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U.S.S. SIOUX
(AT-75)Click to view crew list
USS SIOUX (AT-75) - a Navajo-class fleet tug
In Commission 1942 to 1947AT-75 Deployments - Major Events
Add a AT-75 Shellback Initiation | Add a AT-75 Deployment - Major Event | ||||
Month | Year | to | Month | Year | Deployment / Event |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
FEB | 1942 | - | Keel Date: 14 FEB 1942 at United Engineering Co. San Francisco CA | ||
MAY | 1942 | - | Launch Date: 27 MAY 1942 | ||
DEC | 1942 | - | Commissioned: 6 DEC 1942 | ||
AUG | 1973 | - | Decommissioned: 15 AUG 1973 |
AT-75 General Specifications
Class: Navajo-class fleet tug
Complement: 80 Officers and Enlisted
Displacement: 1500 tons
Length: 205 feet
Beam: 38 feet 6 inches
Draft: 15 feet 3 in
Final Disposition: Transferred to Turkey 15 August 1973
USS SIOUX (AT-75)
The third Sioux (AT-75) was laid down on 14 February
1942 by United Engineering Co. of San Francisco, Calif., at Mare Island
Navy Yard; launched on 27 May1942; and commissioned on 6 December 1942, Lt (jg.) L. M.
Jahnsen in command.
After a brief shakedown period off the Pacific coast of the
United States, Sioux departed from the west coast on 3
February 1943; towed YO-8 to Pearl Harbor; and continued
on to the South Pacific. Sioux was in the war zone by
30 June 1943 and participated in rear-echelon activities in support of
the New Georgia operation.
During the periods 1 November to 15 December 1943 and 25
December 1943 to 4 February 1944, she accompanied six reinforcement echelons to Cape Torokina on
Bougainville in the Solomons. In January and
February 1944, Sioux was active
in support of the Kavieng and Rabaul
raids. She was an element of the support unit for the ships engaged in the Battle for Leyte Gulf in
late October 1944 and for the 3d
Fleet during the major portion of the
following month.
She supported the Fast Carrier Task Force (Task Force
58) during its air strikes on Japan in mid-February 1945 and during the
Iwo Jima assault later in the month. From March into June, Sioux was
assigned to the Okinawa invasion support group; and, in July, she again supported
carrier strikes on the Japanese homeland. On the afternoon of 14 May 1945,
while on station in the waters between Okinawa and the Western Carolines, Sioux took her
place beside her big sisters in the battle fleet when her gunners spotted a Kaiten,
a Japanese two-man, suicide submarine, and sank it with 40 millimeter
gunfire.
Following the war's end, she did towing duty in the Surigao
Strait and between Leyte and Okinawa. From January until September 1946,
the tug was in the Marshall Islands supporting Operation
"Crossroads," the atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll. On 2
December 1946, Sioux began inactivation procedure at Terminal
Island Naval Shipyard, Long Beach, Calif. She reported to the Commander,
San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet on 22 April 1947 and was
decommissioned the next day. She entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet and was
berthed at San Diego.
Sioux recommissioned at San Diego on
15 October 1952, Lt. T. B. Hurtt in command. She was assigned to Service
Squadron 1 at San Diego Naval Station. From recommissioning until 1965, her
deployments were fairly evenly divided between the northern
Pacific and western Pacific, with non-deployment periods taken up by routine
operations along the Pacific coast of the United States. In 1954, Sioux
participated in her second series of nuclear tests in the Pacific and
returned again for the third series in 1956. Her deployment in 1958
was to the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific. In 1959, she
deployed both to the Far East and to the northern Pacific, operating out
of Adak, Alaska. In December of 1962, she returned to the western Pacific,
remaining until May 1963. Two months after her return to San Diego, she underwent a
three-month overhaul; then resumed towing duties along the west coast. On the second day of
1964, she deployed to Adak again and
remained until March, returning to San Diego, via Seattle, on the 25th. She
resumed west coast operations and
continued in that employment throughout
the remainder of 1964 and for the first four months of 1965.
The tug's schedule of deployments changed after 1965 as a
result of the escalation of the Vietnam War. Her overseas movements, from
that time forward, were restricted to the western Pacific. On 10 May 1965,
she departed San Diego for the Far East. While there, she visited
Danang, South Vietnam, in July after towing YOG-196 there
from Subic Bay; then, 'on 7 July, departed for a two-week tour of
duty performing surveillance in the South China Sea. Sioux returned
to operations out of Subic Bav until 10 September when she commenced
another 18 days of surveillance in the South China Sea.
For the next seven years, Sioux alternated between deployments
to WestPac and routine operations out of San Diego. Between 1965 and
1972, 1969 was the only year during which she saw no service in the westernPacific.
During each of her Far East tours, she entered the war zone around
Vietnam, visiting Danang several times, Cam Rahn Bay at least
once and other, less well known places such as Qui Nhon and Vung Tau.
On 4 March 1972, upon her return to San Diego from her last
WestPac cruise, Sioux commenced west coast operations
again. This employment lasted until October when preparations were made for
the transfer of Sioux to the Turkish Navy on lease. The transfer took place
on 30 October 1972, and Sioux was renamed Gazal (A-587). In August
1973, Sioux was transferred back to the United States, then
retransferred, by sale, to Turkey. All of this, including the
striking of her name from the Navy list, occurred on 15 August 1973.
Sioux (ATF-75) earned four battle stars for World War II
service and eight battle stars for service in the Vietnam
War.
[Note: The above USS SIOUX (AT-75) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS SIOUX (AT-75), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]