Cascade (AD-16) was launched 6
June 1942 by Western Pipe and Steel Co., San Francisco, Calif,
sponsored by Mrs. C. W. Grosser and commissioned 12 March 1943,
Captain in command.
Cascade cleared San Francisco 12
June 1943 for Pearl Harbor, where she began her war time duty
of tending destroyers. As the war moved westward, Cascade followed,
to bring her support close to the action areas. From November
1943, she was stationed successively at Kwajalein, Eniwetok, and
Ulithi, while the ships she served ranged the Pacific, escorting
convoys, screening carrier task forces, supporting invasions,
and carrying out many other tasks with typical destroyer versatility.
In June 1945, Cascade sailed to
Okinawa, where she endured the suicide raids and typhoon weather
along with the combatants through September. She served in Wakayama
Wan, and at Tokyo, Japan supporting the occupation until March
1946, when she sailed for the east coast. Cascade was decommissioned
and placed in service in reserve at Philadelphia 12 February 1947.
Recommissioned 5 April 1951, Cascade
was based on Newport, R I., as tender for the many destroyers
homeported there. From this port she has cruised to the Caribbean
and the Mediterranean for training and to support destroyers deployed
in those areas. On these cruises Cascade has carried the flags
of Commander, Service Force, 6th Fleet, and Commander, Destroyer
Flotilla 6; she has also served as flagship for Commander, Destroyer
Force, Atlantic, on occasion. The tender has carried out these
duties through 1963.
Casco was launched
May 1864 by Atlantic Works, Boston, Mass. Pronounced unseaworthy
when nearly completed, on 25 June 1864 she was ordered to be converted
to a torpedo vessel, without turret or heavy gun. Casco was commissioned
4 December 1864, Acting Master C. A. Crooker in command.
After completion
of additional yard work, Casco was towed to Hampton Roads in March
1865. She assisted in the removal of torpedoes in the James River
which made possible the advance of naval forces to Richmond. In
mid-April she was transferred to the Potomac Flotilla, with whom
she served until the end of May. Casco was decommissioned 10 June
1865 at Washington Navy Yard, where she was broken up in April
1875.
(AVP-12; d. 1,766;
l. 311'8"; b. 41'1"; d. 13'6"; s. 20 k.; cpl. 215;
a. 4 5"; cl. Barnegat)
The third Casco (AVP-12)
was launched 15 November 1941 by Puget Sound Navy Yard sponsored
by Mrs. W. J. Giles; and commissioned 27 December 1941, Commander
T. S. Combs in command.
After a period patrolling
and caring for seaplanes off the northwest coast, Casco arrived
at Sitka, Alaska, 5 May 1942 for duty surveying Aleutian waters,
laying moorings for seaplanes, and providing tender services.
Based at Cold Bay, she operated to Dutch Harbor Chernofaki Harbor,
Kodiak, and Nazan Bay. While lying at anchor in the latter on
30 August, she was torpedoed by RO-6l. The resulting explosion
killed five of her men, and wounded 20, but prompt and clearheaded
action brought flooding to a halt and got the ship underway so
that she could be beached and later salvaged. Casco was floated
on 12 September, and after emergency repairs at Dutch Harbor and
Kodiak, she received a thorough overhaul at Puget Sound Navy Yard.
Casco returned to fog-bound
Aleutian duty in March 1943, operating at Constantine Harbor,
Amchitka, as tender to Fleet Air Wing Four. In May she steamed
to Attu, to care for the seaplanes conducting antisubmarine patrol
and search missions in support of the Army's invasion of Attu.
Here she remained providing the essential base for flights which
guarded against further Japanese reinforcement or penetration
of the Aleutians. The tender's service in these waters where weather
was often as formidable an enemy as the Japanese ended in November,
when she sailed for overhaul at Bremerton, Wash.
Casco arrived in the
Marshall Islands in February 1944 to tend seaplanes of patrol
squadrons at Majuro and Kwajalein during their occupation, and
later at Eniwetok until September. Temporarily assigned to carry
cargo in the buildup for the Philippine operations, she shuttled
between Saipan, Ulithi, and the Palaus until November, then returned
to tender duty, in the Palaus until January 45, and at Ulithi
until April. After overhaul at Saipan, she arrived in Kerama Retto
25 April to care not only for seaplanes, but also for a motor
torpedo boat squadron, all engaged in the Okinawa invasion and
occupation.
Returning to the west
coast in July 1945, Casco sailed back to the Far East in the spring
of 1946 for operations in the Philippines, then served in training
duty off Galveston, Tex. She was decommissioned 10 April 1947,
and transferred to the Coast Guard on 19 April 1949.
Casco received three
battle stars for World War II service.
