USS Pandemus (ARL-18)

The USS "Pandemus" (ARL-18) was one of 39 "Achelous"-class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Pandemus (a civic goddess in Eqyptian and Greek mythology, perhaps of marriage, personifying earthly or common love), she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.

Originally laid down as "LST–650" 20 July 1944 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company of Seneca, Illinois; reclassified "ARL–18" on 14 August 1944; named "Pandemus" 11 September 1944; launched 10 October 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Laura Sauter Gasperik; placed in reduced commission 21 October 1944 for transit to New Orleans; decommissioned 3 November 1944 for conversion to a landing craft repair ship by Todd Johnson Dry Dock, Inc.; and commissioned in full 23 February 1945 with Lieutenant Commander Howard B. Shaw, Jr., USNR, in command. "Pandemus" departed New Orleans 12 March 1945 for shakedown out of Panama City, Florida and returned for alterations 26 March. On 4 April she stood down the Mississippi River, bound by way of the Panama Canal, the Hawaiian and Marshall Islands, the Mariana Islands, and Ulithi to Hagushi anchorage, Okinawa. There she tended and repaired "Infantry 1945". "Pandemus" touched at Guam and Saipan on her way to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, Philippine Islands. She serviced landing and small craft in that area and then at Okinawa and Shanghai, China. She put to sea from Shanghai 21 December 1945 and steamed by way of Pearl Harbor to San Pedro, California arriving 5 February 1946. Six days later she was on her way to Mobile, Alabama where she arrived 3 March. She shifted to Algiers, Louisiana 4 July and decommissioned there 23 September 1946. "Pandemus" recommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida 14 December 1951 with Lieutenant John H. Thomas in command; fitted out at Merrill Stevens Shipyard, Jacksonville, Florida; visited Norfolk, Virginia 23 January 1952; and arrived at the U.S. Naval Minecraft Base, Charleston, her home port, 30 March and began 16½ years of service supporting minesweeping operations along the Atlantic Coast from Newport, Rhode Island to Key West, Florida, in the Caribbean, and in the Gulf of Mexico. She decommissioned 30 September 1968 and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 1 October 1968. She was sunk as a target in late 1969. "Pandemus" received one battle star for World War II service.

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