HISTORY OF KENNEBEC

USS KENNEBEC (A036) is the second ship of the Fleet named for
the Kennebec River in the state of Maine.

The Kennebec River flows from Moosehead Lake in west central
Maine, running southward about 150 miles to the Atlantic
Ocean. This important stream was explored by Champlain in
1604, and the first English settlement in Maine, Fort St. George,
was made at it's mouth in 1607. The Kennebec receives the
Androscoggin River about 25 miles below the state capital of
Augusta, forming Merrymeeting Bay and the harbor at Bath, some
12 miles from the Atlantic. The Kennebec is an important
source of water power for the cities of Augusta, Hallowell,
Bingham, Skowhegan, Waterville and Gardner. Teaming with
Sabisticook she powers the manufacturing centers for shoes,
textile, paper and pulp products, as well as those firms en-
gaged in dairying, canning and shipping of farm and orchard
produce.

The FIRST KENNEBEC

The first KENNEBEC was a 507-ton wooden gunboat screw steamer,
with a sail schooner rig. Her hull was built under government
contract by G.W. Lawrence of Thomaston, Maine, and her engine
manufactured by the Novelty Iron Works, New York. The gunboat
was launched 5 October 1861 and delivered to the government at
the Boston Navy Yard on 15 December of the same year. She was
fitted out in the Boston Navy Yard and commissioned 8 February,
1862.

KENNEBEC had a length of 158 feet, 4- inches, beam, 28 feet, and
displaced 691 tons. Her depth of hold was 12 feet; draft 10
feet, diameter of mainmast 1 foot, 3 inches; and she was
originally armed with one 11" Dahlgren smooth bore; one 20
pounder gun was added in June 1863, and in March 1865 one of
the 24- pounder howitzers was removed while a 30 pounder Parrott
rifle was substituted for the 20 pounder rifle.

KENNEBEC was assigned to Admiral David G. Farragut's West Gulf
blockading squadron. Commanded by Lieutenant John H. Russell,
USN, she crossed the bar of the Mississippi River the early
afternoon of 8 March 1862 and spent the following days recon-
noitering the Southwest Pass. On 29 March she carried Admiral
Farragut and a part of his staff down the Southwest Pass to the
MONTGOMERY which the Admiral boarded to visit ships outside the
bar.

KENNEBEC exchanged fire with Fort Jackson on 16 April 1862,
having the satisfaction of seeing a round from her 11 inch
gun explode in the fort which respinded with a shell that ex-
ploded very near the fighting gunboat. The following day she
attempted to sink a "fire raft" sent down river by the rebels.
This raft, "a blazing scow" was towed clear of the river chan-
nel as gunboats steamed to engage Fort Jackson. The next
morning Admiral Farragut in flagship HARTFORD led the squadron
up the river and KENNEBEC cleared her decks for action. At
45 minutes past high noon, she proceeded immediately up river
ahead of the mortar fleet and the advance guard of gunboats,
bhot and shell falling all around as she answered the forts
with her guns. KENNEBEC continued to assist in the around-
the-clock bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philips on the
Mississippi River. At 2AM on 24 April she observed the signal
from flagship HARTFORD "All hands up anchor" and stood up the
river. At 3:30, the headmost ships engaged both forts and
battled through the tremendous cross-fire to pass them by.
KENNEBEC became entangled in a mass of logs which the rebels
had secured by chains to obstruct the channel. One heavy
shot struck her waterline as she backed clear. She attempted
to steam ahead a second time, again became entangled and ran
into one of the schooners moored across the river. She backed
clear and steamed ahead for the Confederate forts but daylight
was now upon her and she found it impossible to pass in the
face of heavy fire. Unable to join Admiral Farragut above the
forts, she reported to Commander Porter's division and was
assigned as a picket ship. In company with steamers HARRIET
LANE, WESTFIELD, and gunboat WINONA, she witnessed the sur-
render of forts Jackson and St. Philips on 28 April 1862.
By order of Commander Porter she received the prisoners from
fort Jackson and embarked the officers and men of the St. Mary's
Cannoneers. The next morning, 29 April 1862, KENNEBEC anchored
in front of New Orleans, landing the Confederate prisoners
and their baggage.

