Scott # 690 Naval Ship Cover USS Argonne

Navy Cover, Dated 5/15/35

World War II

Pearl Harbor

On the morning of 7 December 1941, Argonne — flagship for Rear Admiral William L. Calhoun, Commander, Base Force, Pacific Fleet — was berthed in the first repair slip at the north end of 1010 dock, with the minesweeper Tern alongside, when aircraft from six Japanese carriers struck the Pacific Fleet as it lay at Pearl Harbor, and neutralized surrounding air and military installations. The ship manned her antiaircraft battery — 3-inch guns and .50-caliber machine guns — and commenced fire about 07:58, shortly after the raid began.

Argonne’s crew, wrote Comdr. F. W. O’Connor, the ship’s commanding officer, “performed their duties in accordance with the best traditions of the service”, helping to get wounded men from damaged ships, recovering bodies from the water, and “assisting with repair facilities to full capacity.” Early in the raid, Corporal Alfred Schlag, USMC, from the ship’s marine detachment, manning a .50-caliber machine gun, claimed shooting down an enemy plane as it flew over 1010 dock and turned toward Ford Island.

Interestingly enough, a member of Argonne’s crew was actually attacked before his ship was; Motor Machinist’s Mate 2d Class M. F. Poston was taking flying lessons. Returning from Haleiwa to the KT Flying Service field, flying a light training plane, Poston and Bob Tice, the latter the owner of the flying service (who was flying an accompanying plane) were both attacked by Japanese planes which shot them down. The one attacking Poston’s light sport plane shot away the propeller and engine, forcing the Argonne sailor to take to his parachute.

That evening, six fighters from the carrier Enterprise, sent to land at the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor after accompanying a strike group looking for the carriers from which the Japanese raid had been launched, arrived over Pearl. Tragically, before the planes’ friendly character could be established, understandably jittery gunners shot down four of the six planes; three pilots were killed. One .50-caliber bullet fired from the direction of Ford Island penetrated Argonne’s port side, killing Seaman Second Class Pallas F. Brown and wounding Seaman 1st Class Leonard A. Price. Both men had survived the loss of their ship, Utah (AG-16), earlier that morning.

Argonne remained at Pearl Harbor into the spring, serving as flagship for the Base Force until Rear Admiral Calhoun moved his flag ashore, to a headquarters at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. That spring, the troopship President Taylor, while on a voyage to Canton Island, ran aground there. After loading salvage equipment, light trucks, medical supplies and ammunition, Argonne stood out of Pearl Harbor on 6 April 1942 for Canton, escorted by the fast minelayer Breese, and arrived at her destination on 12 April. She soon sent a salvage party and equipment to attempt salvage of the grounded troopship.

Accompanied by Breese and the fleet tug Navajo, Argonne cleared Canton on 5 May for Pearl Harbor, and arrived on the 11th. She remained there until 10 July, when, with general cargo on board, she sailed on her second voyage to Canton Island, accompanied this time by Southard (DMS-10) and Hovey, and arrived at her destination on the 16th, unloading cargo the same day. Sailing on the 17th, Argonne put into Suva Harbor, Fiji Islands, on the 21st, to unload cargo, and then, two days later, set course for Nouméa, New Caledonia, in company with Hovey, arriving on 27 July 1942.

Flagship

On the morning of 1 August 1942, Vice Admiral Robert Lee Ghormley broke his flag on board Argonne, having shifted his headquarters from Auckland, New Zealand, as Commander, South Pacific Force and South Pacific Area. Operation Watchtower, the invasion of Guadalcanal, began six days later, on 7 August. The direction of the course of the operation, however,appeared to require an infusion of new blood and a more aggressive commander. This soon came, in the form of Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., who arrived at Nouméa on 18 October 1942 and was informed, upon arrival, that he was to relieve Vice Admiral Ghormley. Halsey assumed command on board Argonne the same day. Two days later, too early in this billet to journey to Guadalcanal to get a personal look at the situation there, Halsey convened a conference on board Argonne at Nouméa; among those present were Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner, commanding the Amphibious Forces, Pacific, and Major General Alexander A. Vandegrift, Commanding the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal.

Also present were Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, who by happenstance was in Nouméa on an inspection tour of the area, and Army Major Generals Alexander M. Patch and Millard F. Harmon. After a lengthy discussion of the situation on Guadalcanal, Halsey asked those present if the Americans should evacuate or hold; when told by Vandegrift that he would hold — if he got more support — Halsey told the 1st Marine Division’s commander, “All right. Go on back. I’ll promise you everything I’ve got.” Guadalcanal would be held.

