Ran Aground and Sunk
However, her career proved very brief. On 26 February 1944, she ran hard aground and suffered extensive damage. While still stranded, Ailanthus was reassigned to the newly constituted 17th Naval District (the Alaskan portion of the old 13th Naval District to which she had originally been assigned). Finally, she was declared a total loss, and her name was struck from the Navy List on 9 June 1944.
Ailanthus specific duty in the Aleutian Islands was to deliver perforated steel plating (Marsden matting) to a Navy Seabee contingent building an airfield on the westernmost island of Attu. After having offloaded her cargo the ship was caught in a violent winter storm, slipped her anchorage and was driven aground.
Read more about this topic: USS Ailanthus (AN-38)
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