World War II Service
Shoveler was fitted out at New Orleans, Louisiana, and then reported to the Mine Warfare Base, Little Creek, Virginia, on 15 June for shakedown training. On 5 August, the minesweeper cleared that port en route to the west coast for assignment to Mine Force, Pacific Fleet. The ship arrived at San Pedro, California, on 23 August and conducted further trials. On 30 August, Shoveler stood out of San Pedro, California, underway for Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, via Pearl Harbor.
Shoveler arrived at Eniwetok on 18 September and was routed to Okinawa. Upon her arrival there, on 26 September, she was ordered to sail at once for Bungo Suido, Japan. She was back at Okinawa on 1 October to join the main task force which sailed for Sasebo on 18 October. Shoveler swept the Klondike mine field there during the period 26 October-2 November. The ship returned to Okinawa on 6 December 1945 and operated from there until returning to Sasebo on 20 January 1946. Shoveler swept mines from the areas around Kikai Shima, Miyako Jima, Amami Ōshima, Nagasaki, and Kagoshima.
Shoveler sailed from Japan on 12 April en route to San Pedro, California, via Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor. She entered the Todd Shipyard there on 27 June and prepared for inactivation. The minesweeper was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 5 November 1946.
Read more about this topic: USS Shoveler (AM-382)
Famous quotes containing the words world, war and/or service:
“A man cannot wheedle nor overawe his Genius. It requires to be conciliated by nobler conduct than the world demands or can appreciate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus, 44:14.
The line “their name liveth for evermore” was chosen by Rudyard Kipling on behalf of the Imperial War Graves Commission as an epitaph to be used in Commonwealth War Cemeteries. Kipling had himself lost a son in the fighting.
“O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)