USS Monongahela (AO-42)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Monongahela.

History
United States
Name	USS Monongahela
Namesake	Monongahela River
Builder	Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania
Launched	1942 (1942)
Acquired	1942-07-31
Commissioned	1942-09-11
Decommissioned	1950-06-09
Recommissioned	1951-01-09
Decommissioned	1955-06-10
Recommissioned	1956-12-28
Decommissioned	1957-08-22
Stricken	1959-02-01 (1959-02-02)
Honors and awards	10 battle stars (World War II) 2 battle stars (Korea)
Fate	Sold for scrapping, 1982-03-25
General characteristics
Class and type	Mattaponi class oiler
Type	MARAD T2-A
Tonnage	16,400 DWT
Displacement	21,750 tons
Length	520 ft (160 m)
Beam	68 ft (21 m)
Draft	29 ft 11.5 in (9.131 m)
Depth	37 ft (11 m)
Installed power	12,000 shp (8,900 kW)
Propulsion	geared steam turbine single screw
Speed	16.5 knots (30.6 km/h)
Range	7,200 nmi (13,300 km; 8,300 mi)
Capacity	133,000 bbl (~18,100 t)
Complement	249
Armament	1 × single 4"/50 caliber gun 4 × single 3"/50 caliber dual purpose guns 12 × 20 mm AA guns

The second USS Monongahela (AO-42) was a Kennebec-class oiler (Mattaponi subclass) in the United States Navy which saw service during World War II and the Korean War. She was the second U.S. Navy ship named for the Monongahela River in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

The ship was built in 1942 as the commercial oil tanker ElKay, a type T2-A tanker, by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania as hull number 227 and USMC number 158. Acquired by the United States Navy from the Maritime Commission on 31 July 1942, she was commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia, on 11 September 1942.

Service history

1942–1950

Assigned to the Pacific Fleet, Monongahela departed Norfolk in November 1942 for Aruba, Netherlands West Indies, where she loaded oil and then steamed to Nouméa, New Caledonia, via the Panama Canal to supply American forces engaged in the struggle for Guadalcanal. For the next year, the tanker shuttled fuel oil, aviation gasoline, diesel oil, various dry cargoes, and ammunition between San Pedro, California, and Allied supply bases in the Solomons, New Caledonia, and New Zealand as part of the long seaborne pipeline supplying fuel for victory in the South Pacific. In January 1944, following a stateside overhaul and a Pearl Harbor fuel run, the big auxiliary joined the 5th Fleet support group for the invasion of the Marshall Islands, supplying various ships and small bases at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Majuro as those atolls were captured during the campaign.

In March 1944, Monongahela joined the At-Sea-Replenishment Group for Fast Carrier Task Force 58, for the remainder of the war operating continuously with the fast carriers, participating in every major central Pacific operation from the Hollandia, New Guinea, invasion in April 1944 to the invasion of Okinawa a year later. The oiler supported the flattops during the second strikes on Truk, the invasion of the Marianas, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Palaus invasion, the Leyte campaign, and the liberation of the Philippines. In November 1944, she was one of those oilers in Capt. Jasper T. Acuff's At-Sea-Refueling Group that made the perilous run through Surigao Strait into the East China Sea to refuel Admiral William F. Halsey's 3rd Fleet/TF 38 during its raids on the Indochinese and China coasts. The ship also supported the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, narrowly escaping damage from suicide air attacks at Kerama Retto, on 16 April 1945. At the end of the Okinawa operation in June, Monongahela steamed to San Francisco for a much needed overhaul which was still in progress when hostilities ceased on 15 August.

Following the war, the auxiliary remained active in the Pacific, participating in the occupation of Japan and operations in China in 1945–46 and then giving support to Pacific Fleet ships and stations for five years, decommissioning at San Diego on 9 June 1950.

1951–1959

The veteran tanker recommissioned on 9 January 1951 for the Korean War. Assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service, Monongahela remained active in the Pacific, supplying U.N. forces in the Far East, until transferred to the Atlantic Fleet in March 1953, joining the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean for extended operations 13 months later. On 9 June 1955, the ship arrived at Philadelphia where she decommissioned the next day and was placed in reserve.

The ship once again recommissioned as part of MSTS on 28 December 1956, operating along the Atlantic coast for eight months and then decommissioning on 22 August 1957 to enter the Maritime Administration's Reserve Fleet, at Beaumont, Texas. She was stricken from the Navy List on 1 February 1959, and sold for scrapping on 25 March 1982 to Eckhard and Co., Brownsville, Texas.

Awards

Monongahela received ten battle stars for World War II service, and two battle stars for Korean War service.

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• "T2 Tanker Page". October 2009. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Monongahela at NavSource Naval History
• Wildenberg, Thomas (1996). Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U.S. Navy, 1912-1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-934-4. LCCN 95037453. OL 801103M. Retrieved 1 June 2022 – via Internet Archive.