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USS Marquette (AKA-95)
Encyclopedia
USS Marquette (AKA-95) was an named after counties in Michigan
Marquette County, Michigan
-National protected areas:* Hiawatha National Forest * Huron National Wildlife Refuge* Ottawa National Forest -University:Northern Michigan University is a four-year university, established in 1899, located in Marquette, Michigan, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula...
and Wisconsin
Marquette County, Wisconsin
Marquette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of 2000, the population was 15,832. Its county seat is Montello.-Geography:...
. She served as a commissioned ship for 10 years.
Marquette (AKA–95), built under Maritime Commission contract by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Kearny, N.J., was launched on 29 April 1945, sponsored by Mrs. Sydney B. Wertheimer, acquired by the Navy on loan charter from the Maritime Commission on 19 June 1945, and commissioned on 20 June 1945, Comdr. John E. Gabrielson in command.
Service history
Two weeks prior to the end of hostilitiesSurrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
in the Pacific, Marquette departed the east coast for 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...
. Arriving there on 23 August, she loaded cargo for the western Pacific and departed for Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
on 20 September. From Guam she continued on to Manus
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...
and Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, where she picked up a cargo of food for the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Upon arrival at Samar, she discovered her cargo was no longer needed and had been transferred to UNRRA
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, was especially active in 1945 and 1946, and largely shut down...
for use in Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. She then proceeded to Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, via Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
, discharged her cargo, and returned to Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...
on 19 April 1946.
Marquette was then assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and for almost nine years served as a unit of that fleet's amphibious force. She participated regularly in type, squadron, and amphibious exercises which ranged from Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. Her activities also included periodic deployment with the 6th Fleet and, from 15 August to 21 September 1947, a Brazilian cruise with congressional observers for the Rio Conference embarked. This conference resulted in the signing of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance
The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was an agreement signed on 1947 in Rio de Janeiro among many countries of the Americas...
on 2 September.
Marquettes five 6th Fleet deployments, with units of the 2nd Marine Division on board, were conducted in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, and 1954. During these Mediterranean cruises she operated primarily in the eastern and southern sections of that sea. On her first such deployment, in July 1948, Marquette was the scene of a conference between the U.N. mediator in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, Count Folke Bernadotte
Folke Bernadotte
Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg was a Swedish diplomat and nobleman noted for his negotiation of the release of about 31,000 prisoners from German concentration camps during World War II, including 450 Danish Jews from Theresienstadt released on 14 April 1945...
, and the commanding officers of units of TF 167 as tension under the newly instituted, and extremely uneasy, truce between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Transjordan
Transjordan
The Emirate of Transjordan was a former Ottoman territory in the Southern Levant that was part of the British Mandate of Palestine...
, and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
continued to mount. On each successive deployment she was a source of stability in the troubled eastern Mediterranean.
On 5 January 1955, Marquette departed Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...
for California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Arriving at San Pedro
San Pedro, Los Angeles, California
San Pedro is a port district of the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was annexed in 1909 and is a major seaport of the area...
on the 23rd, she joined Transport Squadron 7, Pacific Fleet
United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet is a Pacific Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources under the operational control of the United States Pacific Command. Its home port is at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. It is commanded by Admiral Patrick M...
.
Decommissioning
In mid–January she sailed to San Francisco, where she decommissioned on 19 July and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet. On 9 January 1960, she was turned over to the Maritime Commission and placed in the National Defense Reserve FleetNational 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...
. Into 1969 she was berthed 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...
.
Depictions
Marquette, while docked at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1951, appeared prominently in the film You're in the Navy NowYou're in the Navy Now
You're in the Navy Now is a Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. Its initial release was titled USS Teakettle...
.