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U.S.S. VIRGO
(AE-30)DAMN THE DEMONSTRATORS
Click to view crew list
USS VIRGO (AE-30) - an Andromeda-class attack cargo ship
In Commission 1943 to 1958AE-30 Deployments - Major Events
Add a AE-30 Shellback Initiation | Add a AE-30 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
MAR | 1943 | - | Keel Date: 9 MAR 1943 at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Kearny New J | ||
JUN | 1943 | - | Launch Date: 4 JUN 1943 | ||
JUL | 1943 | - | Commissioned: 16 JUL 1943 | ||
SEP | 1965 | - | AUG | 1966 | Recommisioning |
JAN | 1967 | - | SEP | 1967 | West Pac-Viet Nam |
MAY | 1968 | - | Shellback Initiation - 18 MAY 1968 - Atlantic Ocean | ||
APR | 1969 | - | Shellback Initiation - 15 APR 1969 - Pacific Ocean | ||
APR | 1969 | - | Shellback Initiation - 15 APR 1969 - Pacific Ocean | ||
SEP | 1969 | - | Shellback Initiation - 15 SEP 1969 - Pacific Ocean | ||
FEB | 1971 | - | Decommissioned: 18 FEB 1971 |
AE-30 General Specifications
Class: Andromeda-class attack cargo ship
Complement: 473 Officers and Enlisted
Displacement: 13910 tons
Length: 459 feet 3 inches
Beam: 63 feet
Draft: 26 feet 4 in
Final Disposition: Sold for scrapping 19 November 1973
USS VIRGO (AE-30)
Virgo (AKA-20) was laid down on 9 March 1943 at Kearny, N.J., by the Federal Shipbuilding &
Drydock Co.
under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 204); launched on 4 June 1943; sponsored by Miss Sharman Douglas; delivered to the Navy on 15 July 1943; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on
16 July 1943, Comdr. Clayton H. McLaughlin in command.
Virgo conducted her shakedown training in the Chesapeake Bay and off the Virginia capes in July and August and then departed Norfolk on 24 August,
bound for the Pacific. She transited
the Panama Canal on 31 August and
arrived in San Diego, Calif., on 9 September.
On the 15th, she continued her voyage west. The attack cargo ship entered Pearl Harbor on 21 September and began cargo operations-unloading
some and taking on more. Virgo stood
out of Pearl Harbor on 24 September
and set a course for New Zealand. She arrived
in Wellington on 6 October and began a series of landing craft
exercises. The ship remained at Wellington
until 1 November at which time she got underway for the New Hebrides Islands. She arrived in Hayannah Harbor at the
island of Efate to conduct training
and make preparations for the forthcoming Gilberts and Marshalls
invasions.
Virgo departed the New Hebrides on 13 November in company with a convoy bound for the Gilbert Islands. She arrived off Tarawa Atoll early on the morning of the 20th. While preparing to land
marines on Betio Island, Virgo was
straddled by four shells from a
Japanese shore battery. However, air strikes and counter battery fire quickly silenced the offender, and Virgo resumed landing operations. She
remained offshore while the marines
carried out their bloody struggle-the
bloodiest battle in American military history-to
wrest control of the atoll from a well-fortified enemy. During that struggle
and while the other islands of the
atoll were cleared, Virgo remained in the vicinity of Tarawa. On 28 November, she cleared the Gilberts on her way to Hawaii. The attack cargo
ship arrived in Pearl Harbor on 7
December. During the following six
weeks, she practiced amphibious operations
in the Hawaiian Islands in preparation for Operation "Flintlock," the
assault and occupation of atolls in the
Marshall Islands. On 22 January 1944, Virgo departed Oahu in
company with Task Force (TF) 52,
bound for the Marshalls. She arrived off Kwajalein Atoll early on the morning of 31 January and began launching boats and discharging troops.
No untoward events occurred during her five-day stay at Kwajalein, and she departed the atoll on 4
February. The attack cargo ship
arrived at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands
on 8 February and remained there until the 19th when she got underway for Guadalcanal. The ship anchored in Port Purvis, Florida Island, on 24
February and began a series of
amphibious training exercises in the
southern Solomons.
That employment lasted
until 27 March, on which day she got
underway for Bougainville in the northern Solomons with elements of the Army's 25th Regimental Combat Team (RCT). She discharged those troops
and their attending equipment at Bougainville on 28 March and departed that same day for New Guinea. Virgo
entered Milne Bay, New Guinea, on
31 March and remained there until 4
April when she headed for Cape Sudest.