In the following months KENNEBEC patrolled the Mississippi
as far north as Vicksburg, taking part in the occupation of
Baton Rouge on 8 June 1862 and exchanging fire with the Vicks-
burg batteries. Not long before daylight on 28 June 1862, the
entire squadron engaged the Vicksburg batteries, flagship
HARTFORD and six other ships passing the city while BROOKLYN,
supported by gunboats KENNEBEC and KATHADIN, remained engaged
with the batteries. The latter two gunboats were passing
Grand Gulf the morning of 22 July when two batteries of Con-
federate field pieces opened fire from the hills. KENNEBEC,
supporting the KATHIDIN who had the Natchez ferryboat in tow,
opened fire which immediately silenced the nearest rebel bat-
teries. Simultaneously, took possession of Confederate schooner
MARSHALL J. SMITH which had attempted to slip out to sea from
Mobile with 260 bales of cotton and 3 packages of turpentine
for Havana. The schooner was taken by a five man prize crew
of KENNEBEC to New Orleans. A considerable amount of money
was also taken from that Confederate ship. On 31 December
1863, after a night long chase from Mobile towards Cuba in a
gale and a very heavy cross sea, KENNEBEC caught up with the
Confederate steamer RED (alias GRAY JACKET). Newly built at
a cost of over ten thousand dollars, that Confederate steamer
had a valuable cargo of cotton, rosin, and turpentine. Her
crew and passengers were transferred to frigate COLORADO ex-
cept for the Captain and engineer who remained on board as
prisoners to steer the captured RED to New Orleans.

KENNEBEC discovered a small boat drifting out to sea shortly
after midnight on 7 January 1864 and slipped her cable to pick
it up and make prisoner of the occupant. Learning that he had
piloted out a blockade runner, KENNEBEC immediately steamed to
the southward and eastward in search of this quarry. Near 8AM
the morning of 8 January she discovered a sail and fired a
shot to heave her to. The blockade runner JOHN SCOTT responded
by throwing overboard part of her deck-load of cotton, but at
the tenth shot from KENNEBEC, rounded to and was boarded.
Loaded with cotton and turpentine, JOHN SCOTT was taken to
New Orleans as a prize.

KENNEBEC continued to assist in the blockade and siege of
Mobile. On the morning of 7 January 1864 she crossed the bar
with Admiral Farragut's fleet to enter Mobile Bay. Wooden
ships were lashed together as a defense against torpedoes and
the attacking fleet moved up the channel. BROOKLYN was the
lead ship as she had four chase guns and an ingenious arrange-
ment for picking up torpedoes. When she ran into temporary
difficulty under the withering fire of the forts, Admiral
Farragut determined to take the lead. A moment after he saw
monitor TECUMSEH and almost simultaneously disappeared beneath
the waves with her Commander and nearly all her crew, he gave
his famous order, "Damn the torpedoes, go ahead, full speed"
KENNEBEC and ships of his squadron followed HARTFORD between
the buoys where the torpedoes were supposed to have been sunk
and fought their way past forts MORGAN and GAINES to engage
the Confederate fleet under Admiral Franklin Buchanan who
flew his flag in the Confederate ironclad ram TENNESSEE.
After a fierce and gallant fight on both sides, TENNESSEE
surrendered and only two Confederate ships managed to withdraw
to the protection of the guns of fort Morgan. A coal heaver
was mortally wounded on board KENNEBEC by the fragment of a
shell from the ironclad ram TENNESSEE, and three other of her
men were wounded in the fierce action which left 52 dead and
170 wounded in the squadron. At 11:25 AM, 7 August 1864-, all
hands were present at the reading of a congradulatory letter
from Admiral Farragut and a general order to the fleet for prayers
for consideration of the victory in the battle of Mobile Bay.
Fort Gaines surrendered on 8 August 1864, and troops landed to
the east of Fort Morgan which fell after a long siege on 23
August 1864.

Confederate forces in waters of Alabama formally surrendered
on 10 May 1865 and KENNEBEC was decommissioned at New York on
9 August.She was sold on 30 November 1865.

THE SECOND KENNEBEC

The second KENNEBEC (A036) was built in 1940 by the Bethlehem
Shipbuilding Corporation, Sparrows Point Yard, Baltimore, Mary-
land. Originally the merchant tanker SS CORSICANA, belonging
to the Socony Vacuum Oil Company, she was purchased by the Navy
on 13 January 1942 and converted for use as a Navy Fleet Oiler
by the Bethlehem Key Highway Plant of Baltimore. She was com-
missioned as USS KENNEBEC on 4 February 1942, Commander Stewart
S. Reynolds, USN, in command.

