancey's squadron departed on 4 September 1945 and steamed via Leyte Gulf to
Due to minesweeping difficulties, however, the landings scheduled for the
The attack cargo ship, remaining behind when the rest of her squadron was sent back to the United States on 11 October, headed instead to Haiphong, French Indochina to embark Chinese troops. After an 11-day delay, 1,027 officers and men of the 471st Regiment, 62nd Chinese Army—and one interpreter—boarded the American vessel for passage to Takao, Formosa. After arrival, the Chinese troops had all been offloaded by 17:00 on 17 November. After sailing to Manila, Yancey received orders to proceed to the United States on 25 November, one year to the day she had sailed from San Francisco. Yancey took on a capacity load of Army and Navy men returning to the United States for discharge and departed Manila harbor on 27 November. During the voyage, she flew a 310-foot (94 m) "homeward-bound pennant" adorned with 27 stars.[2]
After a stop at Pearl Harbor for boiler repairs and to offload her Army passengers, Yancey sailed for
Over the next few months, Yancey underwent a regular overhaul there and then operated off the eastern seaboard and into the western
Operation Highjump
In compliance with her new orders, Yancey proceeded back to the west coast, sailing via Cristobal and the Panama Canal. After arriving at San Pedro, California, Yancey reported for duty with TF 68 and was reassigned to the Pacific Fleets Service Force and homeported at San Francisco, on 11 November. The next day, she shifted to Port Hueneme, California, where she began loading cargo for Operation Highjump, the U.S. Navy expedition to Antarctica.[2]
Departing Port Hueneme on 2 December, Yancey pressed southward, headed for Antarctica, and spent
After threading her way through the
On 13 February, Yancey joined TU 68.1.2 which also included the Coast Guard icebreaker, Northwind, towing the attack cargo ship Merrick. Within a week, the ships were riding out a fierce storm that justified—at least to Yancey sailors—the Antarctic's title as "The World's Stormiest Sea". Yancey reached Port Chalmers, New Zealand, on 22 February and departed that port on 5 March, bound for Samoa.[2]
Subsequently, departing
Korean War
Over the next decade, Yancey operated between west coast ports and advanced bases in the Western Pacific (WestPac), including ports in Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. During that period, she also supported United Nations (UN) actions in Korea, operating in support of the initial attempts to fight the North Korean advance; in the first UN counteroffensives in early 1951; and in the final phases of activity that preceded the armistice in the summer of 1953. Yancey was awarded three battle stars for her Korean War service.[2]
In December 1957, after having served continuously since 1944, Yancey was deactivated at San Francisco. She was placed out of commission in March 1958,
Recommissioning
In the aftermath of the Berlin Crisis of 1961, Yancey was reactivated as part of President John F. Kennedy's bid to build up the U.S. Navy. On 17 November 1961, Yancey was recommissioned at Portland, Oregon. The ship departed from San Diego on 12 January 1962 and reached Norfolk, her new assigned home port, on 2 February, there becoming the newest member of Amphibious Squadron (PhibRon) 12. Over the next months, Yancey took part in a variety of exercises and maneuvers.[2]
Yancey participated in
Subsequently, visiting
On 17 October, Yancey again sailed from Norfolk and proceeded to Morehead City, to load marines and equipment for Operation PhiBrigLex (Amphibious Brigade Exercises) slated for Vieques, Puerto Rico. Upon arrival, the attack cargo ship loaded immediately and set out to join the rest of the ships in the squadron. She soon was fighting her way through Hurricane Ella which caused her to alter her course to avoid the most severe part of the storm.[2]
Cuban Missile Crisis and Dominican Republic operations
On 23 October 1962, President Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine of Cuba in response to the presence of Soviet missiles on the soil of that island nation. Yancey sortied in support of the American operations in the Caribbean, and remained on station until the missiles were removed and tensions were relaxed. Over the next few years, Yancey made regular deployments to the Mediterranean to take part in joint exercises with NATO forces.[2]
In April 1965, Yancey was ordered to the
After debarking her passengers at San Juan on 1 May, the ship took on supplies needed by the American ground forces in Santo Domingo: gasoline, oil, and ammunition. She docked in Santo Domingo on 2 May and exchanged her cargo for 450 more evacuees to be taken to San Juan. In all, Yancey carried almost a quarter of those fleeing the Dominican Republic. She returned to Norfolk soon thereafter, and resumed her role of training and cruising off the eastern seaboard and into the Caribbean basin. On 1 January 1969, Yancey was redesignated as LKA-93.[2]
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel incident
On 21 January 1970, Yancey was at anchor near one stretch of the
After a return to the United States in mid-1970, Yancey entered inactive status at Norfolk on 1 October of that year. The ship was
In 1990, the vessel was sunk as an artificial reef off Morehead City, North Carolina, and rests on her starboard side at a depth of 160 feet (49 m).[7]
Notes
References
- ^ a b "Yancey (6120740)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al "Yancey". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- ^ a b "Custody Card 1 (front)". Property Management & Archive Record System (PMARS). United States Maritime Administration. 4 August 1961. Archived from the original (scan of record) on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- ^ "YANCEY (LKA 93) (ex-MC 1193, AKA 93)". Naval Vessel Register. Navy Department, Naval Sea Systems Command. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- ^ "Custody Card 2 (front)". Property Management & Archive Record System (PMARS). United States Maritime Administration. 15 December 1989. Archived from the original (scan of record) on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
- ^ Hudy, Paul M. (2007). "Yancey". wreckdiving.com. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- Photo gallery of Yancey at NavSource Naval History
- Military.com: USS Yancey
- 51 Years of AKAs