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N7KTP > NAVNET 03.09.04 04:16l 81 Lines 4742 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 20763_N7FSP
Read: GUEST
Subj: USS SIBONEY (CVE-112)
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<DB0SL<DB0FSG<I4UKI<IK5CKL<IZ0AWG<HB9OK<IK1ZNW<VE3FJB<
ZL2TZE<WB0TAX<N7FSP
Sent: 040902/1844z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
Siboney decks tested new jets and helos after World War II
By FRED MILES WATSON - Managing Editor – Northwest Navigator
The second ship to be named Siboney (CVE-112) was originally to be
named Frosty Bay while under construction at Todd-Pacific Shipyards
Inc., in Tacoma. Renamed Siboney April 26, 1944, she was commissioned
May 14, 1945 with Capt. Stanhope Ring in command.
The Commencement Bay class escort carrier displaced 23,100-tons
fully loaded and was 557-feet in length. With a draft of 31-feet, top
speed was19-knots and there were 1,076 Sailors on the ship's roster.
Armament consisted of two, 5-inch gunmounts and 36, 4Omm antiaircraft
gunmounts.
Siboney completed fitting out on May 23, in the Seattle area and
then sailed for San Diego, via Alameda. She held shakedown operations in
the Bay Area until early August when she was loaded out with bombs,
aircraft, and personnel from Air Group 36 and departed on Aug. 8, for
Pearl Harbor.
Hostilities with Japan ceased the day before Siboney arrived, on
Aug. 15, to discharge her cargo. She was in Hawaiian waters until early
September when she sailed for Okinawa, via the Marshall, Caroline, and
Philippine Islands.
On Oct 5, she stood out of Buckner Bay for Honshu, Japan. En route,
the carrier conducted air search operations in an attempt to locate Rear
Adm. William Sample and the patrol plane in which he was in and had been
missing since Oct. 2.
Siboney called at Honshu, from the 8th to the 11th, and then
continued the search for the missing PBM, with negative results. The
ship operated in the Tokyo Bay area until Nov. 16,1945 when she was
ordered to return to the United States. After port calls at Saipan,
Manila, Hong Kong, Guam, and Pearl Harbor, she arrived at San Diego on
Jan. 23, 1946. The carrier deployed to the western Pacific again from
Feb.15 until May 7, 1946.
Siboney stood out of San Diego on June 9, 1947 en route, via the
Panama Canal Zone, to her new home port of Norfolk, Va. The carrier
arrived there on June 26 and operated between Norfolk and Guantanamo Bay
Cuba, until November when she was inactivated.
In March 1948, Siboney was returned to active duty, and, in May,
ferried former United States Air Force planes to Yesilkoy, Turkey. She
returned to Norfolk for a month and made another voyage to the Near East
before entering the Boston Naval Shipyard in October 1948 for a three-
month overhaul.
Siboney stood out of Boston in January 1949 for Guantanamo Bay and
refresher training. The carrier operated with the Atlantic Fleet until
Dec. 6, 1949, when she was placed in the inactive fleet at Philadelphia.
But the outbreak of war in Korea, in June 1950, brought a need for
more combat ships, and Siboney was returned to an active status on
Nov.22, 1950. The carrier put to sea on Feb. 2, 1951 and was assigned a
home port in Norfolk.
From Feb.27 to April 10, she carried out extensive training
exercises in the Guantanamo Bay area.
Siboney operated in Canadian waters in July and, from September to
Nov. 14, in the Mediterranean with North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) units. Siboney participated in evaluation tests and carrier
qualifications of versions of AD and F4U aircraft in January 1952. She
also tested the new concept of vertical landings, using Marine
helicopters. The ship was modernized at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and
rejoined the fleet on Jan.20, 1953.
After training in the Caribbean, she operated in the Atlantic with
a hunter killer group until August. From Sept. 16 to Dec. 1, 1953,
Siboney was again deployed with the 6th Fleet. The years 1954 and 1955
were spent in fleet operations along the East Coast, from New England to
the Caribbean and in midshipman cruises to Spain during the summers.
Siboney was overhauled at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard from Sept 28
l954 to Jan. 22, 1955. She operated along the East Coast until Oct. 4,
when she was ordered to load as many supplies as possible and sail for
Mexican waters in the Gulf.
Helicopters flew from the carrier supporting relief missions and
transported supplies to the inhabitants of Tampico which had been
devastated by a hurricane and subsequent flooding until Oct. 8.
In 1956 Siboney continued it fleet operations operating along the
East Coast from January to May and made a cruise with the 6th Fleet from
May 26, to July 6. The carrier then sailed to Philadelphia on July 27
and, four days later, was placed in reserve, out of commission with the
Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Siboney was struck from the Navy list on June 1,1970 and sold to
Union Minerals and Alloys Corp., of New York, a year later for scrap.
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