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USS Mazama (AE-9)
Encyclopedia
USS Mazama (AE‑9) was laid down 14 April 1942 by the Tampa Shipbuilding Co., Tampa, Fla.; launched 15 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Edward V. Rickenbacker; and commissioned 10 March 1944, Comdr: P. V. R. Harris, USNR, in command. She was named for Mount Mazama
, a collapsed volcano in the Cascade Range in Oregon
whose caldera is now occupied by Crater Lake
.
for the Pacific. Arriving at Majuro
4 June, she immediately assumed her dangerous, but extremely vital, mission of receiving and delivering ammunition to ships at sea and in port. She remained at Majuro through 12 June; thence proceeding via Eniwetok to Saipan
, arriving 21 June, just after the Battle of the Philippine Sea
. She continued on in support of Saipan‑Tinian
operations, rearming units of the 5th Fleet, including renowned Fast Carrier Task Force 58, until 11 July. Mazama sailed for San Francisco 4 August, arriving on the 24th and departing again on 19 September for the combat area.
on 9 October, the ammunition ship prepared for the liberation of the Philippines
. She steamed on the 15th for Kossol Roads
, continuing on to Leyte Gulf
, arriving 23 October 3 days after the Leyte landings. She remained in the gulf, in spite of intense and bitter air activity, through the battles off Samar and in Surigao Strait. Following these battles she rearmed the units of the 7th and 3rd Fleets.
On 1 November, Mazama departed for Kossol Roads and Ulithi Atoll. While at anchor in the latter, 20 November, she witnessed the first successful attack of the kaiten
. By 1 December she was beaded for Espiritu Santo
to replenish her cargo; returning to Ulithi 5 January 1945. There, at 0650 12 January, a suspicious object was sighted off the starboard quarter. Four minutes later an explosion rocked the ship. She developed a 2° list to port and was down at the head. Pumps were immediately started to counteract flooding, later ballast was emptied to reduce the forward draft which had increased to 35 from 23 feet; the change in draft aft, from 25 to 21 feet. By midafternoon, having suffered the loss of eight men, one dead and seven seriously injured, she began to transfer serviceable ammunition; unserviceable munitions were dumped at sea.
The next day the caulking and plugging of open seams was begun. Temporary repairs completed by 6 March, Mazama steamed for San Francisco, arriving 4 April. She then headed back toward the Philippines 9 June with 5,000 tons of ammunition. On 2 July she entered San Pedro Bay
where she remained through the end of the war.
ese coast with TG 30.8 whose units were under orders to stand by until the signing of the official surrender document. She then returned to the Philippines, discharging remaining cargo, and sailed to the United States, arriving 23 November at Seattle to prepare for inactivation and transfer to the Pacific Reserve Fleet. On 12 April 1946 she steamed to San Diego where she decommissioned 3 August.
Mazama recommissioned 24 April 1952 and was assigned to Service Force, Atlantic Fleet. For the next five years she operated off the east coast with annual deployments with the 6th Fleet. During her 1956 Mediterranean deployment (1 May to 11 October) she was part of the logistics force in the eastern part of that sea as the crisis over Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal
heightened. The crisis erupted in late October into armed conflict between Israel
, the United Kingdom
, France
, and Egypt
. Following her return to the east coast, Mazama decommissioned 10 June 1957 at Orange, Tex., where she remained as a unit of the 16th Fleet until 1961.
On 27 November 1961 Mazama again recommissioned. Home ported at Mayport, Fla., for the next four years, she participated in fleet exercises along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean. During fall 1962 exercises in the latter area she was called on to support the ships enforcing the Cuba
n quarantine. In 1964 she was again deployed to the Mediterranean, where, during the month of August, she stood by in support of the Cyprus
patrol as civil unrest and fighting between Greek and Turkish Cypriots threatened an uneasy peace in the eastern Mediterranean.
Mazama returned to Florida
23 December to operate out of Mayport until August 1965. On 20 August she moored at Davisville, Rhode Island
, her new home port. Her deployment schedule was also changed and the next year she was assigned to the 7th Fleet.
Departing Davisville 17 March 1966, she arrived at Subic Bay
5 May and for the next six months supported units of the 7th Fleet in operations off the coast of Vietnam
. On 3 November Mazama was relieved by Shasta. She then headed back to Davisville via the Suez Canal, completing her round‑the‑world cruise 20 December.
After a cruise to the Mediterranean in late 1967 through early 1968, Mazama returned to operate with and supply ammunition to the 2d Fleet into 1969. In March 1969 departed for the Panama Canal to start a West Pac Cruise that lasted to November 1969 with a full ships complement arriving April 1969 in Subic Bay Philippines. Upon return to Davisville was decommissioned in 1970 the ship that was almost sunk in WWII but survived all the wars she served in.
.
Mount Mazama
Mount Mazama is a destroyed stratovolcano in the Oregon part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range. The volcano's collapsed caldera holds Crater Lake, and the entire mountain is located within Crater Lake National Park....
, a collapsed volcano in the Cascade Range in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
whose caldera is now occupied by Crater Lake
Crater Lake
Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 years agoby the...
.
Service
Mazama built as an ammunition ship using C‑2 hull plans, began her war service 6 May 1944. On that date, having filled her holds with high explosives, she departed BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
for the Pacific. Arriving at Majuro
Majuro
Majuro , is a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll itself has a land area of and encloses a lagoon of...
