Fairfield- AK-178

Fairfield II

(AK-178: dp. 2,474; 1. 338'6"; b. 50'; dr. 21'1";
s. 12 k.; cpl. 85; a. 1 3"; cl. Alamosa)

The second Fairfield (AK-178) was launched on 6 February 1945 by Kaiser Cargo Inc., Richmond' Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. Henry W. Creeger; acquired by the Navy on a loan-charter basis from the Maritime Commission; and commissioned on 28 March 1945, Lieutenant C. R. Snyder, USNR, in command.

Fairfield completed shakedown and fitting out before 8 May when she arrived at San Francisco to load cargo for Manus, Samar and Calicoan Islands. In early .July she loaded Army cargo at Parang, Mindanao, and was en route to Agusan Providence when on the 14th she picked up six Filipino guerillas from the wreckage of their boat which had been cut in two and sunk by a submarine.

Fairfield continued her cargo operations among the islands of the southwest Pacific through October 1945 when she was drydocked at Newcastle for a brief period before being assigned to carry Australian Army carigo from Sydney to Borneo, Tacloban, and Manila,P.I.

During December the Navy removed all excess gear and she steamed into Yokosuka on the 25th. On 8 January 1946 a Japanese crew came on board for training and on the 11th she was decommissioned and turned over to the War Shipping Administration for disposal.