USS Cree (ATF-84)

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Career

Class:	Navajo
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	17 August 1942
Commissioned:	28 March 1943
Decommissioned:	date unknown
Struck:	21 April 1978
Fate:	sunk as a target, 27 August 1978
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,675 tons
Length:	205 ft (62 m)
Beam:	38 ft 6 in
Draught:	15 ft 4 in
Propulsion:
Speed:	16.5 knots
Range:
Complement:	85 officers and enlisted
Armament:	1 3", 2 40 mm.
Motto:	READY

USS Cree (AT/ATF-84), a Navajo-class Fleet Tug, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the Cree, an indigenous people of North America whose people range from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.

Cree was one of 70 such vessels produced in this World War II-era class. A good surviving example of this type is the USS Zuni (ATF-95) / USCGC Tamaroa (WMEC-166), which is currently on display as a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland. Military Sealift Command currently uses Fleet Ocean Tugs from the Powhatan Class to accomplish a similar mission today.

1 History
2 Gallery
3 Awards
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Cree (AT-84) was launched 17 August 1942 by United Engineering Co., San Francisco, California; sponsored by Mrs. T. Colburn; and commissioned 28 March 1943, Lieutenant P. Bond in command.

[edit] World War II

From 10 April to 9 May 1943 Cree sailed between San Francisco and San Diego towing target sleds and dry-dock sections. She cleared 11 May for Seattle and Dutch Harbor, and operated out of Adak from 26 July 1943 to 15 August 1944. Cree screened transports to Kiska, had towing and salvage duties, and aided the distressed USSR's Valery Chkalov between 15 and 23 December 1943. Cree was reclassified 'ATF-84, 15 May 1944.

Returning to San Francisco 21 August 1944, Cree sailed 1 October to serve as retriever tug for a convoy to Eniwetok, returning to Pearl Harbor 14 November. She cleared 7 December on another convoy trip to Eniwetok, then continued to Guam and Ulithi on towing duty. She joined the screen of the replenishment group of the 5th Fleet at Ulithi 8 February 1945 and sortied for the invasion of Iwo Jima, during which she stood by for salvage assignments, until returning to Ulithi to replenish 5 March. Cree arrived off Okinawa 16 March for salvage operations on the beachheads until 1 July, when she sailed for overhaul at San Pedro Bay, Leyte.

[edit] Korean War

Cree was based at Pearl Harbor for towing and salvage duties throughout the Pacific until the outbreak of the Korean war. Arriving at Yokosuka 6 July 1950, she acted as beaching control off Kyuryuhon on 16 and 17 August, transferring salvage equipment to the Korean navy, buoying swept channels, and supporting the Inchon landings from 15 September to 15 October with salvage and towing services. Returning to Long Beach, California, 16 June for overhaul, Cree operated alternately at Pearl Harbor and in the Pacific islands and along the west coast until 4 August 1959, when she sailed for duty based on Sasebo, Japan, until 19 December. She returned to west coast operations through September 1960 when she sailed for her 1960-61 Far Eastern tour of duty.

[edit] Vietnam Era Missions

Cree participated in the "Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club" United States Seventh Fleet with missions including (but not limited to) chasing trawlers and towing floating barracks across the Pacific.

[edit] Stories and Epilogue

On the morning of 18 January 1978, tug Cree (ATF-84) released ex-YO-129 as a target for “live” bombing practice by naval aircraft, while steaming off the coast of southern California. Cree then proceeded north to clear the target area, taking her assigned station, but mistakenly became a target when a “Navy jet aircraft” made an attack run on her at 1206, unleashing three 500 lb bombs on the ship and her crew. One bomb struck the mast and exploded in the air close aboard to starboard, showering the tug with fragments. The second bomb fell along the port side, sliced beneath the ship and exploded underwater off the starboard side, “engulfing” Cree in a wall of water. The third slammed into the ship on the port bow, passing through seven bulkheads in the forward part of the ship, before becoming wedged into the passageway between the chief petty officer’s quarters and sick bay, though failing to detonate. The damage to the ship was severe, including holing of the mast, destruction of two life rafts, severing of the emergency power cable and fragment damage above the 01 Level. Below decks, the ship’s gyro was destroyed by the bomb forward, which also damaged the diving locker and bulkheads. The underwater explosion, however, caused the most serious damage, blasting several holes in bulkheads and splitting seams. Motor room B-2 became “a tangled mass of warped frames,” with equipment “wrenched from mountings and broken lines.” Flooding in excess of 2,000 gallons per minute was reported.

Going to General Quarters, the crew responded immediately, but during their gallant efforts to save the ship, discovered the live bomb where it wedged forward, just 20 feet from where the repair party was stationed. Moving aft away from the 500 pounder, the repair party was temporarily relieved by an EOD team from Enterprise rushed to Cree. Within 45 minutes the team was on board and able to defuse the bomb. Seven men of the repair party braved “rising water, leaking fuel and oil from broken lines,”as well as the absence of light, entering Motor Room B-2 to battle the flooding for two hours before getting it under control.

Additional ships rendering assistance included Long Beach, guided missile destroyer John Paul Jones (DDG-32) and tug Moctobi (ATF-105), providing portable pumps, gasoline and “other supplies.” Taken under tow that evening by John Paul Jones, which transferred her to Moctobi early the next afternoon, Cree returned to San Diego on the 19th, her exhausted crew having battled for 27 hours to keep their ship afloat.