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USS Rocky Mount (AGC-3)
Encyclopedia
USS Rocky Mount (AGC-3) was an in the United States Navy
. She was named for the Rocky Mountains
.
, Kearny, New Jersey
; launched 7 March 1943; sponsored by Mrs Elsie F. Lee, wife of Robert C. Lee
of the Moore-McCormack
Lines for whom the ship was being built; acquired by the Navy 13 March 1943; and after conversion by Bethlehem Steel Co., Hoboken, N.J., commissioned 15 October 1943, Capt. Stanley F. Patten in command.
Following shakedown, Rocky Mount sailed for Hawaii
via the Panama Canal
arriving at Pearl Harbor
27 December. On 10 January 1944, she became flagship of Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner
, Commander, 5th Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet.
Rocky Mount was the 3rd of a new type of naval auxiliary: a specially-equipped command and communications ship, which had been improvised for Admiral H. Kent Hewitt in the Salerno operation. The increasing complexity of communications in modern amphibious warfare and the larger number of officers and enlisted men necessary to staff amphibious force headquarters, necessitated the new type.
and arrived off Kwajalein
the 31st. This was the first of six important campaigns in which Rocky Mount played a significant role. Rear Admiral Turner directed operations from his flagship until Kwajalein was secured on 4 February.
Rocky Mount then became flagship for the task group which next took Eniwetok. On the 25th, she departed the Marshalls for Pearl Harbor and overhaul.
Vice Admiral Turner, now Commander of Amphibious Forces, Pacific, boarded Rocky Mount again, along with Lt. Gen. Holland Smith
, USMC, Commander, 5th Amphibious Corps. The ship got underway 29 May as flagship for the "Joint Expeditionary Force" attacking the Marianas Islands. On 15 June she reached Saipan and directed initial landings which came under heavy mortar and rifle fire and air attack. After 24 days, organized resistance on the island ceased. Rocky Mount proceeded to Guam
20 July, and 4 days later sailed for Tinian
.
Rear Adm. Forrest B. Royal broke his flag on board Rocky Mount in Pearl Harbor on 26 August. On 15 September she departed for Manus
, and 1 month later sortied for the assault on Leyte
, Philippine Islands, as flagship of the Amphibious Force Fleet. From 21 to 24 October she participated in shore bombardment, temporarily silencing enemy mortar fire which had damaged several beached LSTs. The ship then sailed for practice and drills in the Admiralty Islands
and New Guinea
.
Rocky Mount returned to the Philippines to participate in the Lingayen Gulf
operation as flagship of Attack Group "Baker", 6 January 1945. The amphibious group was under frequent air attack from the enemy-held island of Luzon
. For 5 weeks Rocky Mount acted as flagship, Lingayen Area Control Group. On 8 March she carried Lt. Gen. R. L. Eichelberger, Brig. Gen. White, and Maj. Gen. J. A. Dow and their staff to Santa Cruz Bank for landings on Zamboanga Peninsula
, Mindanao
. This ship observed and directed the assault for 2 weeks following her arrival on the 10th.
While anchored in Subic Bay, Rocky Mount welcomed Brig. Gen. L. Barham, RAA, 4 April, and departed for Morotai
where all hands attended memorial services for the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt
. On the 23d, Brig. Gen. D. A. Whitehead, RAA, and his staff embarked and Rocky Mount got underway for landings on Tarakan Island, Borneo. Maj. Gen. G. F. Wooten, RAA, came on board at Morotai on 3 May, and the ship began its second part of the Borneo
Campaign - the assault from Brunei Bay
. After naval shore bombardment 10 June, Rocky Mount landed troops, and 1 week later she was underway for Leyte. En route Rear Admiral Royal died from a heart attack 18 June.
Ten days after Japan
surrendered
, Rocky Mount reported to Commander, 7th Fleet, as his flagship. She embarked part of his staff at Manila
1 September, and then sailed for Jinsen, Korea
, where, on the 10th, Adm. Thomas C. Kinkaid
came on board and broke his flag. The next day the ship was underway across the Yellow Sea
to the Yangtze River
.
She led U.S. and Allied ships up the Yangtze and Whangpoo Rivers the 19th, and returned to Shanghai
where they were met by cheering crowds along the shores.
For her service during World War II
, Rocky Mount earned six battle stars, and the Navy Unit Commendation
.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. She was named for the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
.
Commissioning and 1944
Rocky Mount was laid down for the Maritime Commission on 4 December 1942 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock CompanyFederal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
The Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company was a United States shipyard, active from 1917 to 1949. During World War II, it built ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Operated by a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, the shipyard was located at...
, Kearny, New Jersey
Kearny, New Jersey
Kearny is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was named after Civil War general Philip Kearny. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population was 40,684. The town is a suburb of the nearby city of Newark....
; launched 7 March 1943; sponsored by Mrs Elsie F. Lee, wife of Robert C. Lee
Robert C. Lee
Robert Corwin Lee was Vice President of the Moore-McCormack Lines shipping company, and an officer of the US Navy achieving the rank of Rear Admiral in the US Naval Reserve.-Family:...
of the Moore-McCormack
Moore-McCormack
The Moore-McCormack Lines was a series of companies operating as shipping lines, operated by the Moore-McCormack Company, Incorporated later Moore-McCormack Lines, Incorporated and simply Mooremack, founded in 1913 in New York, USA. It ceased trading on its buy-out in 1982. The founders were Albert...
Lines for whom the ship was being built; acquired by the Navy 13 March 1943; and after conversion by Bethlehem Steel Co., Hoboken, N.J., commissioned 15 October 1943, Capt. Stanley F. Patten in command.
