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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Cockatoo (AMCU 21)
ex-LCI(L)-709



Call sign:
November - Quebec - Echo - India
AMCU-7 Class Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator):

  • The second Cockatoo was laid down 11 July 1944 as LCI(L)-709 by George Lawley and Son, Neponset, MA
  • Launched 20 July 1944
  • Commissioned USS LCI(L)-709, 27 July 1944
  • Participated in the Consolidation of the Southern Philippines:
    Mindanao Island landings 10 March 1945, and
    Sulu Archipelago landings 2 - 4 and 9 - 11 April 1945
  • Named Cockatoo and reclassified as a Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator), AMCU-21, 7 March 1952
  • Conversion to AMCU-21 began 8 June 1953 at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA
  • Recommissioned 6 November 1953
  • Conversion completed 3 December 1953
  • Sold in 1960
  • Fate unknown.

    LCI Specifications:

  • Displacement 387 t.
  • Length 159'
  • Beam 23' 8"
  • Draft 5' 8"
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 40
  • Armament: Five 20mm guns and two .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two sets of four 580shp General Motors 6051-71 diesel engines, General Motors single reduction gear, variable pitch propellers, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS LCI(L)-709
    Cockatoo 50k From the collection of Willis "Pop" Estepp, Seaman 1/c. Crewmember 1944 - 1946. Courtesy of his granddaughter Angela Fielder
    Cockatoo 128k c. 1944
    Hollandia, New Guinea
    Photo from the June 2006 edition of the USS LCI National Association's newsletter "The Elsie Item"
    Courtesy of Umberto "Bond" Bonosoro, USS LCI(L)-709    		 Ardie Hunt
    Cockatoo 238k c. 1944
    Hollandia, New Guinea
    Crew photo (front and back)
    From the collection of Umberto Bonosoro, (arrow) crewmember 1944 - August 1945    		 Steven Pollack
    Cockatoo 156k
    Cockatoo 135k c. 1945 Matt Stark, grandson of Paul Whitman
    Cockatoo 125k c. 1945
    Paul Whitman, left, on the engine order telegraph
    Cockatoo 91k 29 July 1945
    Paul Whitman
    Cockatoo 262k 2 September 1945
    Going away party for one of the crew. Second row, far right: Paul Whitman
    Cockatoo 235k 18 October 1945
    First row, far right: Paul Whitman
    Cockatoo 275k 18 October 1945
    Second from left: Paul Whitman
    USS Cockatoo (AMCU 21)
    Cockatoo 57k
    Namesake:

    Cockatoo - A parrot found almost exclusively in Australia

    		 Tommy Trampp>
    Cockatoo 570k Inspection by 13th Naval District Chief of Staff Henry A. Brown, Jr.
    Cockatoo 358k 6 November 1953
    Commissioning Program
    Cockatoo 486k
    Cockatoo 120k Captain's Inspection
    LT Henry, followed by ENS Hobsheid. Chief Miller is on the left
    Cockatoo 81k
    Cockatoo 96k LT Henry, followed by ENS Hobsheid
    Cockatoo 62k SA Glenn Birsall saluting LT Henry
    Cockatoo 294k c. 1954
    San Diego, CA
    View the Cockatoo (AMCU 21)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Coastal Minesweeper (Underwater Locator) - (AMCU) Photo Index Back to the Amphibious Ship Index Back to The Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) Photo Index
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