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USS Rutilicus (AK-113)
USS ''Rutilicus'' (AK-113) was a commissioned by the US Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater. Construction ''Rutilicus'' was laid down 2 April 1943, under Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MC hull No. 1643, as Liberty ship SS ''Andrew Rowan'', by California Shipbuilding Corporation, Terminal Island, Los Angeles, California; launched on 26 April 1943; sponsored by Mrs. A. B. Chandler; and delivered to Waterman Steamship Co. for operation on 8 May 1943. Acquired by the Navy on 9 October 1943, she was commissioned at San Diego, California, on 30 October 1943. Service history Following a short shakedown cruise along the coast, ''Rutilicus'' took on a load of general cargo at Port Hueneme, California, and steamed in convoy for the Territory of Hawaii arriving at Pearl Harbor on 21 November. Departing the Hawaiian Islands on 4 December, she continued on to the Gilbert Islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Rowan
Andrew Summers Rowan (April 23, 1857 – January 10, 1943) was born in Gap Mills, Virginia (now West Virginia), the son of John M. Rowan and Virginia Summers. He was an American army officer who served in the Spanish–American War, the Philippine War, and the Moro Rebellion, and became famous for reportedly delivering a message to Gen. Calixto Garcia in Cuba. Early career Rowan enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877 at the age of twenty and was commissioned second lieutenant in 1881. For the next ten years he was assigned to several frontier posts and in 1887 married Ida M. Symns of Atchison, Kansas. While serving as topographical officer at Fort Pembina, North Dakota, he volunteered for reconnaissance service along the Canadian border. In 1891 he was assigned as barometric hypsometrist and assistant astronomer with the Intercontinental Railway Survey, which was planning a (never-completed) rail line through Guatemala. After his return he was app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas. Naval convoys Age of Sail Naval convoys have been in use for centuries, with examples of merchant ships traveling under naval protection dating to the 12th century. The use of organized naval convoys dates from when ships began to be separated into specialist classes and national navies were established. By the French Revolutionary Wars of the late 18th century, effective naval convoy tactics had been developed to ward off pirates and privateers. Some convoys contained several hundred merchant ships. The most enduring system of convoys were the Spanish treasure fleets, that sailed from the 1520s until 1790. When merchant ships sailed independently, a privateer cou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can grow. Most of the approximately 440 atolls in the world are in the Pacific Ocean. Two different, well-cited models, the subsidence and antecedent karst models, have been used to explain the development of atolls.Droxler, A.W. and Jorry, S.J., 2021. ''The Origin of Modern Atolls: Challenging Darwin's Deeply Ingrained Theory.'' ''Annual Review of Marine Science'', 13, pp.537-573. According to Charles Darwin's ''subsidence model'', the formation of an atoll is explained by the subsidence of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed. Over geologic time, the volcanic island becomes extinct and eroded as it subsides completely beneath the surface of the ocean. As the volcanic island subsides, the coral fringing reef becomes a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civilian personnel) often use the shortened name, Kwaj . The total land area of the atoll amounts to just over . It lies in the Ralik Chain, southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. The US Navy has hosted a naval base on Kwajalein Island since World War II. It was the final resting place of the German cruiser '' Prinz Eugen'' after it survived the Operation Crossroads nuclear test in 1946. In the late 1950s, the US Army took over the base as part of their Nike Zeus anti-ballistic missile efforts, and since then the atoll has been widely used for missile tests of all sorts. Today it is part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, with various radars, tracking cameras, missile launchers, and many support systems spread across many islands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island-hopping
Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan during World War II. The key idea is to bypass heavily fortified enemy islands instead of trying to capture every island in sequence en route to a final target. The reasoning is that those islands can simply be cut off from their supply chains (leading to their eventual capitulation) rather than needing to be overwhelmed by superior force, thus speeding up progress and reducing losses of troops and materiel. Background By the late 19th century, the U.S. had several interests in the western Pacific to defend; namely, access to the Chinese market, and its colonies – the Philippines and Guam – which the U.S. had gained as a result of the Spanish–American War (1898). After Japan's victories in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, the U.S. began to regard Japan as a potential threat to its interests in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baker Island
Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, to the north-northwest; both have been claimed as territories of the United States since 1857, though the United Kingdom considered them part of the British Empire between 1897 and 1936. The island covers , with of coastline. The climate is equatorial, with little rainfall, constant wind, and strong sunshine. The terrain is low-lying and sandy: a coral island surrounded by a narrow fringing reef with a depressed central area devoid of a lagoon with its highest point being above sea level. The island now forms the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge and is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the U.S. which vouches for its defense. It is visited annually by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For statistical p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USMC
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. The Marine Corps has been part of the U.S. Department of the Navy since 30 June 1834 with its sister service, the United States Navy. The USMC operates installations on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world. Additionally, several of the Marines' tactical aviation squadrons, primarily Marine Fighter Attack squadrons, are also embedded in Navy carrier air wings and operate from the aircraft carriers. The history of the Marine Corps began when two battalions of Continental Marines were formed on 10 November 1775 in Philadelphia as a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Majuro
Majuro (; Marshallese: ' ) is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of and encloses a lagoon of . As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses. It has a tropical trade wind climate, with an average temperature of . Majuro has been inhabited by humans for at least 2,000 years and was first settled by the Austronesian ancestors of the modern day Marshallese people. In 1885, the Marshall Islands were annexed by the German Empire and Majuro became their first and primary trading post. The city has also been under Japanese and American administration. After the Marshall Islands broke away from the Federated States of Micronesia in 1978 to form the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Majuro became the new country's capital and meeting place of the Nitije ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country's population of 58,413 people (at the 2018 World Bank Census) is spread out over five islands and 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The capital and largest city is Majuro. It has the largest portion of its territory composed of water of any sovereign state, at 97.87%. The islands share maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and Federated States of Micronesia to the west. About 52.3% of Marshall Islanders (27,797 at the 2011 Census) live on Majuro. In 2016, 73.3% of the population were defined as being "urban". The UN also indicates a population d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abemama
Abemama (Apamama) is an atoll, one of the Gilberts group in Kiribati, and is located southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator. Abemama has an area of and a population of 3,299 . The islets surround a deep lagoon. The eastern part of the atoll of Abemama is linked together by causeways making automobile traffic possible between the different islets. The outlying islands of Abatiku and Biike are situated on the southwestern side of the atoll. The village of Kariatebike serves as the government center for the atoll which includes an administration building, the police station and a hospital. Abemama was formerly known as Roger Simpson Island, Dundas Island, Hopper Island, or Simpson Island. Geography Abemama has a land area of with a width varying from to . The island has 3 main islets; the largest and main islet has 11 villages and is home to most of the population. Abatiku, an islet located at the north-western reef, and Biike just south of it, have much smalle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarawa
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati ''''. . in the region of the central Pacific Ocean. It comprises , which has 6,629 inhabitants and much in common with other more remote islands of the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilbert Islands
The Gilbert Islands ( gil, Tungaru;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this name applied only to the southern islands of the archipelago, the northern half being designated as the Scarborough Islands. ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary''. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam Webster, 1997. p. 594) are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They constitute the main part of the nation of Kiribati (the name of which is a rendering of “Gilberts” in the phonology of the indigenous Gilbertese). Geography The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands are arranged in an approximate north-to-south line. The northernmost island in the group, Makin, it is approximately from southernmost, Arorae, as the crow flies. Geographically, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
