USS Lackawanna (AO-40)
oiler of the United States Navy
USS Lackawanna (AO-40) was a Kennebec-class type T2 fleet oiler of the United States Navy. The ship was laid down 27 December 1941, as SS Conastoga (hull number 4359), by the Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard Inc., Sparrows Point, Maryland, under Maritime Commission contract number 147. Launched on 16 May 1942, sponsored by Mrs. S. J. Dickey, acquired by the Navy on 20 June 1942, and commissioned on 10 July 1942 at Baltimore, Lt. Comdr. S. R. Sands Jr., USCG, in command.
Service history
1942–1943
After shakedown Lackawanna departed Norfolk, Virginia, on 15 August 1942 bound for fueling operations in the Pacific. Arriving at New Caledonia on 18 September, the oiler replenished ships out of Nouméa for the next three months. Following overhaul at San Pedro, California, Lackawanna resumed operations as a unit of ServRon 8 in the Central Pacific on 16 February 1943.
The oiler replenished fighting ships for eight months prior to sailing in support of the Gilbert Islands invasion during November.
“USS Lackawanna (AO-40)” enters the record as oiler of the United States Navy. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lackawanna, AO-40 and oiler can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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