KENNEBEC departed Baltimore on 11 February 1942 and joined the
Service Force of the Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk. She transfered
fuel oil, kerosene, diesel oil and aviation gasoline from Bay-
town, Texas, to various ports on the Atlantic coast, ranging as
far south as Bahis, Brazil, and as far north as Newfoundland.
She was one of the Fleet Oilers giving vital logistic support
to the American invasion fleet off Algiers and Morocco during
8-11 November 1942 and left New York on 14 January 1943 to dis-
charge a cargo of gasoline at Casablanca before her return to
Norfolk on 14 February. She resumed her transport of liquid
cargo from Port Arthur, Texas, to Norfolk, Boston, and Newfound-
land, again making a voyage to Casablanca and returning during
25 September to November 7, 1943. During the next 20 months
she refueled ships of convoys bound to and from Ireland and
Scotland and the numerous ports in the Mediterranean and Cari-
bbean. This service came to an end on 21 July 1945 when she
sailed from Galveston, Texas, with a cargo of fuel oil destined
for the Pacific. Transitting the Panama Canal, she arrived in
Pearl Harbor on 9 August to act as station tanker, thence to
Adak, Alaska, where she joined a Task Group which arrived in
Onimato Bay, Japan on 9 September 1945.

KENNEBEC served as a station tanker for Occupation Forces in
port of Japan and China, replenishing her cargo from the oil-
rich Persian Gulf port of Bahrein, Saudi Arabia. She cleared
Shanghai on 8 July 1946 and touched at Pearl Harbor on her way
to Bemerton, Washington, where she arrived on the 30th. She was
overhauled in the Puget Sound Naval Ship Yard and left San Pedro
on 16 November 1946 to pick up a cargo of oil at Bahrein for
delivery to Kwaglein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and Guam in
the Mariannas. She continued to transfer oil from Saudi Arabia,
being assigned to the Naval Transportation Service in March 1947.
On 28 July she departed Bahrein to transit the Suez Canal, thence
by way of Gibraltor to Norfolk where she arrived on 29 August.
On 23 September 1947 she again put to sea for Bahrein Island
thence back through the Suez Canal and Tangiers before delivery
of her cargo to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, where she arrived on
12 November. She renewed her liquid cargo at Aruba, Netherlands
West Indies, and reached Norfolk from the last named port on
3 December 1947. After voyage repairs in the Norfolk Naval Ship-
Yard, she put to sea on 3 January 1948, touching Gibraltor and
passing through the Suez Canal on her way to Bahrein where she
loaded cargo for Guam. She stood out of Apra Harbor, Guam,
on February 27, 1948, and arrived in San Pedro, California, on
13 March. Four days later she was bound up the western seaboard
for overhauling in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard until 11 July,
1948.

KENNEBEC operated on the West coast until 18 September 1948 when
she departed San Pedro for oil for Guam, thence to the Persian
Gulf where she received a new cargo for delivery to Nagasaki
and Sasebo, Japan. She was constantly on the move between Beh-
rein Island and ports in Japan, Guam, and Mariannas until 4 June
1949 when she set course across the Pacific for home. She
arrived in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 17 June 1949 and re-
mained there for overhaul until 9 September. She departed San
Diego on 1 October to pick up oil at Aruba for delivery to Nor-
folk where she arrived on the 24th. Three days later she got
underway for Aruba where she picked up oil for delivery to
Quantanamo Bay, thence to Houston, Texas, where she loaded a
liquid cargo for delivery to Norfolk. She arrived in Norfolk
from Houston on 22 November and made two more voyages from Nor-
folk to Aruba and returned by 9 January 1950 when she sailed
for San Francisco. After several coastal runs, she departed
San Pedro on 5 March with fuel for the Naval Operating Base at
Adak, Alaska, and the Naval Station at Kodiak. She left the
last named port on 18 March and returned to San Pedro on the
23rd to resume operations along the seaboard of California.
She was decommissioned at San Diego on 4 September 1950.

