U.S.S. Curtiss
AV-4
1943
(Saratoga SMY-42)
- Class: Curtiss - 2 seaplane tenders of 1937-38
- Displacement: 9,090 tons standard / 12,053 tons full load
- Dimensions: 527'3" x 69'3" x 21'
- Machinery: 2-shaft geared turbines, SHP 12,000 = 19 knots
- Armament: 4-5"/38 (4x1) DP, 16-40mm (4x4) AA, 10-20mm AA guns
- Complement: 1,195
- Builder: New York Shipbuilding Corp, Camden, NJ
- Laid down: 25 Mar 1938
- Launched: 20 Apr 1940
- Commissioned: 15 Nov 1940
- Decommissioned: 24 Sep 1957
- Notes: Training and fleet exercises out of Norfolk to May 1941, then sailed to Pearl Harbor. Transport reinforcements to Wake Island 15 Oct - 9 Nov 1941. Attacked by midget submarine (which missed) and damaged by aircraft during Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 Dec 1941, with 19 dead and many wounded. To San Diego for quick repairs, returning to Pearl 13 Jan 1942. Used to supply forward bases at Samoa, Suva, and Noumea. Flagship, seaplane tender, repair and supply ship for remainder of war, partaking in operations in Solomons in 1942-43, Ellice Islands and Tarawa in 1943, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and Saipan in 1944, and at Guam and Okinawa in 1945. Struck by kamikaze 21 Jun 1945 with 35 dead, 21 wounded. Repaired Mare Island. Curtiss earned 7 battle stars for WWII.
Postwar supply and exercise duties; patrol wing duties during Korean War. Served as flagship during atomic tests of Operation Greenhouse at Eniwetok in 1951, Operation Ivy in 1952, Operation Castle in 1954, and Operation Redwing in 1956. To Antarctica to support International Geophysical Year 1957, before decommissioning later that year.
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