USS Kenneth Whiting (AV-14)

History


Name:	USS Kenneth Whiting
Namesake:	Kenneth Whiting (1881-1943), U.S. Navy officer and aviation pioneer
Builder:	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Company, Seattle, Washington
Launched:	15 December 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Edna Andresen Whiting
Commissioned:	8 May 1944
Decommissioned:	29 May 1947
Recommissioned:	24 October 1951
Decommissioned:	30 September 1958
Struck:	1 July 1961
Honors and awards:	2 battle stars (World War II)
Fate:	Sold, 21 February 1962
General characteristics
Class and type:	Kenneth Whiting-class seaplane tender
Displacement:	8,510 long tons (8,647 t) light 12,610 long tons (12,812 t) full
Length:	492 ft (150 m)
Beam:	69 ft 6 in (21.18 m)
Draft:	23 ft 9 in (7.24 m)
Installed power:	3 turbo-drive service generators, 500 Kw 450V A.C.
Propulsion:	1 × Allis-Chalmers steam turbine 2 × Foster Wheeler D-type boilers, 465 psi 765° Double Falk main reduction gear 1 shaft 8,500 hp (6,338 kW)
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h)
Capacity:	9,675 barrels (1,538.2 m³) NSFO 760 barrels (121 m³) diesel 312,475 US gallons (1,182,850 L) gasoline
Complement:	1,077 (113 officers, 964 enlisted)
Armament:	2 × single 5"/38 caliber guns 2 × quad 40 mm AA gun mounts 2 × dual 40 mm AA gun mounts 16 × single 20 mm AA gun mounts

USS Kenneth Whiting (AV-14) was the lead ship of her class of seaplane tenders in the United States Navy.

Kenneth Whiting was launched on 15 December 1943 by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, Seattle, Washington; sponsored by Mrs. Edna Andresen Whiting, widow of Captain Kenneth Whiting. Kenneth Whiting (Naval Aviator No. 16) received flight training from the Wright brothers at Dayton, Ohio; and was the first executive officer of the first United States aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1). Commander Whiting was credited with many basic tenets of naval carrier aviation, including landing signal officers, pilot ready rooms, a darkroom and photo lab to develop movies of carrier landings, and making pilot qualification a requirement for command of an aircraft carrier.

Kenneth Whiting was commissioned 8 May 1944 with Commander R. R. Lyons in command. After shakedown along the West Coast, Kenneth Whiting cleared San Diego on 21 July 1944 and arrived Saipan on 14 August for operations in the Marianas. Her PB2Y squadron made reconnaissance flights which provided valuable data necessary to the success of the Allied operations. At Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, Kenneth Whiting used a former Japanese seaplane ramp to augment the maintenance facilities and increase the availability of planes. She sailed for Kossol Passage on 20 November, relieving the tender Pocomoke (AV-9) there three days later. She remained in the Palau Islands until 5 February 1945.

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