KENNEBEC was recommissioned at Oakland, California, on 11 January
1951, Commander Alcorn G. Beckman, USN, in command. Assigned
to the Military Transportation Service, she left San Pedro on
9 March 1951 for the first of four voyages to the Hawaiian
Islands. She also shuttled oil up the coast of California to
ports of Oregon and Washington and make two supply voyages to
Alaska before the end of the year. After more coastal runs she
departed San Pedro on 24 March 1952 for Pearl Harbor and returned
to San Francisco on 5 April. Following three more voyages to
the Hawaiian Islands and return, she transitted the Panama Canal
and arrived at Aruka, Netherlands West Indies, on 12 September
1952. Here she loaded Navy special fuel oil for delivery to
Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 27 September 1952. She re-
turned to Aruba from the Hawaiian Islands and reached San Diego
on 27 October 1952 to spend the remainder of the year along
the western seaboard of California.

KENNEBEC was overhauled in the Todd Shipyard at San Pedro 4 March
thru 4 June 1953 and arrived off Icy Cape, Alaska, on 31 July 1953.
She returned to San Pedro by way of Kodiak on 26 August and passed
through the Panama Canal in October 1953 to load cargo from Port
Arthur for transfer back to the West Coast. Excepting one voy-
age to Pearl Harbor in February 1954, she continued to carry oil
along the western seaboard until 30 April when she entered the
Todd Shipyard in San Pedro to prepare for inactivation. She was
shifted to San Diego on 23 September and decommissioned 25 Sept-
ember 1954.

KENNEBEC was recommissioned at San Diego on 14 December 1956,
Commander Naden F. J. Stiman, USN, in command. After train-
ing operations in local areas, she departed San Pedro on
1 January 1957, with special fuel cargo for Pearl Harbor,
then passed through the Panama Canal on her way from Hawaii
to Aruba, to take on a liquid cargo which she delivered to
the Craney Island Fuel Annex, Norfolk, Virginia. She left
Norfolk astern on 19 February 1957 on the first of four logis-
tic runs to Aruba and return with oil for the Craney Island
Fuel Annex, and also made one voyage to Houston to load a
cargo of oil which was delivered to Craney Island. On 3 May
1957 she departed Norfolk to touch at Bermuda, then loaded
a cargo of fuel at Trinidad for delivery to the Bay of Naples
where she arrived on the 23rd. Three days later she set
course for Aruba where she took on 190,576 barrels of Navy
special oil for delivery to the Naval base in Cristobal,
Canal Zone; thence to Trinidad where she loaded a new cargo
for the Sixth Fleet at Naples. She reached the last named
port on 1 July and was underway on the 7th to pass through
the Suez Canal bound for Bahrein, Arabia. At that Persian
Gulf oil port she loaded 85,645 barrels of Navy special fuel
oil which she pumped ashore to the Army Fuel Depot at Sasebo,
Japan. Leaving Saseboon 14 August, she made her way to
Trincomalee, Ceylon, where she loaded a cargo of special
fuel oil in preparation for her participation in the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization's operation STRIKEBACK. She
arrived in Lisbon from the Suez Canal on 15 September and
put to sea four days later to rendezvous with a logistic
support force off the northwest coast of Scotland. After
transferring 55,000 barrels of special fuel oil to the cargo
tanks of USS PACATUCK (A0108) on the 24th, she left the exer-
cise area on the 29th for return to New York where she arrived
on 12 October 1957. KENNEBEC put to sea from the New York
Naval Shipyard on 24 October for inactivat-lon overhaul in
the Todd-Galveston Yard, and hauled down her commission
penant on 31 October 1957.

KENNEBEC was delivered to the Maririme Administration's
Reserve Fleet at Beaumont, Texas, for lay up on 23 November
1957 and her name was stricken from the Naval Register of
ships on 14 January 1959. KENNEBEC was reinstated on the
Navy Register of Ships on 1 September 1961 and she entered
the New York Naval Shipyard for modernization overhaul.

