USS Prairie, from commissioning to decommissioning
Following is an unofficial history of the USS Prairie, compiled by me over the years. If you have any stories to add I'd love to hear them.
[Information in brackets comes from a booklet produced for the occasion of the Prairie’s decommissioning in 1993]:
“The ship has 16,500 tons displacement, is 530 feet long, 73 feet wide and 24 feet of it is underwater.
“It was laid down 7 DEC 1938 and launched on 9 DEC 1939 and commissioned 5 AUG 1940. [Prairie was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in the South Camden Yards for a cost of $11,279,548.] It was in Argentia, Newfoundland on 7 DEC 1941. On 29 MAY 1942 there was a fire aboard and the Prairie went to Boston to get fixed and then back to Argentia. [Two men died in the fire and the ship’s library and conference room were named after them.]
“On 22 FEB 1943 the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Campbell was rammed by a U-boat and the Prairie effected a complete overhaul on it. On 23 SEPT 1943 Prairie left Argentia for Boston and on to Pearl Harbor in November 1943. [This was the first of 27 overseas deployment for the Prairie in a 50 year period.]
“7 FEB 1944 Prairie moved with the advancing forces to Majuro Atoll and left there on 3 June for Eniwetok. Was in Ulithi Atoll on 8 OCT 1944 and stayed there until the war was over and went to Tokyo Bay on 10 OCT 1945.
Following is a letter written by a Prairie crewman on the trip from Ulithi to Japan. His son Tim Worley joined the Prairie Facebook group and shared it in 2021:
Leaving Ulithi to anchor at Yokosuka - One of my Dad's last letters during WW2..................................
At Sea (approx.. 200 mi. south of Iwo Jima **********Oct 4, 1945 (*Dad’s 33rd Birthday) 8 PM Dear Grandma, Mabel and Charlie: Well, this is it, folks – we are Tokyo bound. I’ll start from the beginning and give you a brief diary of our trip – so far. The ship’s orders came in last Sat. eve. And right after the movies, they were announced over the public address system – “The Prairie will get underway for Tokyo Bay at 1300, Monday Oct 1.” Well, after looking at Ulithi for almost one full year (12 days shy), you can imagine the howl of delight from the crew after the word was passed! 278 Practically everyone turned to on Sunday, preparing the ship for sea – boats to be hoisted in, gear lashed down, etc. There was a bit of skepticism voiced as to whether the old Prairie would clear the stack of coffee grounds under her; Monday, our sailing day came, however, and out doubts were all dispelled – at 1300 we weighed anchor, steamed down the channel and at about 1500 we had cleared the submarine nets and Ulithi began to fade over the horizon. Sunday was uneventful. I spent the day hard at work on the provisions report (The report, which is made quarterly, is the main reason I am being retained aboard ship – so you can see how anxious I was to get it out). Wednesday – still working on the report. The sea started to get pretty choppy and we got word over the radio that we were heading into a typhoon. About dusk, the captain decided to turn the ship around and head south so as to miss the storm. We missed it alright, but the old ship was bobbing around quite a bit. I felt a little woozy but didn’t get sick. Thursday morning (this morning) we were just about back where we had been the day before. We had almost gotten into sight of Saipan during the early morning hours and shortly after dawn, we headed north again. We were originally scheduled to arrive in Tokyo sometime Sat. morning, but as a result of our turning around, it was announced at quarters that we would not arrive now until Sunday morning. Finished the report this morning so decided to take the afternoon off. We have an athletics instructor aboard ship now so several of us got him to give us some Judo instructions this afternoon. I guess you have heard about Judo – it is a perfected method of Ju-Jitsu. Boy, oh boy! is it effective, too! All you have to do is catch your opponent off guard and with just a simple twist of the waist, you can have him on the deck, yelling “Uncle!” A bird lit on the ship today and one of the boys caught him. The bird was about the size of a young crow, sort of brownish black color with a white spot on his head and had web feet and a very long, narrow bill, about 2 in long. He was certainly tame, however, and would sit on one’s hand and make no attempt to fly away. (Maybe he had been bucking that typhoon, too, and was glad to find a place to rest!) Speaking about the bird, that brings up the subject of our local zoo. We now have aboard ship – one monkey “Pete,” two dogs, “Micki,” and “Half Hitch,” one kitten, unnamed, and the bird, also unnamed. Quite a collection, eh what! Well folks, it is about time to hit the sack, so I guess I’ll sign off now and continue to relate the rest of our voyage when we reach Tokyo. This has been really swell cruising