Following shakedown, Rocky Mount sailed for Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
via the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
arriving at 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...
27 December. On 10 January 1944, she became flagship of Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner
Richmond K. Turner
-Footnotes:...
, Commander, 5th Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet.
Rocky Mount was the 3rd of a new type of naval auxiliary: a specially-equipped command and communications ship, which had been improvised for Admiral H. Kent Hewitt in the Salerno operation. The increasing complexity of communications in modern amphibious warfare and the larger number of officers and enlisted men necessary to staff amphibious force headquarters, necessitated the new type.
1945
On 22 January, the 5th Amphibious Force got underway for the Marshall IslandsMarshall 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...
and arrived off Kwajalein
Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...
the 31st. This was the first of six important campaigns in which Rocky Mount played a significant role. Rear Admiral Turner directed operations from his flagship until Kwajalein was secured on 4 February.
Rocky Mount then became flagship for the task group which next took Eniwetok. On the 25th, she departed the Marshalls for Pearl Harbor and overhaul.
Vice Admiral Turner, now Commander of Amphibious Forces, Pacific, boarded Rocky Mount again, along with Lt. Gen. Holland Smith
Holland Smith
General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith, KCB was a General in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. He is sometimes called the "father" of modern U.S. amphibious warfare....
, USMC, Commander, 5th Amphibious Corps. The ship got underway 29 May as flagship for the "Joint Expeditionary Force" attacking the Marianas Islands. On 15 June she reached Saipan and directed initial landings which came under heavy mortar and rifle fire and air attack. After 24 days, organized resistance on the island ceased. Rocky Mount proceeded to Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
20 July, and 4 days later sailed for Tinian
Tinian
Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....
.
Rear Adm. Forrest B. Royal broke his flag on board Rocky Mount in Pearl Harbor on 26 August. On 15 September she departed for Manus
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...
, and 1 month later sortied for the assault on Leyte
Leyte Island
Leyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...
, Philippine Islands, as flagship of the Amphibious Force Fleet. From 21 to 24 October she participated in shore bombardment, temporarily silencing enemy mortar fire which had damaged several beached LSTs. The ship then sailed for practice and drills 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 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...
.
Rocky Mount returned to the Philippines to participate in the Lingayen Gulf
Lingayen Gulf
The Lingayen Gulf is an extension of the South China Sea on Luzon in the Philippines stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central...
operation as flagship of Attack Group "Baker", 6 January 1945. The amphibious group was under frequent air attack from the enemy-held island of Luzon
Luzon
Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...
. For 5 weeks Rocky Mount acted as flagship, Lingayen Area Control Group. On 8 March she carried Lt. Gen. R. L. Eichelberger, Brig. Gen. White, and Maj. Gen. J. A. Dow and their staff to Santa Cruz Bank for landings on Zamboanga Peninsula
Zamboanga Peninsula
Zamboanga Peninsula / Western Mindanao is a peninsula and an administrative region in the Philippines. Designated as Region IX, the region consists of three provinces, namely, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga Sibugay, its component cities of Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, and...
, Mindanao
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
. This ship observed and directed the assault for 2 weeks following her arrival on the 10th.
While anchored in Subic Bay, Rocky Mount welcomed Brig. Gen. L. Barham, RAA, 4 April, and departed for Morotai
Morotai
Morotai Island Regency is a regency of North Maluku province, Indonesia, located on Morotai Island. The population was 54,876 in 2007.-History:...
where all hands attended memorial services for the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
. On the 23d, Brig. Gen. D. A. Whitehead, RAA, and his staff embarked and Rocky Mount got underway for landings on Tarakan Island, Borneo. Maj. Gen. G. F. Wooten, RAA, came on board at Morotai on 3 May, and the ship began its second part of the Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
Campaign - the assault from Brunei Bay
Brunei Bay
Brunei Bay is the gateway to Brunei and Borneo. It is located 4°45'-5°02'N, 114°58'-115°10'E; east of Bandar Seri Begawan. The Brunei portion of the bay is in two sections separated by a finger of Sarawak about 6km wide at the coast...
. After naval shore bombardment 10 June, Rocky Mount landed troops, and 1 week later she was underway for Leyte. En route Rear Admiral Royal died from a heart attack 18 June.
Ten days after Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
surrendered
Surrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
, Rocky Mount reported to Commander, 7th Fleet, as his flagship. She embarked part of his staff at Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
1 September, and then sailed for Jinsen, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, where, on the 10th, Adm. Thomas C. Kinkaid
Thomas C. Kinkaid
Thomas Cassin Kinkaid was an admiral in the United States Navy during World War II. He built a reputation as a "fighting admiral" in the aircraft carrier battles of 1942 and commanded the Allied forces in the Aleutian Islands Campaign...
came on board and broke his flag. The next day the ship was underway across the Yellow Sea
Yellow Sea
The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. Its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden...
to the Yangtze River
Yangtze River
The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...
.
She led U.S. and Allied ships up the Yangtze and Whangpoo Rivers the 19th, and returned to Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
where they were met by cheering crowds along the shores.
Post-war and decommissioning
From the day she arrived at Pearl Harbor, 27 December 1943, the ship never left the combat area of the Pacific and came through all of the operations unscathed. She was dubbed "The Rock" and "Veteran Queen of Amphibious Fleets". She decommissioned and was placed in reserve with the San Francisco Group, Pacific Fleet, on 22 March 1947. She remained in this status until struck from the Navy List 1 July 1960.For her service during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Rocky Mount earned six battle stars, and the Navy Unit Commendation
Navy Unit Commendation
The Navy Unit Commendation of the United States Navy is an award that was established by order of the Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal on 18 December 1944...
.