Following the Japanese surrender, the Net Tenders in the Pacific, Aleutians, and West Coast ports, were given orders to dismantle and salvage all torpedo and submarine net installations.
The Net Tenders at Ulithi had about 20 miles of net to salvage. From time to time, during salvage operations, most of these ships including ours would be taken off the net line and sent on other short assignments in the Caroline and Palau Islands.
I was a radio operator, however when we were at Ulithi the shore radio station handled our long distance message traffic. I was assigned to the bridge as a signalman to operate signal lamps and yardarm blinkers. I was not proficient nor fast enough to handle messages via semaphore signal flags. Sending and receiving messages from shore and other ships via signal lamps and yardarm blinkers however was no problem. It just meant sending and receiving the morse code by light instead of by sound, which we used in radio communication. When working on the nets I would also handle the engine room annunciator, which controlled the speed and forward and reverse movements of ship.
On August 30th, before we started salvage work, we went ashore to play a softball game with another Net Tender crew. We lost 15-3.
When we first started the salvage work we picked up moorings consisting of steel anchors and cement clumps. A tug took the net further out to sea and sank it.
On September 2nd three Net Tenders and a Destroyer were sent to Yap to participate in its surrender and occupation. We were disappointed that we were not one of the ships chosen. They remained there until Sept 7th.
About that time our Captain, Lt. Cliff Williams, was transferred off the ship. Our Executive Officer, Lt. Lawrence Young, became Captain. Lt. Young was well liked by the crew.
On September 10th we were pulled off the net line and given orders to go to Yap. We arrived there on the morning of September 11th towing two small landing craft. We also had a Japanese interpreter as a passenger. We were to take a load of ordnance gear back to Ulithi. Japanese soldiers would load small landing craft with ammunition and ordnance gear. Ammunition would be dumped at sea and ordnance gear loaded on our ship.
For two days we also worked with a minesweeper at Yap. There were mines around the island which the minesweeper brought to the surface. Our ship then blew them up with our guns.

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This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo