World War II Pacific Theatre Operations
On 22 October 1943 Cacapon sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, to load fuel at Aruba in the West Indies en route to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived 12 November. On 30 November she rendezvoused with the U.S. 5th Fleet to deliver fuel at sea to the ships carrying out the Gilbert Islands operation. After a west coast overhaul, she returned to Pearl Harbor, from which she sailed 3 February 1945 to carry her vital logistic support to task force TF-50, then engaged in the Marshall Islands operation. She carried fuel on which all modern naval warfare depends to units of the U.S. 3rd Fleet from March into May, as the mighty task forces sent their strikes against Rabaul, Kavieng, Green, Emirau, and the Admiralties. During a part of this period, she served temporarily with the U.S. 7th Fleet's service support group for the New Guinea operation.
Cacapon served as station tanker successively at Efate and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides; Port Purvis, Solomon Islands; and Manus, Admiralty Islands, until 8 January, when she cleared Manus for Ulithi. Here she reported to the 3rd Fleet, and between 12 and 27 January her operations supported task force TF-38 during its series of strikes against Luzon and Formosa supporting the Philippine attacks and consolidation. Cacapon lengthened the list of operations to which she had given vital support as she steamed with the 5th Fleet during the Iwo Jima operation, from 15 to 26 February, and the Okinawa operation from 24 March to 30 June. Between these, she served briefly as station tanker in San Pedro Bay, Philippine Islands.
Read more about this topic: USS Cacapon (AO-52)
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