USS Pandemus (ARL-18)
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Pandemus |
| Namesake: | Pandemus, a goddess in Egyptian mythology and Greek mythology |
| Builder: | Chicago Bridge and Iron Company, Seneca, Illinois |
| Laid down: | 20 July 1944 |
| Launched: | 10 October 1944 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Laura Sauter Gasperik |
| Commissioned: | 23 February 1945 |
| Decommissioned: | 23 September 1946 |
| Recommissioned: | 14 December 1951 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 September 1968 |
| Struck: | 1 October 1968 |
| Fate: | Sunk as a target, 1969 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Achelous class repair ship |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 328 ft (100 m) |
| Beam: | 50 ft (15 m) |
| Draft: | 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders |
| Speed: | 12 knots (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 255 officers and enlisted men |
| Armament: |
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| Service record | |
| Awards: | 1 battle star for World War II |
USS Pandemus (ARL-18) was one of 39 Achelous-class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II and was in commission from 1945 to 1946 and from 1951 to 1968. Named for Pandemus (a civic goddess in Egyptian and Greek mythology, perhaps of marriage, personifying earthly or common love), she has been the only U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name.
Pandemous originally was laid down as the LST-542-class tank landing ship USS LST-650 on 20 July 1944 by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company at Seneca, Illinois. While under construction, she was reclassified as a landing craft repair ship and re-designated as ARL–18 on 14 August 1944 and named Pandemus on 11 September 1944. She was launched on 10 October 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Laura Sauter Gasperik, and placed in reduced commission on 21 October 1944 for transit to New Orleans, Louisiana, then decommissioned on 3 November 1944 for conversion to a landing craft repair ship by Todd Johnson Dry Dock, Inc.. After the conversion was complete, she was commissioned in full on 23 February 1945 with Lieutenant Commander Howard B. Shaw, Jr., USNR, in command.
Pandemus departed New Orleans on 12 March 1945 for shakedown out of Panama City, Florida, and returned for alterations on 26 March 1945. On 4 April 1945 she stood down the Mississippi River, bound by way of the Panama Canal, Hawaii, the Marshall Islands, the Mariana Islands, and Ulithi Atoll to Hagushi anchorage, Okinawa. There she tended and repaired infantry 1945.
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