USS Norton Sound
1943 Currituck-class seaplane tender
USS Norton Sound (AV-11/AVM-1) was originally built as a Currituck-class seaplane tender by Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California. She was named for Norton Sound, a large inlet in West Alaska, between the Seward Peninsula and the mouths of the Yukon, north-east of the Bering Sea.
Career
Norton Sound was laid down 7 September 1942 and launched 28 November 1943. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Ernest L. Gunther, wife of Rear Admiral Ernest L. Gunther, and commissioned 8 January 1945.
World War II
After its shakedown in the Pacific, the new seaplane tender stood out from San Diego 26 February 1945 and steamed for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She reported to Commander, Marshall-Gilbert area for training in mid-March, and she arrived Saipan 1 April 1945 to provide seaplane tending services.
Okinawa campaign
Norton Sound anchored 1 May 1945 at Aka Kaikyo, Kerama Retto, and by 21 June 1945 had assisted in downing three hostile air raiders. Air alerts continued until midnight, 14 August 1945. Word of the Japanese surrender arrived eight hours later, and into September the tender engaged in upkeep and air operations at Okinawa.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 1943 Currituck-class seaplane tender. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4052260. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1943 and 1945.
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This entry incorporates text from “USS Norton Sound” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.