today and a very pleasant way to spend one’s birthday. It just seems strange to be underway with all the lights on at night, no gun watches and general quarters stations to stand at dusk and sunrise. We are even having band concerts and movies topside every evening! Quite a difference, this peacetime Navy! Thanks a lot for that swell birthday card, Grandma. It was the last letter I received in Ulithi, just before we got underway. It’s getting late now, so goodnight all. Saturday afternoon 279 Well, here we are, about 400 miles south of Tokyo. We sighted the island of Tori Shima (in the northern Bonin group) at noon today. Yesterday and today have both been uneventful and the weather has been wonderful. There has been a little snap in the air today and it feels just like one of those snappy fall days back home. After almost two years in the tropics, it certainly is invigorating, believe me! Had a talk with the Supply Officer this morning and he said I could start packing my sea bag around the end of next week. After that, everything depends on the availability of transportation. From all indications, however, I think there will be quite a few ships homeward bound out of Tokyo, so I’m not worrying much about that. We had “Pete” and “Half-Hitch” out on the boat deck this afternoon. What a sight! You would have really gotten a kick out of their antics. They are just about the same size and to watch them play and wrestle, it is really a scream! The best one was when Pete got hold of a cigarette butt and started strutting around with it cocked in one side of his mouth! Sunday afternoon (conclusion) Well, here we are, anchored right off the Yokosuka Naval Base, where the initial landings were made. We dropped the hook at exactly 1327, Tokyo time. This is quite a bleak, barren looking land – there are a few sunken ships sticking up in the harbor and not much sign of activity anywhere. I think I’ll be glad to leave just as soon as possible. Now, before this letter becomes too heavy to mail, I think I had better sign off. The new edition of our local newspaper came out today so I am enclosing it also. Goodbye now and I hope to see all of you very soon. As always, Earl PS – I’ll write one more letter before I leave the ship
And back to the narrative I got from the ship’s library in 1979.
“On 30 NOV 1945 she headed back to San Francisco. Prairie was in San Diego from February 1946 to August 1947. During the Korean ‘Police Action’ Prairie was in that area February through August 1951, April to September 1952, August 1953 to April 1954.”
Here’s a story I got from former IC2 D.R. “Doc” Taylor while trolling on the Internet in 1996 for Prairie veterans. Doc was aboard the Prairie 1952-1956.
“One late afternoon aboard the Prairie at sea, a bunch of us got together to build a kite and fly it off the fantail of the ship. We made the thing out of wood and nylon tissue, and stood about 3 feet tall, believe it or not the thing flew great! (Was a Box Kite) Sooo! being proud of our success, we decided, the next day to build a bigger and a better one! This time we made the thing out of Nylon tissue and quite a few Aluminum Spars, and to our amazement the thing flew quite well! We tied the line to the fantail rail and was admiring our success, then about that time General Quarters sounded! Scared the squat out of all of us, because there had been some unidentified subs in the area! My GQ station was near Radio Central. I could hear all the Chatter about an Unidentified Bogey bearing down on our stern. (Needless to say the ship’s radar was tracking our kite) We never made any more kites, to say the least! My butt still burns to think of how the skipper chewed on us! To make matters worse the skipper did what he had to do! But you could tell it just tickled the H--- out of him!”
And now we return to the tedious history of the Prairie:
“Prairie returned to San Diego March 1956 after completing an around the world cruise. A rarity for a destroyer tender.
“In 1958 Prairie went to Yokohama, Japan for ceremonies to make San Diego and Yokohama sister cities. In October 1959 she went to Taiwan for the 10-10 Day Festival, similar to the Fourth of July. Spring 1961 Prairie took part in Pony Express exercises held by SEATO forces (South Eastern Asia Treaty Organization).
[While visiting Hong Kong July 21, 1965, Prairie was ordered to help salvage the destroyer USS Frank Knox, which had run aground in the South China Sea. A record-setting 36-day underway period was required for this operation.]
“Back to Pearl Harbor July 1966. Left Pearl 6 DEC 1966. Back at Pearl July 1967 Prairie rescued survivors from a yacht [Mr. and Mrs. F. G. Yates of Las Vegas] in turbulent waters 600 miles off Hawaii on 11 DEC and took them to San Diego. In 1968 the crew of the Prairie painted an orphanage and provided dental care to remote areas in Taiwan. Then it says, ‘Prairie continues to service ships of the seventh fleet into 1970.’”