The ship stopped at Cape Sudest from 5 to 14 April and then headed for the Beli Beli Islands. She reached that destination on the 15th and began
loading elements of the Army's 24th RCT. Underway again on the 16th, Virgo set a course for
Tanamerah Bay, New Guinea, where she
arrived on 23 April. She unloaded
the troops and their equipment and departed Tanamerah Bay on the 24th. She stopped at Cape Sudest on the 27th and arrived at Saidor on the
29th. There, she loaded men and
equipment of the Army's 36th Infantry
Division. On 1 May, the ship put to sea once again, bound for Aitape, New Guinea, where she arrived on the 3d
and unloaded troops and equipment. Departing
Aitape that same day, Virgo set a course via Cape Sudest for Guadalcanal where she arrived on 10 May. At Guadalcanal, the attack cargo ship loaded troops of the 1st Marine Provisional
Brigade and began amphibious training exercises which lasted until 31 May.
On 4 June, she departed
Guadalcanal with troops embarked for
the invasion of the Mariana Islands. She
stopped at Kwajalein from 9 to 11 June and then put to sea once again on the 12th. Virgo's troops were not committed to the 15 June landings on Saipan.
Instead, they made up a part of the
floating reserve and were scheduled to land on Guam later in the month. However, Saipan proved to be a tougher nut to crack
than expected; and, as a consequence,
the Guam assault was delayed. After
steaming around to the east of Saipan
for several days-during which the 5th Fleet
carriers destroyed the remnants of Japanese naval air power in the Battle of the Philippine Sea- she then put in at Eniwetok Atoll on 30 June to
await reinforcements for the delayed invasion of Guam. The ship rode at anchor in Eniwetok until 17 July when she returned to sea and set a course back to the Marianas.
On the 21st, she arrived off Guam, and her troops
landed near Orote Peninsula. The attack cargo ship remained off Agate Bay until 27 July at which time she took leave of the Marianas on her way-via
Eniwetok-to Espiritu Santo in the New
Hebrides.
The ship arrived at
Espiritu Santo on 6 August and, for
the next month, conducted amphibious training there and at Guadalcanal. On 8
September, Virgo left
Guadalcanal and shaped a course for the Palau Islands. She arrived off Peleliu
Island early on the morning of 15
September, and her embarked troops stormed
ashore at about 0830. She remained in the Palaus for almost a month supporting the troops in their difficult battle to subdue the Peleliu
garrison. On 3 October, she departed
the Palau Islands to return to
Guadalcanal via the Russell Islands. She arrived at her destination on 12 October. The following day, the ship received orders to return to the
United States and got underway almost immediately. After a non-stop voyage, Virgo arrived in San
Francisco, Calif., on 29 October
and, soon thereafter, began a two-month overhaul at the Hunters Point Navy Yard.
The attack cargo ship
stood out of San Francisco on 4 January 1945 to return to the western Pacific. She stopped at Pearl Harbor from 10 to 28 January
before continuing her voyage west. Along the way, Virgo also
made a visit to Eniwetok before arriving in Ulithi on 13 February where she reported for duty with Service
Squadron (ServRon) 10. Her tour of duty with
ServRon 10 brought a change in mission for the ship. No longer did she serve as an assault cargo carrier engaged in amphibious operations. From that
point forward, the attack cargo ship
served as a straight cargo carrier. In
that role, she supported the Iwo Jima
operation in February by replenishing warships at sea. In April and May, Virgo performed similar services in support of the Okinawa
campaign. In May, she began a return
voyage to the United States, departing
Okinawa on 15 May. En route, she made stops at Ulithi and at Pearl Harbor
before arriving in San Francisco on 20
June. After a month in overhaul at Moore's Shipyard, Virgo headed back
to the western Pacific on 3 August.
However, she did not resume warlike activities because hostilities ceased
on 15 August, four days before she arrived
in the lagoon at Ulithi. The next day, she returned to sea with Task Group (TG) 30.8 to provision the ships of
the 3d Fleet in Japanese waters.
Finishing that mission early in
September, Virgo arrived in Tokyo Bay on the 9th, a week after the formal surrender. She served as station
store ship at Yokosuka for the occupation
forces until 10 April 1946 at which time she headed back to the United States. The ship arrived in San Francisco on 14 May and began overhaul at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard.
