USS Pine Island (AV-12)

USS Pine Island (AV-12)
History
United States
Name:	USS Pine Island
Namesake:	Pine Island Sound (not the island) The four ships in this class were Currituck Sound; Norton Sound; Salisbury Sound and Pine Island Sound.
Builder:	Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California
Laid down:	16 November 1942
Launched:	26 February 1944
Commissioned:	26 April 1945
Decommissioned:	1 May 1950
Recommissioned:	7 October 1950
Decommissioned:	16 June 1967
Struck:	1 February 1971
Fate:	Sold, 7 February 1972
General characteristics
Class and type:	Currituck-class seaplane tender
Displacement:	14,000 tons (full load)
Length:	540 ft 5 in (164.72 m)
Beam:	69 ft 3 in (21.11 m)
Draft:	22 ft 3 in (6.78 m)
Propulsion:	Steam turbines 4 × boilers 2 × shafts 12,000 shp (9.0 MW)
Speed:	18 knots (33 km/h)
Complement:	684
Armament:	4 × 5"/38 DP guns 3 × Quad 40 mm guns 4 × Dual 40 mm guns 20 × 20 mm guns
Service record
Part of:	United States Pacific Fleet (1945–1967) National Defense Reserve Fleet (1967–1972)
Operations:	World War II Korean War Vietnam War
Awards:	1 Battle star (WWII) Service medals (Korea & Vietnam)

Pine Island Sound (not the island) The four ships in this class were Currituck Sound; Norton Sound; Salisbury Sound and Pine Island

USS Pine Island (AV-12), a Currituck-class seaplane tender, is the only ship of the United States Navy to hold this name. The ship was named after Pine Island Sound (off the coast of Lee County, Florida).

Pine Island was laid down on 16 November 1942 at the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California; launched on 26 February 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Knefler McGinnis; and commissioned on 26 April 1945, Commander Henry Titus Hodgskin in command.

Departing California on 16 June 1945, Pine Island steamed to Okinawa. There she tended seaplanes engaged in air-sea rescue operations during the final phases of World War II. At the end of the war, she entered Tokyo Bay and contributed seaplane flight operations to the occupation of Japan in 1945. Following occupation duty in Japan, she conducted seaplane flight operations in the Whangpoo River near Shanghai, China. She left the Pacific in 1946, and steamed via the Suez Canal to Norfolk, Virginia.

Departing Norfolk on 4 December, she crossed the Antarctic Circle on 25 December 1946. Carrying one Sikorsky HO3S-1 helicopter,one Curtiss SOC Seagull amphibian, and tending three Martin PBM-5 Mariner flying boats; she contributed to the aerial exploration of Antarctica in Operation Highjump, and saved several downed aviators from the hostile climate. In addition a bay in Antarctica, Pine Island Bay, was named in honor of the ship. A glacier on Thurston Island was also named after the ship. Departing the Antarctic in March, she traveled from Rio de Janeiro via the Panama Canal to San Diego, California, arriving there in April 1947.

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