USS Fairfield (AK-178) was an Alamosa-class cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 acquired by the U.S. Navy during the final months of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She served in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 theatre of operations and was decommissioned shortly after war’s end.

Built in California

The second ship to be so named by the Navy, Fairfield (AK-178) was launched on 6 February 1945 by Kaiser Cargo Inc.

Henry J. Kaiser

Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He established the Kaiser Shipyard which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care...

, Richmond, California

Richmond, California

Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...

; sponsored by Mrs. Henry W. Creeger; acquired by the Navy on a loan-charter basis from the U.S. Maritime Commission; and commissioned on 28 March 1945, Lieutenant C. R. Snyder, USNR, in command.

World War II-related service

Fairfield completed shakedown

Shakedown (testing)

A shakedown is a period of testing or a trial journey undergone by a ship, aircraft or other craft and its crew before being declared operational. Statistically, a proportion of the components will fail after a relatively short period of use, and those that survive this period can be expected to...

 and fitting out before 8 May when she arrived at San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, to load cargo for Manus

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

, Samar

Samar

Samar, formerly and also known as Western Samar, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Catbalogan City and covers the western portion of Samar as well as several islands in the Samar Sea located to the west of the mainland...

 and Calicoan Island

Calicoan Island

Calicoan Island is a Philippine island, and is part of the town of Guiuan, in the province of Eastern Samar. It lies east of Leyte Gulf, off the southeast point of Samar.The island can be reached from Tacloban City by a two-hour bus ride.-External links:*...

s. In early July she loaded U.S. Army cargo at Parang, Mindanao

Mindanao

Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...

, and was en route to Agusan Providence when on the 14th she picked up six Filipino guerillas from the wreckage of their boat which had been cut in two and sunk by a submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

.

Fairfield continued her cargo operations among the islands of the southwest Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 through October 1945 when she was drydocked at Newcastle, Australia, for a brief period before being assigned to carry Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Army cargo from Sydney, Australia, to Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, Tacloban, and Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, Philippine Islands.

Post-war decommissioning

During December the Navy removed all excess gear and she steamed into Yokosuka, Japan, on the 25th. On 8 January 1946 a Japanese crew came on board for training and on the 11th she was decommissioned and turned over to the War Shipping Administration

War Shipping Administration

The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....

for disposal.

Her subsequent fate is not known.