She completed repairs in
August and, on the 21st, began a
series of voyages from the west coast to American bases in the Far East. She carried provisions and stores to bases in the Philippines, in the
Marianas, in Japan, and in China. She also made side trips to Okinawa, the Admiralty Islands, and Korea. That routine lasted until the latter half of 1949. In
October 1949, she began an overhaul
at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
which lasted until the beginning of 1950. Between 7 February and 31 March 1950, the attack cargo ship made a round-trip voyage from Oakland
to Guam and back to San Diego. On 25
April, she departed San Diego for a
voyage to the east coast of the United
States. During that voyage, she transited the Panama Canal and visited both Bayonne, N.J., and Norfolk, Va. She returned to the west coast via the
Panama Canal once more and arrived
back in San Diego on 17 July.
While Virgo visited
the east coast, conflict broke out in
the Far East once again. On 25 June, troops of communist North Korea invaded the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the south. The United States, and later the United Nations, responded with support
for South Korea against the aggressors. Thus, Virgo soon found herself supporting combat forces once more.
On 19 August, she departed Port
Chicago, Calif., with Navy passengers
embarked and with a load of ammunition,
bound ultimately for Korea. She stopped at Sasebo, Japan, from 6 to 15 September and then headed for Inchon, Korea. She arrived at Inchon on
the 16th, the day following the
amphibious landing carried out
there. She remained in the Korean war zone, first at Inchon and later at Jinsen Ko, for about three weeks. During that time, the attack cargo ship provisioned minesweepers, a Canadian destroyer, an
American destroyer and supplied ammunition to the troops ashore. She departed Korea on 7 October and
returned to Japan where she visited
Sasebo and Yokosuka before heading back to the United States on 1 November. After a stop at Pearl Harbor, the ship arrived
in San Francisco on 19 November and
began repairs at the Pacific Repair
Co.
On 19 January 1951, Virgo
departed San Francisco for her
second tour of duty in the Korean combat zone. She arrived in Sasebo on 6 February to disembark passengers and
unload ammunition. From Sasebo, the
ship moved to Yokosuka at mid-month; and, from there, she headed for Korea. The attack cargo ship entered port at Pusan on 15 March but soon returned to sea to transfer ammunition to Valley
Forge (CV-45) and to Juneau (CL-119). Following that, she returned to Sasebo for several days on
the 19th. At the end of the month,
she resumed ammunition resupply duty
along the Korean coast, visiting Songjin, Wonsan, Suyong, and Pohang as well as replenishing ships at sea between
port calls. She returned to Sasebo on
7 May and remained there until the 29th when she got underway to return to the United States. On 13 June, the
attack cargo ship entered port at Long Beach Calif.,
and began overhaul at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. She completed
repairs in August and, after refresher training out of San Diego, loaded
passengers and ammunition at Port Chicago in
late September. On 5 October, she put
to sea to return to the Far East. The
ship arrived in Sasebo on 22 October, disembarked her passengers, and unloaded some ammunition
before getting underway for the war
zone once more. During that tour of
duty, her mission consisted entirely of replenishments at sea in support of United Nations naval forces operating off the Korean coast. That assignment lasted until 12 August 1952 at which
time she departed Yokosuka for home.
She stopped at Pearl Harbor along the
way and arrived in San Francisco on
the 25th. Virgo then began an availability at the Triple "A" Machine Shop in San Francisco.
Virgo completed repairs in October and departed San Francisco on 1 November to resume duty in the
Orient. She arrived in Sasebo on 19 November and remained there almost
two months. On 3 January 1953, the ship stood
out of Sasebo, bound for Korean waters. For the next five months, she
resumed the familiar schedule of
replenishments at sea punctuated by ammunition deliveries at Korean ports and return trips to Sasebo for the purpose of restocking her own supplies.
She completed her last mission early
in June and, on the 13th, headed back
to the United States. She reentered San Francisco on 28 June and entered
the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a three-month overhaul. While she underwent repairs, hostilities in Korea
effectively ceased with the signing of
an armistice on 19 July 1953. Thus,
when she emerged from the shipyard late in September and prepared to resume voyages to the Far East, her missions lost their combat
character.
Over the next five years,
she continued to make voyages between
the west coast and American bases in the Far East. Most frequently, she called
at such ports as Sasebo and Yokosuka
in Japan, Kaohsiung on the island of
Taiwan, and Manila and Subic Bay in the
Philippines. Less frequently, she stopped at the Japanese ports of Kure and Kobe, at Okinawa, Guam, and Hong Kong. At the end of that five years, on 3 April 1958, Virgo was decommissioned and
berthed with the Columbia River
Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, located
at Astoria, Oreg. On 1 July 1961, her name was struck from the Navy list; and she was transferred to the custody of the Maritime
Administration. She was berthed with
the National Defense Reserve Fleet
located also at Astoria.
