USS ''Carson City'' (PF-50), a in commission from 1944 to 1945, thus far has been the only ship of the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
to be named for
Carson City, Nevada
Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on the ...
. She later served in the
Soviet Navy as ''EK-20'' and in the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
, abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...
as JDS ''Sakura'' (PF-10), JDS ''Sakura'' (PF-290) and as ''YAC-16''.
Construction and commissioning
Originally classified as a patrol
gunboat, PG-158, ''Carson City'' was reclassified as a
patrol frigate, PF-50, on 15 April 1943. Constructed under a
Maritime Commission
The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...
contract, she was
launched on 13 November 1943, by
Consolidated Steel Corporation
Consolidated Steel Corporation (formed 18 December 1928) was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Consolidated built ships during World War II in two locations: Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas. It was created in 1929 by the merg ...
at
Wilmington,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, sponsored by Mrs. C. B. Austin, and
commissioned on 24 March 1944.
Service history
US Navy, World War II, 1944-1945
Manned by a
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
crew, ''Carson City'' departed
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, California, on 19 July 1944, for
Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census.
Geography
The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region o ...
and
Milne Bay
Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, south-eastern Papua New Guinea. More than long and over wide, Milne Bay is a sheltered deep-water harbor accessible via Ward Hunt Strait. It is surrounded by the heavily wooded Stirling Range to t ...
,
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
, where on 13 August 1944, she reported for patrol and escort duty in the New Guinea area with the
United States Seventh Fleet. She took part in the unopposed
landings
Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...
on
Morotai
Morotai Island ( id, Pulau Morotai) is an island in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesia's Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is one of Indonesia's northernmost islands.
Morotai is a rugged, forested island lying to the north of Halmahera. It ha ...
on 16 September 1944, then took part in guarding ships, men, and supplies being assembled for the
landings
Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...
on
Leyte
Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census.
Since the accessibility of land has be ...
in the
Philippine Islands. She herself sailed for
Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf is a gulf in the Eastern Visayan region in the Philippines. The bay is part of the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, and is bounded by two islands; Samar in the north and Leyte in the west. On the south of the bay is Mindanao Isl ...
from
Humboldt Bay
Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County, United States. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between Sa ...
, New Guinea, on 16 October 1944, supporting the first wave of reinforcements for the Northern Attack Force at Leyte. On 22 October 1944, she accompanied her charges into the landing area, and next day began a voyage escorting the empty ships back to Humboldt Bay.
After reaching Humboldt Bay, ''Carson City'' resumed convoy escort duty in the New Guinea area, shuttling to
Wakde
Wakde is an island group in Sarmi Regency, Papua, Indonesia, between the districts of Pantai Timur and Tor Atas. It comprises two islands, Insumuar (the larger) and Insumanai (much smaller).
History
Occupied by Japanese forces in April 1942, th ...
,
Biak
Biak is an island located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua (province), Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak is the largest island in its small archipelago, and has many atolls, reefs, and c ...
,
Noemfoor,
Sansapor, Morotai, and
Mios Woendi
Mios Woendi island is an island in the Schouten Islands
of Papua province, eastern Indonesia. It lies in Cenderawasih Bay (or Geelvink Bay) off the northwestern coast of the island nation of Papua New Guinea.
Description
The island is in a ...
until 26 November 1944, when she departed New Guinea for
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
,
Territory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...
, where she underwent an
overhaul. Upon its completion, she steamed north for duty with the
Alaskan Sea Frontier
Sea Frontiers were several, now disestablished, commands of the United States Navy as areas of defense against enemy vessels, especially submarines, along the U.S. coasts. They existed from 1 July 1941 until in some cases the 1970s. Sea Frontiers ...
at
Dutch Harbor
Dutch Harbor is a harbor on Amaknak Island in Unalaska, Alaska. It was the location of the Battle of Dutch Harbor in June 1942, and was one of the few sites in the United States to be subjected to aerial bombardment by a foreign power during Worl ...
,
Territory of Alaska, where she reported on 12 January 1945 and began patrol and escort duties in Alaskan waters. Selected for transfer to the
Soviet Navy in
Project Hula – a secret program for the transfer of US Navy ships to the Soviet Navy at
Cold Bay, Alaska, in anticipation of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
joining the
war against Japan – ''Carson City'' proceeded to Cold Bay in August 1945 and began training her new Soviet crew.
[Russell, Richard A., ''Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan'', Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, , p. 39.]
Soviet Navy, 1945–1949
Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, ''Carson City'' was
decommissioned on 26 August 1945,
at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
immediately
along with her
sister ship
A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...
s , , , , and . Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,
''Carson City'' was designated as a ''storozhevoi korabl'' ("escort ship") and renamed ''EK-20''
in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound for
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, where she served as a patrol vessel in the
Soviet Far East.
In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II. On 8 May 1947,
United States Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States D ...
James V. Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...
informed the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
that the
United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned, ''EK-20'' among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships were protracted, but on 1 November 1949, the Soviet Union finally returned ''EK-20'' to the U.S. Navy at
Yokosuka,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 1953–1971
Reverting to her original name, ''Carson City'' lay idle in the
Pacific Reserve Fleet
The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and ...
until the United States transferred her to the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
, abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...
on 30 April 1953 as . ''Sakura'' was redesignated PF-290 on 1 September 1957. She was reclassified as an "auxiliary stock craft" (YAC) and renamed ''YAC-16'' on 31 March 1966. She was decommissioned on 31 March 1971 and returned to U.S. custody for disposal on 6 August 1971. Her final disposition is unknown.
According to some reports, ex-USS Carson City was sold for scrap following her return from Japanese control, and was scrapped by a breaker in Taiwan. The ships bell is currently displayed inside the City Hall of Carson City, Nevada, along with the ship's commissioning pennant.
Awards
The US Navy awarded ''Carson City'' two
battle star
A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...
s for her World War II service.
References
*
External links
*
hazegray.org: USS ''Carson City''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carson City
Tacoma-class frigates
Ships built in Los Angeles
1943 ships
World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
Tacoma-class frigates of the Soviet Navy
World War II frigates of the Soviet Union
Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union
Tacoma-class frigates of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
Ships transferred under Project Hula