USS Orange (PF-43), a , was the only ship of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 to be named for Orange, Texas

Orange, Texas

Orange is a city in Orange County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 18,643. It is the county seat of Orange County, and is the easternmost city in Texas. Located on the Sabine River at the border with Louisiana, it is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur...

.

Orange (PF-43) was originally authorized as PG-151; reclassified PF–43 on 15 April 1943; laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation

Consolidated Steel Corporation

Consolidated Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Consolidated built ships during World War II in two locations: Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas...

, Wilmington Yard, Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 on 7 July 1943; launched 6 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Rufus S. Manley of Orange, Texas; commissioned 1 January 1944.

Service history

After shakedown, Orange began her tour of Pacific duty as a fire support and anti-submarine vessel. On 2 June 1944, only five months after commissioning, she participated in her initial engagement at New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. At one stage of the action she closed to within 1500 yards (1,371.6 m) of a beach west of the Tor River to shell enemy installations, with the aid of an Army spotter.

Three days later, Orange, with an Army liaison officer on board, shelled supply dumps located along a road between Arami Village and the mouth of the Orai River. A field of floating wreckage hampered her progress as she again closed the shoreline, but she carried our her mission leaving many fires burning in the target area.

Between fire support missions, Orange conducted antisubmarine patrols to protect the heavy flow of supply shipping which supported the landings. On 27 July, while conducting such a patrol, she was directed to embark three Army officers for a scouting party which had been operating behind enemy lines near Sarmi Point. Through radio contact it was learned that the scouting team had encountered a number of Japanese, patrols and that they might have difficulty in getting out. The frigate groped its way around the point, and with all guns manned, closed the shore and dispatched a motor launch with a landing party. Directed with the assistance of an observation plane, the launch moved in and was met by a rubber raft containing the scout group and two Japanese captives. The captives were forward members of one of the enemy patrols.

On 6 September, Orange proceeded to Napido for a scheduled assault landing there. At dawn on the 7th she engaged in shore bombardment to soften the landing area. By the first of December Orange was at Leyte

Leyte Island

Leyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...

 with an ASW screening unit escorting which had a damaged vessel in tow. As the unit was transiting Surigao Strait

Surigao Strait

Surigao Strait is a body of water in the Philippines located between the islands of Mindanao and Leyte. This strait connects the Bohol Sea with Leyte Gulf and is regularly crossed by ferries that transport goods and people between Visayas and Mindanao...

 on 5 December it came under attack by a lone Japanese plane which was repelled by Orange's fire. On the 6th, she kept several more enemy planes at bay by detecting them early and putting up a stream of fire that made their pilots decide to seek an easier target.

Orange carried out similar missions until February 1945 when she returned to the U.S. for availability at Mare Island Navy Yard. She was then assigned to the West Coast Sound School and was participating in training exercises when the war ended.

On 1 December 1945, Orange went back into the yards and had her guns replaced by an intricate array of meteorological equipment. Thus fitted out, Orange reported to Commander Hawaiian Sea Frontier for duty as a weather station vessel off 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 served in this capacity until she decommissioned 28 October 1946 at Bremerton, Washington. Struck from the U.S. Naval Register on 23 April 1947, Orange was sold 17 September 1947 to the Alaska Junk Co., of Seattle, Washington, and scrapped in May 1948.

Orange earned two battle stars for service in World War II.

External links

• hazegray.org: USS Orange