The Lady

submitted by Powell Black

December, 2006

Powell Black

Those of us who served aboard the USS EURYALE (AS22) were so proud of our ship. You will recall. She was our home away from home since she was commissioned on 2 December 1943 until the war ended while we were at Pearl Harbor. Many of you were "Plank Owners, as was I. Although affectionally nicknamed the BLUE BEETLE, she was a real lady.

If you joined the Navy to "see the world" you saw it. We sailed from Brooklyn Navy Yard through the Panama Canal to Bora Bora; Pearl Harbor; Brisbane, Fremantle and Perth, Australia; New Guinea; Admiralty Islands (Manus); Guam; and Japan (not necessarily in order of travel).

As you will recall, we were at Pearl and headed to the states for overhaul wnen the war ended 2 September 1945. In its wisdom, the Navy sent us to Sasebo, Japan, instead, to take over the Jap submarine base there and confiscate its submarines. Sasebo had a great harbor with its beautiful hillside terraced gardens, etc.

Remember how anxious we were to get back home? Many of you soon had enough points to be discharged. Some of us, however, were retained "in critical rates" but finally shipped out for home. Can you imagine a Mail Clerk being "critical" after the war? The Navy thought so. You know it was during the war, even more so than pay day.

Incidentally, have you ever wondered what happeded to our favorite Lady? She left Sasebo 12 February 1996 for San Francisco, arriving on 22 February. She was decommis-sioned and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet on 19 October She was stricken from the Navy List (of ships) and transferred to the United States Administraton. She was subsequently sold and ended up on the scrap heap -- a sad and embarrassing ending for the wonderful lady.

Portions of the above data were extracted from official Navy data and, if I'm not mistaken, a previous article in THE GORGON explained its end by one of the last persons who saw her.

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