USS Ash (AN-7/YN-2) was an Aloe-class net laying ship

Net laying ship

A net laying ship, also known as a net layer, net tender or boom defence vessel was a type of small auxiliary ship.A net layer's primary function was to lay and maintain steel anti-torpedo or anti-submarine nets. Nets could be laid around an individual ship at anchor, or around harbors or other...

 which was assigned to serve U.S. Navy ships and harbors during World War II with her protective anti-submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 nets.

Career

Ash (YN-2) was launched on 15 February 1941 at Houghton, Washington

Houghton, Washington

Houghton is one of the lakeside neighborhoods of the city of Kirkland, Washington. Consisting mostly of upscale, single-family homes, Houghton overlooks Lake Washington and is one of the wealthier districts of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle. The village was named for Willard Houghton, a local...

, by the Lake Washington Shipyards, Inc., and was placed in service on 1 July 1941, Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Charles E. Ide, USNR, in charge. The net layer served briefly in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 laying out net buoys and tending nets until 20 August when she headed for the Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

 and duty in the 14th Naval District.

Ash arrived at the section base at Bishop's Point on the island of Oahu

Oahu

Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

 on 28 August and began working on the nets that protected Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

. She was at the Bishop's Point section base when the Japanese attacked American warships and installations at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. Though she fired sporadically at some of the enemy planes during the two hours of the attack, she claimed no kills and suffered neither casualties nor damage. Following the attack, the ship served at Pearl Harbor through the end of the war. Redesignated AN-7 on 20 December 1942, she was placed in full commission that same day, Lieutenant J. H. Russell, USNR, in command.

Ash continued to operate in the Pearl Harbor area until 11 May 1946, when she got underway for San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. The net layer was moored at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard

Mare Island Naval Shipyard

The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...

 until 1 November when she got underway for Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...

. She was placed out of commission there on 13 December 1946, and remained in reserve until 1 September 1962, when her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

. She was then transferred to the U.S. Maritime Administration

U.S. Maritime Administration

The United States Maritime Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation that maintains the National Defense Reserve Fleet as a ready source of ships for use during national emergencies, and assists the NDRF in fulfilling its role as the nation's fourth arm of...

 for lay up with the National Defense Reserve Fleet

National Defense Reserve Fleet

The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...

 at Olympia, Washington

Olympia, Washington

Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...

. She stayed there until sold on 14 May 1971 to I. D. Logan for scrapping.