World War II Pacific Theatre Operations
After steaming to Norfolk, Virginia, on 25 October, Caliente spent the next month practiced refueling operations in the Chesapeake Bay, including one high-speed simulation with Bunch, and conducted standard training exercises. Her crew also worked up her fuel delivery systems and struggled to repair chronic engine trouble. On 11 December, after degaussing, calibrating her Radar-Directional-Finder and compass, and two changes of command, she got underway for Port Arthur, Texas. Escorted by Endicott, in case any German U-boats were lurking about, she moored at the Texas Oil Co. dock on 16 December. After loading fuel oil she got underway for Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, and transited the Panama Canal on 22 December.
She arrived at Pearl Harbor, the logistical nexus of the entire Pacific effort, on 7 January 1944. Attached to Service Squadron Eight, U.S. Pacific Fleet, the oiler conducted fueling exercises for the next two weeks. After a fueling stop at Lahaina Roads Caliente sailed on 25 January to support the Marshall Islands invasion. Attached to TG 50.17, a three oiler replenishment group, she berthed at Majuro atoll on 2 February (D+3). Fueling operations commenced immediately and she shifted berth to Funafuti Atoll, Ellice Islands. When her tanks emptied she took on fuel oil from SS Fort Sumter and returned to Majuro on 12 February. She remained in and around the atoll for two months, taking fuel from civilian tankers, and refueling Navy vessels. These included the carriers Yorktown, Saratoga, and Enterprise, their numerous escorts, as well as the battleships Mississippi and South Dakota.
Although most of the scheduled fueling at sea had been canceled, Majuro lagoon being large enough to accommodate the entire tanker fleet, the oiler got underway with Task Group 50.17 on 12 April for her first at sea replenishment mission. She fueled Bunker Hill and New Jersey on 19 April, part of Admiral Albert E. Montgomery's Task Force 58.2 that struck the Wakde and Hollandia airfields on 21 April, and distributed fuel to the many short-legged escorts in both task forces. After filling her tanks from SS Guadalupe at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, the oiler supplied the returning carrier forces with avgas and fuel oil. Underway 28 April she steamed east and, despite multiple submarine contacts, arrived safely at Pearl Harbor on 9 May.
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