The first USS Pyro (AE–1), an ammunition ship, was laid down 9 August 1918 at the Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Wash.; launched 16 December 1919; sponsored by Mrs. G. A. Bissett, wife of Comdr. Bissett, the Construction Officer at Puget Sound Navy Yard; and commissioned 10 August 1920, Comdr. John Sisson Graham in command.

After shakedown Pyro was assigned to the Naval Transportation Service. She departed Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

 18 September 1920 on her first voyage to the east coast, arriving New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 one month later. Her principal operations were conducted between ports which extended from Puget Sound on the west coast to as far north as Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 on the east coast. Her most frequent ports of call included Mare Island

Mare Island

Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States alongside the city of Vallejo, California, about northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay. Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full...

, San Francisco, San Pedro, San Diego, Balboa

Balboa, Panama

Balboa is a district of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.- History :The town of Balboa, founded by the United States during the construction of the Panama Canal, was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador credited with discovering the Pacific Ocean...

, Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is located on of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba which the United States leased for use as a coaling station following the Cuban-American Treaty of 1903. The base is located on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the oldest overseas...

, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and New York. Besides ammunition and explosives, she also carried general cargo and some passengers.

By April 1924 Pyro completed five additional runs to the east coast from California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 ports. Her Pacific operations took her as far as the Philippine Islands. Upon return from the east coast 22 April 1924 she put in at Bremerton and decommissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard 10 September.

Pyro, recommissioned 1 July 1939, Comdr. Robert Stevenson Haggart in command. Assigned to the Naval Transportation Service, she resumed transport of ammunition, general cargo, and passengers, making five voyages to the east coast and five to Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 by August 1941. She was assigned to Commander, Base Force, Train Squadron 8, Pacific Fleet 22 August 1941. Departing Mare Island I October, she arrived Pearl Harbor one week later to commence operations in the Hawaiian area.

Pyro was moored at West Loch in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked 7 December 1941. She suffered no serious damage and was credited with damaging one Japanese plane. Four days later she departed Pearl Harbor for San Francisco, and carried ammunition from the west coast to Pearl Harbor until 30 September 1942. On 17 October she departed San Francisco for Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

n waters where she issued a load of mines to smaller ships to be planted as a defense for the base at Adak

Adak Island

Adak Island is an island near the western extent of the Andreanof Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Alaska's southernmost town, Adak, is located on the island...

. She returned to San Francisco 19 November.

She departed San Francisco 8 December 1942, and upon arrival Espiritu Santo

Espiritu Santo

Espiritu Santo is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of . It belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region of Melanesia. It is in the Sanma Province of Vanuatu....

, New Hebrides Islands 2 January 1943, became primary ammunition ship for various fleet units that were operating in the area. Pyro steamed for San Francisco 2 August, arriving 7 September.

Departing San Francisco 11 November 1943 for Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, she reported to Commander, Service Force, 7th Fleet 7 December 1943. From that date until 8 April 1944, Pyro transported ammunition from Australia, New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 and the New Hebrides to Milne Bay

Milne Bay

Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, southeastern Papua New Guinea. The bay is named after Sir Alexander Milne.The area was a site of the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942....

, New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. From 13' April through 12 July 1944 she replenished combatants engaged in the Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

 and Hollandia

Jayapura

Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....

, campaigns at various New Guinea harbors.

Pyro arrived Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia 18 July 1944 for six weeks of repairs, returning 9 September to the new base of operations at Hollandia, where units of the fleet assembled for the invasion of Leyte. The ammunition ship remained at Hollandia. until 3 November when she steamed to Seeadler Bay, Manus Island

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

, Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

 for emergency repairs and reloading, returning to Hollandia 1 December 1944. She steamed for Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

 19 December, arriving one week later and remaining in the Philippine area replenishing combatants until 4 August 1945. Pyro then steamed for the Admiralty Islands for repair and overhaul.

She departed the Admiralty Islands 17 October with a load of serviceable ammunition for transfer to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. After embarking troops en route at Eniwetok, Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...

, she arrived Seattle 21 November 1945. She remained there until 17 February 1946 and then steamed for San Francisco Bay, arriving the next day. After discharging her ammunition, she returned to Seattle 2 April. Pyro decommissioned at Seattle 12 June and was struck from the Navy List 3 July. She was turned over to the War Shipping Administration 14 July 1946, and in March 1950 she was sold to the National Metal and Steel Co. Terminal Island, California for scrapping.