LCS 25 was built at the shipyards of George Lawley & Sons, Neponset, Massachusetts. Her keel was laid on 29 September 1944 and she was launched 8 October. She was placed in commission at Neponset on 24 October 1944. Diesel engines powered the sturdy, 158-foot LCS(L) (Landing Craft Support, Large). She was capable of being beached, was oceangoing, and packed a sting in the 3-inch gun, the 20MM and 40MM machine guns, and the rocket launchers she mounted. After trials were held, the bantam gunboat was put through her nautical paces before tying up to a pier at Boston on 27 October. Fitted out and readied for sea, “25” got underway on 30 October for the amphibious training base at Little Creek, Virginia.
Material inspection of the craft was made when she put in at Little Creek on 1 November. Shakedown followed, with LCS 25 going to an area off Solomons, Maryland on 2 November and exercising there until 10 November. On 12 November she went alongside a pier at Lambert’s Point, in the vicinity of Norfolk, and underwent seven days availability.
San Diego, California was her destination when, in company with LCS 24, she departed Norfolk on 20 November 1944. She paused at Key West Naval Base 24-26 November for minor repairs and provisions, and arrived at Coco Solo, Canal Zone on 30 November. On 2 December the ship moved through the locks with sister LCSs 23 and 24 and three LCIs. San Diego was reached on 13 December.
A period of shore and sea training consumed the ensuing eighteen days, LCS 25 working out of the South Quay Wall Dock at San Diego’s Naval Repair Base. From 3 to 16 January 1945 she was afforded further availability. Accompanied by LCS 58 and three LSMs, 25 left for Pearl Harbor on 18 January. She arrived in Pearl Harbor on 27 January and remained there until 16 February, where she experienced five days availability at Kewalo Basin, Honolulu.
On 16 February, LCS 25 got underway with two other vessels and joined her assigned Task Unit on 18 February. She reached Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands, with her running mates on 4 March and remained there until 7 March. She searched with another LCS for a downed pilot from 8 to 11 March, without results. She spent six days at Eniwetok Atoll, from 13 to 19 March, and arrived at captured Guam in the Marianas on 26 March.
On 29 March LCS 25 departed Guam with other landing craft, and reached Ulithi Atoll in the western Carolines on 31 March. She was in a group of four LCSs, two destroyers and several auxiliaries which moved out of Ulithi on 9 April bound for embattled Okinawa, scene of the Navy’s newest, and biggest, Pacific push.
At the newly seized Kerama Retto anchorage, some fifteen miles west of Okinawa, LCS 25 dropped the hook on 16 April. Next day she moved to Okinawa itself, where the Task Unit Commander promptly assigned her and LCS 61 to picket support duty on a station to the north. Both craft rendezvoused on 18 April with the two destroyers already at that position, and supported them until returning to Okinawa on 27 April.
Availability and logistics in the daytime, smoke duty or suicide boat patrol at night-that was 25’s routine until 3 May. That date she reported on station west of Okinawa and began patrolling together with USS Aaron Ward (DM-34), USS Little (DD-803), two other LCSs and a rocket-equipped LSM. Kamikaze aircraft attacked on 3 May. In the action, LCS 25 sustained damage from parts of an enemy plane shot down, destroyed a second plane, and took aboard 57 survivors from Little, which was crash-dived and sunk, and one survivor from Aaron Ward, which was damaged. On the same night the damaged 25 entered Kerama Retto to transfer survivors and effect repairs.
On 13 May, 25 returned to Hagushi Beach, Okinawa, and on 16 May she shifted to Nakagusuku Wan to patrol against enemy suicide boats. She was on hand on 20 May when marines were put ashore on Kutaka Shima. Her part in the successful occupation of Okinawa completed, LCS 25 departed on 2 June for Saipan Island, which was reached on 9 June.
Further movements found LCS 25 at Saipan undergoing availability until 1 September, during which time she received the “cease offensive operations” message. She was at Tokyo Bay 20-21 September, and took part in the uncontested occupation of Aomori, Honshu on 24 September. She left Sasebo, Japan on 19 December 1945 and began the long, trans-Pacific voyage home, stopping at Saipan 25-27 December, at Eniwetok, and at Pearl Harbor. Leaving Pearl Harbor on 24 January 1946, she made her way to Seattle, Washington. After voyage repairs at Seattle, LCS 25 went to Astoria, Oregon on 16 February 1946 and reported for assignment to the Columbia River Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet. Weather-proofed and rust-proofed, she was placed "Out of Commission, in Reserve" on 6 June 1946.
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