The Prairie group on Facebook I joined in 2008 (give or take a year) has been a good source of material for this book. E. Walter Larson told this story: “When I came aboard in May of 1973 there was no AC in the aft berthing compartment (Chilled water lines had not been installed), no cover on the rusted decks in the aft berthing compartment (later there would be linoleum) and in Taiwan at that time the temp and humidity felt like a Florida Summer day. The aroma of a couple hundred guys in one space under those conditions was unique. We all had to learn to sleep while roaches crawled on us as we slept or tried to sleep. No wonder I didn't re-up.”
The following story came to me via e-mail in September 2002 from former ET1 Bill Hanzel, who was a Prairie crewman 1975-78 and supervisor of the cal lab.
“I arrived at Clark AFB, Republic of the Philippines in May of ‘75 and got on the bus for Subic Bay where the Prairie was tied up. She was at the pier in Boton Wharf and had been there 3 months.
“Her primary job seemed to be provide people to process Vietnamese refugees at Grande Island. Grande had been turned into a processing center and we fed them, took care of their
medical and processed their papers so that they could get entry into other countries.
“The island got the nickname of Little Saigon and there was so much gold on the island that we figured that there was more gold there than in Las Vegas and Reno put together. Sailors were told not to accept bribes of gold to move the processing along faster. They were even threatened with courts-martial if they got caught.
“The bay was full of old U.S. Navy ships that had been turned over to the Vietnamese Navy and had been used to leave the country. They were refused entry into the PI with Vietnamese colors flying and so U.S. officers met the ships outside the 3 mile zone and raised the U.S. flag and brought the ship into port. Some of the U.S. ships, that had picked up refugees, tied up to Prairie and their human cargo crossed our fantail to waiting buses.
“Liberty was bad. Money ran out in a hurry, so there was nothing for the girls in town. Only the ‘fleet’ sailors had money because they spent all their time at sea. Fights broke out all the time, frustration had set in.”
I got the following story about the Prairie’s condition from Michael Duffy on the Prairie’s Facebook page: “Ralph, I can tell ya for sure the screws popped out more than once in 81 on the way into Japan, my watch station was forward lower level main, every time the screws hit the air the shaft vibration was so bad that fist sized chunks of rust fell outta the turbine mounts, scared the shit outta my chief when I told him, kept happening though.”
I found another Prairie story in the Reader’s Digest Humor in Uniform section from the April 1984 issue:
“While my husband was stationed on the USS Prairie, a construction crew, doing some minor repair work, erected a small shack on the bow of the ship to hold tools and supplies. It wasn’t long, however, before someone tacked up a sign over the door which read, “Little House on the Prairie.”
[Information in brackets comes from a booklet produced for the occasion of the Prairie’s decommissioning in 1993]:
“The ship has 16,500 tons displacement, is 530 feet long, 73 feet wide and 24 feet of it is underwater.
“It was laid down 7 DEC 1938 and launched on 9 DEC 1939 and commissioned 5 AUG 1940. [Prairie was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in the South Camden Yards for a cost of $11,279,548.] It was in Argentia, Newfoundland on 7 DEC 1941. On 29 MAY 1942 there was a fire aboard and the Prairie went to Boston to get fixed and then back to Argentia. [Two men died in the fire and the ship’s library and conference room were named after them.]
“On 22 FEB 1943 the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Campbell was rammed by a U-boat and the Prairie effected a complete overhaul on it. On 23 SEPT 1943 Prairie left Argentia for Boston and on to Pearl Harbor in November 1943. [This was the first of 27 overseas deployment for the Prairie in a 50 year period.]
“7 FEB 1944 Prairie moved with the advancing forces to Majuro Atoll and left there on 3 June for Eniwetok. Was in Ulithi Atoll on 8 OCT 1944 and stayed there until the war was over and went to Tokyo Bay on 10 OCT 1945.
Following is a letter written by a Prairie crewman on the trip from Ulithi to Japan. His son Tim Worley joined the Prairie Facebook group and shared it in 2021:
Leaving Ulithi to anchor at Yokosuka - One of my Dad's last letters during WW2..................................
