USS Zuni (ATF-95) - 1944

1944

Early in February, the tug left Espiritu Santo, set her course for Hawaii, and arrived in Pearl Harbor on 17 February. She performed routine missions at Oahu for about a month, getting underway on 21 March for a round-trip voyage to Canton Island. She returned to Oahu on 9 April towing two barges from Canton Island. On 20 April, she stood out of Pearl Harbor, pulling three barges bound for Majuro Atoll, and returned to Hawaii on 11 May. On 15 May 1944, she was redesignated a Fleet Ocean Tug, ATF-95.

A week later, she began an extended tour of duty in the Central Pacific. Towing ARD-16, the tug arrived in Kwajalein lagoon on 2 June. Reassigned to ServRon 12, Zuni served as a harbor tug at Kwajalein until mid-July when she again took ARD-16 in tow and got underway for the Mariana Islands. There, she participated briefly in the 24 July assault on Tinian before settling into a routine of shuttle voyages between Eniwetok and the Marianas. Late in September, she towed ARD-17 to the Palau Islands where, during the first 18 days of October, she provided support services to the combined forces invading Peleliu. At that point, she received urgent orders to rendezvous with Houston (CL-81) after that light cruiser had been damaged by two torpedoes during a Japanese aerial blitz to answer Task Force 38's raids on Okinawa and Formosa. She relieved Pawnee (ATF-74) of the light cruiser and towed her into Ulithi lagoon on 27 October. After serving at the anchorage there for five days, the tug returned to sea with a group of oilers. Soon another set of urgent orders sent her to aid another light cruiser, Reno (CL-96), which had been torpedoed in the Philippines, off the San Bernardino Strait, on 3 November by Japanese submarine I-41. Though the cruiser nearly capsized, the ships’ companies of Zuni and Reno combined efforts to meet the threat; and the tug succeeded in towing the cruiser 1,500 miles (2,800 km) back to Ulithi.

The tug remained in Ulithi for the rest of November and throughout most of December. During the latter month, she towed the disabled merchantman SS John B. Floyd into Ulithi and conducted a solitary cruise to eastward of the Philippines. On 29 December, Zuni put to sea with Task Group 30.8, the replenishment group for TF 38, and cruised for almost a month off Luzon. She returned to Ulithi on 28 January 1945 for engine repairs.