USS Gayety (AM-239)

USS "Gayety" (AM-239) was an , another aircraft made a suicide run on "Gayety", coming in from starboard. Her automatic weapons riddled the aircraft that passed close over her fantail before crashing into the sea convert|30|yd off the port quarter. Later in the same day the ship was attacked by a Japanese "Baka" bomb, a 4,700-pound bomb propelled by a rocket and guided by a human pilot at speeds up to 600 miles per hour. One of these deadly weapons thundered in at an estimated convert|400|kn|km/h made a low altitude run on several of the smaller minesweepers "Gayety" was shepherding, and then turned toward "Gayety" for a suicide crash. The ship's gunners sent up an umbrella of automatic fire which blew off the Baka's cowling ring; seconds later it disintegrated rapidly, tumbling end-over-end through the air, and crashed into the sea convert|15|yd off "Gayety"s port bow. Shrapnel rained on her decks, knocking out the port 40 mm gun and wounding three men but the ship continued her duties undaunted.

truck by a near miss off Okinawa

On 27 May while continuing to support the Okinawa campaign, she suffered a near-miss from a 500-pound bomb which exploded just astern. Five men were killed and two wounded by flying debris, and the fantail burst into flames. Quick damage control however followed by repairs at Kerama Retto, soon put her back in fighting shape; and she resumed minesweeping off Okinawa and, subsequently, shifted operations to the approaches of the Japanese home islands.

End-of-war activity

After Japan surrendered and occupation forces had taken control of the conquered empire, "Gayety" stood out from Japan 20 November for the United States via Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor reaching San Diego, California, 19 December 1945 and thence sailing via the Panama Canal to Orange, Texas, where she decommissioned June 1946 and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.

Converted to training ship

"Gayety" recommissioned 11 May 1951, Lt. Percy W. Rairden Jr., in command and moored at Charleston, South Carolina, 29 May. Until 1954 she was based at either Charleston or Norfolk, Virginia, as a training ship, with a visit to Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, in the fall of 1951 for exercises.

Final decommissioning

She returned to Orange, Texas, 3 January 1954 and decommissioned 1 March 1954, re-entering the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. "Gayety" was as reclassified MSF-239, 7 February 1955 and was transferred to the Republic of a Vietnam 17 April 1962. She served the Vietnamese Navy as "Chi Lang II" (HQ-8). She escaped to the Philippines in 1975 after the fall of South Vietnam and was renamed warship|BRP|Magat Salamat|PS-20. She is still in active service, and is assigned with the Patrol Force, Philippine Navy as of 2007.

References

ee also

* List of United States Navy ships
* Patrol boat
* Minelayer
* BRP Magat Salamat (PS-20)

External links

* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/02239.htm NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive - Gayety (MSF 239) - ex-AM-239]