At Sea (approx.. 200 mi. south of Iwo Jima **********Oct 4, 1945 (*Dad’s 33rd Birthday) 8 PM Dear Grandma, Mabel and Charlie: Well, this is it, folks – we are Tokyo bound. I’ll start from the beginning and give you a brief diary of our trip – so far. The ship’s orders came in last Sat. eve. And right after the movies, they were announced over the public address system – “The Prairie will get underway for Tokyo Bay at 1300, Monday Oct 1.” Well, after looking at Ulithi for almost one full year (12 days shy), you can imagine the howl of delight from the crew after the word was passed! 278 Practically everyone turned to on Sunday, preparing the ship for sea – boats to be hoisted in, gear lashed down, etc. There was a bit of skepticism voiced as to whether the old Prairie would clear the stack of coffee grounds under her; Monday, our sailing day came, however, and out doubts were all dispelled – at 1300 we weighed anchor, steamed down the channel and at about 1500 we had cleared the submarine nets and Ulithi began to fade over the horizon. Sunday was uneventful. I spent the day hard at work on the provisions report (The report, which is made quarterly, is the main reason I am being retained aboard ship – so you can see how anxious I was to get it out). Wednesday – still working on the report. The sea started to get pretty choppy and we got word over the radio that we were heading into a typhoon. About dusk, the captain decided to turn the ship around and head south so as to miss the storm. We missed it alright, but the old ship was bobbing around quite a bit. I felt a little woozy but didn’t get sick. Thursday morning (this morning) we were just about back where we had been the day before. We had almost gotten into sight of Saipan during the early morning hours and shortly after dawn, we headed north again. We were originally scheduled to arrive in Tokyo sometime Sat. morning, but as a result of our turning around, it was announced at quarters that we would not arrive now until Sunday morning. Finished the report this morning so decided to take the afternoon off. We have an athletics instructor aboard ship now so several of us got him to give us some Judo instructions this afternoon. I guess you have heard about Judo – it is a perfected method of Ju-Jitsu. Boy, oh boy! is it effective, too! All you have to do is catch your opponent off guard and with just a simple twist of the waist, you can have him on the deck, yelling “Uncle!” A bird lit on the ship today and one of the boys caught him. The bird was about the size of a young crow, sort of brownish black color with a white spot on his head and had web feet and a very long, narrow bill, about 2 in long. He was certainly tame, however, and would sit on one’s hand and make no attempt to fly away. (Maybe he had been bucking that typhoon, too, and was glad to find a place to rest!) Speaking about the bird, that brings up the subject of our local zoo. We now have aboard ship – one monkey “Pete,” two dogs, “Micki,” and “Half Hitch,” one kitten, unnamed, and the bird, also unnamed. Quite a collection, eh what! Well folks, it is about time to hit the sack, so I guess I’ll sign off now and continue to relate the rest of our voyage when we reach Tokyo. This has been really swell cruising today and a very pleasant way to spend one’s birthday. It just seems strange to be underway with all the lights on at night, no gun watches and general quarters stations to stand at dusk and sunrise. We are even having band concerts and movies topside every evening! Quite a difference, this peacetime Navy! Thanks a lot for that swell birthday card, Grandma. It was the last letter I received in Ulithi, just before we got underway. It’s getting late now, so goodnight all. Saturday afternoon 279 Well, here we are, about 400 miles south of Tokyo. We sighted the island of Tori Shima (in the northern Bonin group) at noon today. Yesterday and today have both been uneventful and the weather has been wonderful. There has been a little snap in the air today and it feels just like one of those snappy fall days back home. After almost two years in the tropics, it certainly is invigorating, believe me! Had a talk with the Supply Officer this morning and he said I could start packing my sea bag around the end of next week. After that, everything depends on the availability of transportation. From all indications, however, I think there will be quite a few ships homeward bound out of Tokyo, so I’m not worrying much about that. We had “Pete” and “Half-Hitch” out on the boat deck this afternoon. What a sight! You would have really gotten a kick out of their antics. They are just about the same size and to watch them play and wrestle, it is really a scream! The best one was when Pete got hold of a cigarette butt and started strutting around with it cocked in one side of his mouth! Sunday afternoon (conclusion) Well, here we are, anchored right off the Yokosuka Naval Base, where the initial landings were made. We dropped the hook at exactly 1327, Tokyo time. This is quite a bleak, barren looking land – there are a few sunken ships sticking up in the harbor and not much sign of activity anywhere. I think I’ll be glad to leave just as soon as possible. Now, before this letter becomes too heavy to mail, I think I had better sign off. The new edition of our local newspaper came out today so I am enclosing it also. Goodbye now and I hope to see all of you very soon. As always, Earl PS – I’ll write one more letter before I leave the ship
And back to the narrative I got from the ship’s library in 1979.
“On 30 NOV 1945 she headed back to San Francisco. Prairie was in San Diego from February 1946 to August 1947. During the Korean ‘Police Action’ Prairie was in that area February through August 1951, April to September 1952, August 1953 to April 1954.”
Here’s a story I got from former IC2 D.R. “Doc” Taylor while trolling on the Internet in 1996 for Prairie veterans. Doc was aboard the Prairie 1952-1956.
