< Anoka PG-571

Anoka PG-571

 

Anoka

The seat of Anoka County, Minn., settled in the 1840s and incorporated in 1878.

I

(PG-571: dp. 280; 1. 173'8"; b. 23'0"; dr. 6'6"; s. 22 k.; cpl. 65;
a. 2 3", 2 20 mm., 2 dct., 2 dcp.; cl. PC-461)

The first Anoka (PG-571) was laid down as the unnamed submarine chaser PC-571 on 27 September 1941 at Portland, Oreg., by the Albina Engine and Machine Works, Inc.; launched on 12 February 1942; sponsored by Mrs. William Cornfoot, the widow of the founder of the Albina Engine and Machine Works; and commissioned at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 22 May 1942, Lt. Comdr. William R. McAdams, USNR, in command.

Assigned to the Northwest Sea Frontier, PC-571 reported for duty with that area command on 15 June 1942, and departed Port Angeles, Wash., on her first mission on 24 June. After escorting Tatnuck (AT-27) as she towed AVG-22 (an escort car- soon to be lend-leased to the Royal Navy and given the name Searcher) between Port Angeles and Astoria, Wash., PC-571 operated in the Port Angeles-Seattle area. After a brief stint on 'submarine watch" off Seattle on 31 August, the subchaser headed north, assigned to the Alaskan sector of the Northwestern Sea Frontier.

PC-571 operated with the Alaskan sector forces through the spring of 1944, on local escort and patrol duties. Her ports of call included Kodiak, Women's Bay, Seward, Port William, Pleasant Island, San Point, Adak, Dutch Harbor, Chernofski, Atka and Umnak, as she escorted convoys or single vessels; ships screened included the transport U. S. Grant (AP-29), the survey ship Oceanographer(AGS-3), the cargo ship Vega (AK-17), and numerous merchantmen.

Assigned next to the Hawaiian Sea Frontier, PC-571 departed the naval operating base at Adak on 17 April 1944 for Pearl Harbor, and reached her destination on the 24th. "Pearl" remained her base for a little over a year as she operated locally in the Hawaiian chain on patrol and escort duty, until allocated to the Service Force, Pacific Fleet, on 10 May 1945. Clearing Pearl Harbor on 3 June with convoy PF-419(T), the subchaser reached Eniwetok, in the Marshall Islands, on the 10th.

For the remainder of the war in the Pacific, PC-571 operated alternately out of Guam, Saipan, and Iwo Jima; war's end in mid-August found her at Saipan. Her immediate postwar operations took her back to Eniwetok, to Saipan, and to Guam, as well as to Okinawa for the first time.

Clearing Eniwetok on 27 November, PC-571 tarried briefly at Pearl Ha or from 4 to 8 December before she proceeded to the west coast for inactivation, reaching Astoria, Oreg., on 14 December with orders to report to Commander, 19th Fleet, and Commander, Tongue Point Group for "duty and pre-inactivation overhaul." Placed in reserve on 23 March 1946, the ship was decommissioned on 15 November 1946.

Although assigned the name Anoka on 15 February 1956, the patrol craft never served actively under that name, remaining in reserve until her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1959. She was sold on 9 May 1960 to the Tidewater Shaver Barge Line.