As a result of the Berlin crisis, KENNEBEC was recommissioned
at New York on 16 December 1961, Captain Frank Louis DeLorenzo,
USN in command. The 21,000-ton fleet oiler was modernized
to increase her ability to refuel ships at sea and her crew
living space was enlarged to accommodate fifteen officers and
223 enlisted men. She joined the United States Pacific Fleet
at her home port of San Francisco in February 1962 as a unit
of Service Squadron One. The oiler engaged in replenishment
operations until June when she put into Hunter's Point for
extensive overhaul. The overhaul was completed by 5 January
1963, and KENNEBEC departed San Francisco for the Far East
on 25 February 1963. She arrived in Sasebo 1 April and com-
menced operations with the Seventh Fleet peacekeeping force.
The oilers played an important part in increasing the mobil-
ity of the fleet, a necessity to prevent crises from explo-
ding. She returned to San Francisco on 7 August and oper-
ated along the West Coast for the rest of the year. KENNEBEC
departed San Francisco 21 March 1964 for another Far East
deployment to replenish untirs of the Seventh Fleet. It was
during the summer of this tour that the North Vietnamese
Communist Navy decided to test the determination of the
American interests, and fired on U.S. destroyers in inter-
national waters off the coast of Viet Nam. President
Johnson, on 4 August, ordered the Navy to destroy North Viet-
namese naval bases and oil depots. KENNEBEC remained in the
South China Sea throughout August until the crises ended,
and then returned to San Francisco 21 October for stateside
duty.

On the tenth of December, 1964, Captain DiCori, USN, was
relieved by Captain Albert 0. Morton, USN.

From January 1965 to April 1965 the ship underwent a yard over-
haul. After the yards, she spent three weeks at San Diego
in underway training and then was granted a day tender avail-
ability at Alameda, California. For the rest of the summer
of 1965, she operated as a unit fo Service Group One out of
San Francisco and then deployed for West Pac in August.

In October of 1965, Captain Morton was relieved of command
by Captain C.B. Almy, USN, at Subic Bay in the Phillipines.

During this deployment, the ship operated out of Subic Bay,
where the largest Naval P.O.Z. dump in the Far East is located.
On leaving Subic she would cross the South China Sea to Yankee
Station in the Gulf of Tonkin to service the carrier groups
of CTF 77 as well as S.A.R. destroyers and plane guards. Then
she usually headed south to service the ships of the Market
Time Patrol, the gunfire support destroyers, and the carrier
on Dixie station, many times going all the way around into
the Gulf Siam. This was the normal cycle of operations.

Her routine was broken up several times by visits to ports
other than Subic. In September, 1965, she was in Japan, at
Sasebo and Yokosuka. In November, she visited Kaohshuing,
unrepped a Nationalist Chinese destroyer. In December, the
KENNEBEC crew had three days liberty in Manila, and in Febru-
ary the KENNEBEC unrepped two ships in Da Nang harbor. In
March she went to Hong Kong. In June the ship departed West
Pac via Yokosuka and arrived in San Francisco on.,the 18th of
June.

The ship went through a leave and upkeep period until 25 July
1966, when she went to San Diego to provide services to the
Fleet Training Group for two weeks. When she returned to San
Francisco, she went into commercial shipyards. She underwent
underway training in two separate periods - 16 October to
November and 28 November to 15 December.

She spent the '66-'67 Christmas holidays at Hunter's Point,
her normal home port, and deployed again to West Pac on January
10, 1967, arriving in Subic Bay on 31 January 1968.

Since arriving in West Pac, we have followed the normal opera-
tions schedules of the '65-'66 deployment, topping off in
Subic Bay and then servicing the Seventh Fleet "on the line"
off Viet Nam from Yankee Station to the Gulf of Siam. In
addition to Subic Bay, our "home port away from home", we have
visited Manile and Kaohshuing, Taiwan, for short periods of
R&R liberty and have held training unreps with a Chinese DE,
the Tai Hu, and HMAS Hobart, DDG.

USS KENNEBEC (A036) earned one battle star and other awards
for operations as listed below:

NATIONAL DEFENSE MEDAL (With one star)

1 Star/NORTH AFRICA OCCUPATION:
Algeria-Morocco Landings: 8-11 November 1944

CHINA SERVICE MEDAL:
7 September 1945 to 23 March 1946;	26 May to 9 July 1946
6-7 March 1947
NAVY OCCUPATION SERVICE MEDAL:
7 September 1945 to 23 March 1946;	3-25 May 1946
1 February to 5 March 1947; 16 April to 5 May 1947
12-28 June 1947

VIETNAM SERVICE MEDAL (With two stars)

VIETNAM CAMPAIGN MEDAL