Halsey exercised command of the theater from Argonne until he shifted his flag ashore, the ship proving “hopelessly inadequate” for the increase in the number of people required on the staff. Argonne was not only overcrowded, but possessed no air conditioning system.

New Zealand and Solomons

Argonne remained at Nouméa until 16 June 1943, when she sailed for Auckland, arriving at that port on 21 June. She proceeded thence on 27 July for Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides, and arrived there, accompanied by HMNZS Inchkeith, on 11 August. After embarking men from Carrier Aircraft Service. Unit (CASU) 14, Argonne sailed for the Solomons the same day (11 August), reaching Purvis Bay, off Florida Island, on the 13th. While moored at Purvis Bay, the ship conducted repairs to the destroyer Selfridge (DD-357), which had been damaged in an engagement with Japanese destroyers off Vella LaVella on the night of 6 October.

Sailing from Purvis Bay on 1 November 1943 in company with SS Coutant and escorted by the Royal New Zealand Navy corvette HMNZS Kiwi, Argonne arrived at Tillotson Cove, Russell Islands, the same day. The ship remained in the Russells, carrying out repair and salvage work, until 27 April 1944, when she stood put for Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Admiralty Islands

Assigned to Service Squadron (ServRon) 10, Argonne provided vital service to the fleet at Majuro until 21 August, when she sailed for Manus, in the Admiralty Islands, a base for the operation to secure the Western Carolines. On board Argonne was Capt. S. B. Ogden, designated as Representative “A” of Commander, ServRon 10, who established his mobile base at Seeadler Harbor upon arrival at Manus on 27 August. From on board Argonne, Capt. Ogden administered the activities of the ServRon 10 detachment as it rendered key logistics support.

At 0850, local time, on 10 November 1944, Argonne lay moored to a buoy in berth 14, Seeadler Harbor, when the ammunition ship Mount Hood blew up, 1,100 yards away. “At the time of the explosion”, wrote Argonne’s captain, Comdr. T. H. Escott, “I was standing outside my cabin … in conversation with the executive officer. By the time we had recovered our stance from the force of the explosion, and faced outboard, the area in the vicinity of berth 380 (where Mount Hood had lay moored) was completely shrouded in a pall of dense black smoke. It was not possible to see anything worth reporting. A second or so thereafter, fragments of steel and shrapnel began falling on and around this ship.”

Some 221 pieces of debris, ranging in size from one to 150 pounds, were recovered on board, totaling 1,300 pounds. Several other pieces caromed off Argonne’s port side into the water alongside, and others landed on YF-681 and YO-77, the latter alongside delivering fuel oil at the time. The repair ship Mindanao (ARG-3), suffered heavily, moored in a berth between the disintegrating ammunition ship and Argonne. Riddled with shrapnel, Mindanao suffered 23 killed and 174 wounded in the explosion. Argonne suffered casualties, too, as well as the destruction of a 12-inch (300 mm) searchlight, five transmitting antennas broken away, and steam, fresh-water and salt-water lines ruptured, as well as extensive damage from concussion.

Kossol Passage

After repairs and a resumption of work at Manus, Argonne sailed for Kossol Passage, in the Palaus, arriving there on 15 December 1944. While anchored in berth 74, Kossol Roads, the ship again suffered damage at the hands of friendly ships. YMS-275 lay alongside to the port side, aft; YMS-38 and SC-702 to the port side, forward. An LCVP, attempting to tie up alongside the subchaser, accidentally fouled its ramp in the depth charge rack of SC-702, wrenching loose a 300-pound depth charge. The explosion of the sinking charge lifted Argonne bodily “several inches”, and jarred two additional charges loose from SC-702′s track—which, fortunately, did not explode. Damage to Argonne was confined mostly to the forward portion of the ship, in the print shop, radio-repair shop, and galleys and pantries, as loose gear came crashing to the deck. After again repairing her own damage, the ship resumed her important service to the fleet, and remained in the Palaus until she sailed for the Philippines on 11 February 1945 to take up support operations for the Okinawa campaign, basing on Leyte.

Arriving at her new base of operations on 15 February, Argonne operated out of Leyte into June. She weighed anchor on the 14th of that month and sailed for the Marshalls on that date.

Argonne remained in the western Pacific through the end of hostilities with Japan in August 1945, and briefly served with the occupation forces in Japanese waters before returning to the United States.