USS Pecos (AO-65) - The Pacific

The Pacific

For ten hours on 10 July, shells from marine “Long-Tom” cannons flew over Pecos as she lay at anchor off Saipan, refueling cruisers, destroyers, and an LST full of high explosives. The oiler next began fueling operations running between Eniwetok in the Marshalls and Manus in the Admiralty Islands. In September, she participated in the Palau invasion, fueling the bombardment and transport groups.

On 2 January 1945, Japanese aircraft attacked the tanker as she steamed from Leyte Gulf toward Mindoro. The following day seven general quarters alarms announced Japanese planes. A bomb exploded so close astern that the oil feed pump fuses blew temporarily stopping the main engine. On the evening of 4 January, three enemy planes attacked the anchorage in Mangarin Bay, Mindoro. One bomb, a dud, skipped from the water and smashed into the after port cargo boom of Pecos, bending it almost double. A plane crashed into an ammunition ship lying less than a mile away, causing it to explode in a single, blinding flash. Pecos' guns splashed one attacker. Pecos shot down two more Japanese planes during a raid in the Sulu Sea off Negros Island.

A single engine Japanese plane dove out of the sun on the ship’s starboard quarter 7 January 1945, releasing a bomb that struck the water 100 feet off her port bow before a tanker ahead of Pecos shot this plane down. During the next weeks, Pecos fueled the huge task force steaming up the South China Sea for the Lingayen landings. General Quarters became as routine an affair as fueling, as enemy planes continued to operate in the Mindoro area.

The veteran oiler next steamed to Mangarin Bay to supply aviation gasoline for an Army Air Force unit based there 18 February. Previously, fuel for the squadron’s P–38 fighters had been flown in by transport aircraft, but the planes now were virtually grounded for lack of gasoline. At the month’s end, Pecos departed the Philippine area for Ulithi Atoll in the Western Caroline Islands to prepare for the war’s final major landing operation at Okinawa, She spent April and May at sea in the fueling area off Okinawa transferring oil and gasoline to 3rd Fleet ships.

Pecos spent two hectic days outside of Hagushi Anchorage, adjoining the war-torn city of Naha, fueling destroyers on the perilous picket lines. On the evening of 20 May, in a major Japanese air raid, kamikaze pilots hit five of the picket ships. but the tanker was untouched. Pecos sailed for the United States on 28 May, after seventeen consecutive months overseas. With overhaul completed, Pecos departed San Francisco 14 August 1945—as word was received of the end of hostilities. By 26 September she was anchored in Sasebo Ko, Kyushu Island, Japan, which had just been occupied by American naval forces, fueling the vessels in the harbor.