USS Neosho (AO-23)

USS "Neosho" (AO-23) was a "Cimarron"-class oiler serving with the United States Navy, the second ship to be named for the Neosho River in Kansas and Oklahoma.

She was laid down under Maritime Commission contract by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey, 22 June 1938; launched 29 April 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Emory S. Land, wife of Rear Admiral Emory S. Land (Ret.), Chairman of the Maritime Commission; and commissioned 7 August 1939, with Commander AV. E. A. Mullan in command.

Conversion at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard completed 7 July 1941, "Neosho" immediately began the vital task of ferrying aviation fuel from west coast ports to Pearl Harbor. On such a mission she arrived in Pearl Harbor 6 December, discharged a full cargo to Naval Air Station Ford Island, and prepared for the return passage.

Pacific War

Next morning, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor found "Neosho" alert to danger; her captain, Commander John S. Phillips, got her underway and maneuvered safely through the Japanese fire, concentrated on the battleships moored at Ford Island, to a safer area of the harbor. Her guns fired throughout the attack, splashing one enemy plane and driving off others. Three of her men were wounded by a strafing attacker.

For the next five months, "Neosho" sailed with the aircraft carriers or independently, since hard-pressed escort ships could not always be spared to guard even so precious a ship and cargo. Late in April, as the Japanese threatened a southward move against Australia and New Zealand by attempting to advance their bases in the Southwest Pacific, "Neosho" joined Task Force 17. At all costs the sealanes to the dominions must be kept open, and they must be protected against attack and possible invasion.

As the American and Japanese fleets sought each other out in the opening maneuvers of the climactic Battle of the Coral Sea on 6 May 1942, "Neosho" fueled USS|Yorktown|CV-5|6 and USS|Astoria|CA-34|6, then retired from the carrier force with a lone escort, USS|Sims|DD-409|6.

Next day at 10:00, Japanese aircraft spotted the two ships, and believing them to be a carrier and her escort, launched the first of two attacks which sank "Sims" and left "Neosho", victim of seven direct hits and a suicide dive by one of the bombers, ablaze aft and in danger of breaking in two. She had shot down at least three of the attackers.

Superb seamanship and skilled damage control work kept "Neosho" afloat for the next four days. The sorely stricken ship was first located by an RAAF aircraft, then an American PBY Catalina. At 13:00, 11 May, USS|Henley|DD-391|6 arrived to rescue the 123 survivors and to sink by gunfire, the ship they had so valiantly kept alive against impossible odds. With "Henley" came word that the American fleet had succeeded in turning the Japanese back, marking the end of their southward expansion in World War II.

"Neosho" received 2 battle stars for World War II service.

References

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/n3/neosho-ii.htm history.navy.mil: USS "Neosho"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/19/19023.htm navsource.org: USS "Neosho"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/auxil/ao23.htm hazegray.org: USS "Neosho"]