4 June, she immediately assumed her dangerous, but extremely vital, mission of receiving and delivering ammunition to ships at sea and in port. She remained at Majuro through 12 June; thence proceeding via Eniwetok to Saipan
Saipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
, arriving 21 June, just after the Battle of the Philippine Sea
Battle of the Philippine Sea
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a decisive naval battle of World War II which effectively eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War...
. She continued on in support of Saipan‑Tinian
Tinian
Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....
operations, rearming units of the 5th Fleet, including renowned Fast Carrier Task Force 58, until 11 July. Mazama sailed for San Francisco 4 August, arriving on the 24th and departing again on 19 September for the combat area.
Liberation of the Philippines
Anchoring at ManusManus 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...
on 9 October, the ammunition ship prepared for the liberation of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. She steamed on the 15th for Kossol Roads
Kossol Roads
Kossol Roads, Palau is a large body of reef-enclosed water north of Babeldaob. During World War II, it was used by the United States Navy as the location of a floating resupply and repair base....
, continuing on to Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...
, arriving 23 October 3 days after the Leyte landings. She remained in the gulf, in spite of intense and bitter air activity, through the battles off Samar and in Surigao Strait. Following these battles she rearmed the units of the 7th and 3rd Fleets.
On 1 November, Mazama departed for Kossol Roads and Ulithi Atoll. While at anchor in the latter, 20 November, she witnessed the first successful attack of the kaiten
Kaiten
The Kaiten were manned torpedos and suicide craft, they were used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.-History:...
. By 1 December she was beaded for Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of . It belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region of Melanesia. It is in the Sanma Province of Vanuatu....
to replenish her cargo; returning to Ulithi 5 January 1945. There, at 0650 12 January, a suspicious object was sighted off the starboard quarter. Four minutes later an explosion rocked the ship. She developed a 2° list to port and was down at the head. Pumps were immediately started to counteract flooding, later ballast was emptied to reduce the forward draft which had increased to 35 from 23 feet; the change in draft aft, from 25 to 21 feet. By midafternoon, having suffered the loss of eight men, one dead and seven seriously injured, she began to transfer serviceable ammunition; unserviceable munitions were dumped at sea.
The next day the caulking and plugging of open seams was begun. Temporary repairs completed by 6 March, Mazama steamed for San Francisco, arriving 4 April. She then headed back toward the Philippines 9 June with 5,000 tons of ammunition. On 2 July she entered San Pedro Bay
San Pedro Bay (Philippines)
San Pedro Bay is a bay in the Philippines, at the northwest end of Leyte Gulf, about 15 km east-west and 20 km north-south. The bay is bounded on the north and east by Samar and on the east by Leyte Island. It is connected by San Juanico Strait to Carigara Bay of the Samar Sea. The...
where she remained through the end of the war.
Decommissionings and recommissionings
On 19 August she rendezvoused off the JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese coast with TG 30.8 whose units were under orders to stand by until the signing of the official surrender document. She then returned to the Philippines, discharging remaining cargo, and sailed to the United States, arriving 23 November at Seattle to prepare for inactivation and transfer to the Pacific Reserve Fleet. On 12 April 1946 she steamed to San Diego where she decommissioned 3 August.
Mazama recommissioned 24 April 1952 and was assigned to Service Force, Atlantic Fleet. For the next five years she operated off the east coast with annual deployments with the 6th Fleet. During her 1956 Mediterranean deployment (1 May to 11 October) she was part of the logistics force in the eastern part of that sea as the crisis over Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
heightened. The crisis erupted in late October into armed conflict between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Following her return to the east coast, Mazama decommissioned 10 June 1957 at Orange, Tex., where she remained as a unit of the 16th Fleet until 1961.
On 27 November 1961 Mazama again recommissioned. Home ported at Mayport, Fla., for the next four years, she participated in fleet exercises along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean. During fall 1962 exercises in the latter area she was called on to support the ships enforcing the Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n quarantine. In 1964 she was again deployed to the Mediterranean, where, during the month of August, she stood by in support of the Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
patrol as civil unrest and fighting between Greek and Turkish Cypriots threatened an uneasy peace in the eastern Mediterranean.
Mazama returned to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
23 December to operate out of Mayport until August 1965. On 20 August she moored at Davisville, Rhode Island
Davisville, Rhode Island
Davisville, Rhode Island was the former home of the U.S. Navy SeaBees. It was located at Quonset Point on Narragansett Bay, an area now included in the town of North Kingstown. The Navy acquired the property in 1939 and built Naval Air Station Quonset Point...
, her new home port. Her deployment schedule was also changed and the next year she was assigned to the 7th Fleet.
Departing Davisville 17 March 1966, she arrived at Subic Bay
Subic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...
5 May and for the next six months supported units of the 7th Fleet in operations off the coast of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. On 3 November Mazama was relieved by Shasta. She then headed back to Davisville via the Suez Canal, completing her round‑the‑world cruise 20 December.
After a cruise to the Mediterranean in late 1967 through early 1968, Mazama returned to operate with and supply ammunition to the 2d Fleet into 1969. In March 1969 departed for the Panama Canal to start a West Pac Cruise that lasted to November 1969 with a full ships complement arriving April 1969 in Subic Bay Philippines. Upon return to Davisville was decommissioned in 1970 the ship that was almost sunk in WWII but survived all the wars she served in.
Awards and honors
Mazama received five battle stars for actions in the Pacific Theater of Operations at Guam, The Philippine Campaign, Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa. The Mazama was also part of the American Occupational Force of the Japanese Home Islands following the end of World War IIWorld 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...
.