“One late afternoon aboard the Prairie at sea, a bunch of us got together to build a kite and fly it off the fantail of the ship. We made the thing out of wood and nylon tissue, and stood about 3 feet tall, believe it or not the thing flew great! (Was a Box Kite) Sooo! being proud of our success, we decided, the next day to build a bigger and a better one! This time we made the thing out of Nylon tissue and quite a few Aluminum Spars, and to our amazement the thing flew quite well! We tied the line to the fantail rail and was admiring our success, then about that time General Quarters sounded! Scared the squat out of all of us, because there had been some unidentified subs in the area! My GQ station was near Radio Central. I could hear all the Chatter about an Unidentified Bogey bearing down on our stern. (Needless to say the ship’s radar was tracking our kite) We never made any more kites, to say the least! My butt still burns to think of how the skipper chewed on us! To make matters worse the skipper did what he had to do! But you could tell it just tickled the H--- out of him!”
And now we return to the tedious history of the Prairie:
“Prairie returned to San Diego March 1956 after completing an around the world cruise. A rarity for a destroyer tender.
“In 1958 Prairie went to Yokohama, Japan for ceremonies to make San Diego and Yokohama sister cities. In October 1959 she went to Taiwan for the 10-10 Day Festival, similar to the Fourth of July. Spring 1961 Prairie took part in Pony Express exercises held by SEATO forces (South Eastern Asia Treaty Organization).
[While visiting Hong Kong July 21, 1965, Prairie was ordered to help salvage the destroyer USS Frank Knox, which had run aground in the South China Sea. A record-setting 36-day underway period was required for this operation.]
“Back to Pearl Harbor July 1966. Left Pearl 6 DEC 1966. Back at Pearl July 1967 Prairie rescued survivors from a yacht [Mr. and Mrs. F. G. Yates of Las Vegas] in turbulent waters 600 miles off Hawaii on 11 DEC and took them to San Diego. In 1968 the crew of the Prairie painted an orphanage and provided dental care to remote areas in Taiwan. Then it says, ‘Prairie continues to service ships of the seventh fleet into 1970.’”
The Prairie group on Facebook I joined in 2008 (give or take a year) has been a good source of material for this book. E. Walter Larson told this story: “When I came aboard in May of 1973 there was no AC in the aft berthing compartment (Chilled water lines had not been installed), no cover on the rusted decks in the aft berthing compartment (later there would be linoleum) and in Taiwan at that time the temp and humidity felt like a Florida Summer day. The aroma of a couple hundred guys in one space under those conditions was unique. We all had to learn to sleep while roaches crawled on us as we slept or tried to sleep. No wonder I didn't re-up.”
The following story came to me via e-mail in September 2002 from former ET1 Bill Hanzel, who was a Prairie crewman 1975-78 and supervisor of the cal lab.
“I arrived at Clark AFB, Republic of the Philippines in May of ‘75 and got on the bus for Subic Bay where the Prairie was tied up. She was at the pier in Boton Wharf and had been there 3 months.
“Her primary job seemed to be provide people to process Vietnamese refugees at Grande Island. Grande had been turned into a processing center and we fed them, took care of their
medical and processed their papers so that they could get entry into other countries.
“The island got the nickname of Little Saigon and there was so much gold on the island that we figured that there was more gold there than in Las Vegas and Reno put together. Sailors were told not to accept bribes of gold to move the processing along faster. They were even threatened with courts-martial if they got caught.
“The bay was full of old U.S. Navy ships that had been turned over to the Vietnamese Navy and had been used to leave the country. They were refused entry into the PI with Vietnamese colors flying and so U.S. officers met the ships outside the 3 mile zone and raised the U.S. flag and brought the ship into port. Some of the U.S. ships, that had picked up refugees, tied up to Prairie and their human cargo crossed our fantail to waiting buses.
“Liberty was bad. Money ran out in a hurry, so there was nothing for the girls in town. Only the ‘fleet’ sailors had money because they spent all their time at sea. Fights broke out all the time, frustration had set in.”
I got the following story about the Prairie’s condition from Michael Duffy on the Prairie’s Facebook page: “Ralph, I can tell ya for sure the screws popped out more than once in 81 on the way into Japan, my watch station was forward lower level main, every time the screws hit the air the shaft vibration was so bad that fist sized chunks of rust fell outta the turbine mounts, scared the shit outta my chief when I told him, kept happening though.”
I found another Prairie story in the Reader’s Digest Humor in Uniform section from the April 1984 issue:
“While my husband was stationed on the USS Prairie, a construction crew, doing some minor repair work, erected a small shack on the bow of the ship to hold tools and supplies. It wasn’t long, however, before someone tacked up a sign over the door which read, “Little House on the Prairie.”
Comments
Post a Comment