USS Beltrami

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USS Beltrami in Shanghai, 1946

USS Beltrami (AK-162) was a US Navy Alamosa-class transport ship that served in the Pacific during World War II . It was used as a troop transport and supplied the American troops who were deployed in the Pacific war zone with supplies .

construction

The construction of the Beltrami was commissioned on July 18, 1944 from the "Kaiser Shipbuilding Co." and their "Richmond Shipyards" in Richmond (California) . On September 26, 1944, the "Kaiser Richmond No. 4 Yard ”construction began and on January 4, 1945 the Beltrami was delivered to the US Navy and put into service. It was named after Beltrami County in Minnesota .

Armament and Crew

The Beltrami was armed with six 20mm Oerlikon cannons and one 50mm twin cannon. Lieutenant Gerald W. Rahill was in command. The crew consisted of 15 officers and 70 men.

Calls

On March 21, 1945, the Beltrami Pearl Harbor left and moved to the Solomon Islands , where it was used on various islands. To help the troops conquer the island of Okinawa , the Beltrami was relocated to the Philippines , where it arrived on May 20, 1945. At the end of the war on August 15, 1945, she was at Ulithi (Atoll) near Guam . At the end of August, the Beltrami went to the Philippines, where they supported the US troops on the island of Leyte for nine weeks . On November 8, 1945 she went to Shanghai , where she arrived on November 16 to support the American occupation forces in China . She left China on January 27, 1946 and landed in San Francisco on February 23 .

Operation Nanook

In 1946 the Beltrami took part in "Operation Nanook", a project to set up weather stations in the arctic region of the western hemisphere. Among other things, cargo for the construction of a weather station was unloaded in Thule on Greenland .

6th US fleet

After the formation of the US 6th Fleet on February 12, 1950, the Beltrami was moved to the Mediterranean . She visited Casablanca , Athens and Haifa . On another voyage in 1951, she visited various British ports such as Plymouth , Londonderry and Gibraltar . After that she was only active from her home port in Norfolk and was mainly involved in transporting troops and freight between Guantanamo Bay , Roosevelt Roads and Trinidad .

The End

On August 1, 1955, she was transferred to the reserve and then towed to Savannah, Georgia . The Beltrami was decommissioned on November 10, 1955 and deleted from the Naval Vessel Register on April 1, 1960 . On August 29, 1960, it was sold to Hugo Neu Steel Products for scrapping.

Military awards

The records do not indicate any battle stars for the Beltrami . However, their crew was entitled to the following awards for their service on the Beltrami during World War II :

  • China Service Medal (extended)
  • American Campaign Medal
  • Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
  • World War II Victory Medal
  • National Defense Service Medal

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ After the USA entered the Second World War, the "Kaiser Shipbuilding Co." of the entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser founded a total of seven new shipyards in quick succession in the northwest of the USA: one ("Kaiser Shipyard") in Vancouver on the Columbia River , one ("Oregon Shipbuilding Yard") in Portland (Oregon) near St. Johns on the Willamette River , one ("Swan Island Yard") near Swan Island in Portland on the Willamette River, and four ("Richmond Shipyards # 1 to # 4") in Richmond, California. The seven shipyards built a total of 1,490 ships between 1942 and 1945.
  2. ↑ http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/emergencylarge/krichmond.htm