USS ''Picket'' (ACM–8) was a 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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. ''Picket'' was completed 15 April 1942 by Marietta Manufacturing Co., Point Pleasant, West Virginia, as the U.S. Army mine planter USAMP-1 ''General Henry Knox'' as the first of the WW II period planters built for the

U.S. Army Mine Planter Service The U.S. Army Mine Planter Service (AMPS) was an outgrowth of civilian crewed Army mine planter ships dating back to 1904. It was established on July 22, 1918 by War Department Bulletin 43 and placed the Mine Planter Service under the U.S. Army C ...

. USAMP ''Knox'' was transferred to the U.S. Navy 2 January 1945; completed conversion to an Auxiliary Minelayer, ACM-8, at

Charleston Navy Yard Charleston Naval Shipyard (formerly known as the Charleston Navy Yard) was a U.S. Navy ship building and repair facility located along the west bank of the Cooper River, in North Charleston, South Carolina and part of Naval Base Charleston. H ...

5 March 1945; and commissioned 6 March 1945.

Service history

Pacific Theatre operations

''Picket'' departed

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

on 11 March 1945, and arrived Little Creek, Virginia, 13 March. Following shakedown, she reported for duty 3 April to Commander, Service Force, Atlantic,

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

. Loaded with minesweeping equipment, she departed

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

26 April, transited the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

7 May, and arrived San Diego, 20 May. Following training, ''Picket'' departed San Diego 9 June, and proceeded via

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 ...

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

, and

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, arriving 28 July to serve as minesweeper tender. ''Picket'' departed

on 16 August, and, following rendezvous with

Task Force 31 Task Force 31 (TF 31) was a US Navy task force active with the United States Third Fleet during World War II, and still ready to be activated today with today's Third Fleet. Task Force numbers were in constant use, and there were several incarnati ...

on the 21st, she entered

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...

on the 28th. With minesweepers, she departed

on 12 September, and arrived at Wakayama, Japan, on the 14th. Sailing from

Kii Suido The , also called the Kii Strait, is a strait separating the Japanese island of Shikoku from the Kii Peninsula on the main island of Honshū. This strait connects the Inland Sea with the Pacific Ocean. The name of the strait derives from Kii Pr ...

on 20 September, she entered the

Inland Sea An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a continental body of water which is very large and is either completely surrounded by dry land or connected to an ocean by a river, strait, or "arm of the sea". An inland se ...

on the 22nd. Through 31 October she operated with minesweepers to clear the approaches to Hiro, Kure, Gunchū, and Matsuyama for U.S. Army landings.

Navy Decommissioning

Following postwar occupation duties, ''Picket'' returned to the United States. She decommissioned 24 June 1946, and was transferred to the

U.S. 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, multi ...

that date. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 19 July 1946.

U.S. Coast Guard

The ex-''Picket'' (ACM 8) ex-''General Henry Knox'' was commissioned 20 September 1947 as USCGC ''Willow'' (WAGL/WLB-332). The ship was converted to a buoy tender and assigned to San Juan, Puerto Rico from 23 July 1947 until transfer to San Francisco, California during June 1949. ''Willow's'' area of responsibility extended from San Luis Obispo Bay to the Golden Gate, northern San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay and Suisun and shared logistics support of the Farallon Island Light Station and the San Francisco Lightship with USCGC ''Magnolia'' (WAGL/WLB-328). On 10 October 1969 Willow was decommissioned and stored at the Coast Guard Training Support Center in Alameda, California. As a buoy tender, the largest in the Coast Guard at time of conversion, duties were tending navigational aids and conducting search and rescue and law enforcement as needed.

References

External links