East Coast Operations
Operating with Aircraft Scouting Force through 1939, the seaplane tender was attached to PatWing 5 tending a brood of planes at San Juan, Puerto Rico, when World War II began in Europe. In January 1940, she moved to the Virgin Islands and worked out of St. Thomas until March. She then returned to San Juan and remained there through December, continuing her operations in support of the Neutrality Patrol.
Anchoring off the mouth of the St. Johns River, near Jacksonville, Florida, Thrush stood plane-guard duty while tending a covey of Martin PBM Mariners through January and February 1941. Switched to Tucker's Island, near Hamilton, Bermuda, Thrush continued her plane-tending duties through March, on occasion serving as a small cargo vessel to transport supplies from ships to docks and depots on shore.
The seaplane tender then performed similar duties at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in the British West Indies until she departed Trinidad on 28 November, bound for Brazil. She arrived at Pará on 7 December 1941, the day Japanese planes swept down on the American base at Pearl Harbor in a devastating raid which plunged the United States into World War II.
Read more about this topic: USS Thrush (AM-18)
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