Pacific Ocean Operations
Assigned to the Train Force, Pacific Fleet, Kingfisher departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, 9 August 1920 for the West Coast. Arriving San Diego, California, 3 October, she began duty as a fleet tug and minesweeper. Over the next 19 years fleet maneuvers and supply, towing, and minesweeping operations sent her to the East Coast, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Panama Canal Zone, and Hawaii. During the summers of 1933, 1934, and 1935 she supplied naval ships and bases in Alaskan waters for the Aleutian Islands Survey Expedition.
Departing San Diego, California, 4 October 1939, she sailed to Pearl Harbor for duty with the Base Force, Hawaiian Detachment. Arriving 19 October, she towed target rafts and conducted gunnery and minesweeping exercises until sailing for Samoa on 26 October 1941. Kingfisher reached Tutuila on 5 November and was on station duty on 7 December when hearing of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
With Lt. Comdr. C. B. Schiano in command. Kingfisher began defense patrol and mine laying operations off Samoa.
Read more about this topic: USS Kingfisher (AM-25)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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“I know only one person who ever crossed the ocean without feeling it, either spiritually or physically.... he went from Oklahoma to France and back again ... without ever getting off dry land. He remembers several places I remember too, and several French words, but he says firmly, “We must of went different ways. I don’t rightly recollect no water, ever.””
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)