In September 1965, the
Navy took custody of her once again,
and her name was reinstated on the Navy list. On 1 November 1965, she was reclassified as an ammunition ship and redesignated AE-30. After
almost a year of reactivation and
rehabilitation work on the ship, Virgo
(AE-30) was recommissioned at Seattle, Wash., on 19 August 1966, Capt. Harold R. MacMillan in command. She spent the remainder of 1966 engaged
in shakedown training and independent ship's exercises along the west coast. In January of 1967, she
loaded ammunition at Concord, Calif.,
in preparation for her first
deployment to the western Pacific in support of the American effort in
the Vietnamese civil war. She departed
Concord on 12 January and arrived in Subic Bay on 6 February. There, she unloaded a part of her cargo before departing the Philippines on the 12th
for replenishment missions in the Gulf
of Tonkin. During the following six months, the ship made an equal number of replenishment voyages from Subic Bay to the warships operating in the Gulf of Tonkin
to keep them supplied with
ammunition. She punctuated those
assignments with liberty calls at Subic Bay and at Hong Kong. Virgo headed back to the United States on 22
August. Almost a month later, on 21 September,
she moored at the naval weapons station at Concord, Calif. She spent the remainder of the year engaged in normal operations out of her base at Concord.
During the first six
weeks of 1968, Virgo loaded ammunition
in preparation for and participation in the 1st Fleet exercise, Operation "Bead Stringer." In mid-February, she loaded ammunition for her
second deployment to the western Pacific during the Vietnam conflict. On 26 February, she began her voyage
west. The ship changed operational
control to the 7th Fleet on 7 March
and arrived in Subic Bay 12 days later. Once again, her assignment fell
into a pattern of replenishment voyages to
the ships operating in the Gulf of
Tonkin. In six months' time, she made eight line swings from Subic Bay to the gulf bringing in new stocks of ammunition to refill the depleted
magazines of American warships along
the Vietnamese coast. She finished her last such mission early in October and
returned to Subic Bay on the 10th. From there, she moved to Sasebo, Japan, for a four-day liberty call before getting underway for the United States
on 23 October. The ammunition ship
arrived back in Concord on 11 November,
offloaded ammunition, and entered the
Mare Island Naval Shipyard to begin post-deployment
standdown. On 19 December, she moved to
the Triple "A" shipyard to begin a six-week restricted availability.
Her repair period
continued until the end of January
1969. On the 31st, she loaded ammunition at Concord in preparation for operations at sea with units of the 1st Fleet. Those missions-primarily to
train new crew members-lasted until
the beginning of April. After final
loadout at Concord, she got underway for the Far East on 19 April. She arrived in Subic Bay on 14 May and, after two weeks of voyage repairs, began the familiar series of voyages between Subic Bay and Vietnamese waters to resupply 7th Fleet ships with ammunition. However, the increasing use
of the fast combat support ship (AOE),
which combined the features of both
ammunition ship and oiler, relegated
her to a reduced role.
During most of her eight
line swings, Virgo either served
as a backup for the AOE's or concentrated on replenishing the cruisers and destroyers operating close to the coast. The ammunition ship completed
her eighth and final line period on 12
November and returned to Subic Bay on
the 14th. On the 19th, Virgo got underwav for Sasebo where she
remained from the 23d to the 26th. On the latter day, she departed Sasebo and shaped a course for home. The ship arrived
back in Concord on 13 December and
began post-deployment leave and upkeep.
Standdown continued into
January 1970. On 21 January, she
began a restricted availability at the Bethlehem Steel shipyard located in San Francisco. Repairs complete on 16 February, Virgo moved back
to Concord to load ammunition in preparation for operations at sea along the west coast. Refresher and type
training occupied her time until 7 May at which time she departed San Francisco for the last western
Pacific development of her Navy
career. Virgo arrived in Subic Bay
on 29 May and embarked upon the first of six line periods supplying ammunition to the warships off Vietnam. She completed her final line swing
early in November and, after a stop at
Sasebo, she got underway for home on
27 November. She arrived back at
Concord on 12 December and began preparations for decommissioning. Virgo (AE-30) was decommissioned at Vallejo, Calif., on 18 February 1971, and
her name was struck from the Navy
list simultaneously. Subsequently
transferred to the Maritime Administration
for disposal, she was sold on 19 November 1973 to Taipei Hsieh, of Taiwan, for scrapping.
Virgo earned seven battle stars during World War II, nine battle stars for Korean War service, and
10 battle stars for service during the Vietnam conflict.
[Note: The above USS VIRGO (AE-30) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS VIRGO (AE-30), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]