The second USS Orca (AVP-49) was a 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...

 seaplane tender

Seaplane tender

A seaplane tender is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.-History:...

 in commission from 1944 to 1947 and from 1951 to 1960.

Construction, commissioning, and shakedown

Orca was laid down on 13 July 1942 at Houghton

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...

, Washington, by the Lake Washington Shipyard

Lake Washington Shipyard

Lake Washington Shipyards was a shipyard in Houghton, Washington on the shore of Lake Washington. Today the shipyards are the site of the lakeside Carillon Point business park...

. She was launched on 4 October 1942, sponsored by Mrs. J. W. Reeves, Jr., and commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 on 23 January 1944, with Commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 Morton K. Fleming, Jr., in command.

New Guinea campaign

After shakedown

Shakedown (testing)

A shakedown is a period of testing or a trial journey undergone by a ship, aircraft or other craft and its crew before being declared operational. Statistically, a proportion of the components will fail after a relatively short period of use, and those that survive this period can be expected to...

 off San Diego

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

, 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...

, Orca sailed 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...

, Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, escorting escort aircraft carrier

Escort aircraft carrier

The escort aircraft carrier or escort carrier, also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the USN or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slow type of aircraft carrier used by the British Royal Navy , the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, and the...

 USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE–70)

USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70)

USS Fanshaw Bay was a Casablanca-class United States Navy escort aircraft carrier, launched 1 November 1943 by Kaiser Shipbuilding Company, Vancouver, Washington, sponsored by Mrs. J. L. Kenworthy, Jr.; and commissioned 9 December 1943, Captain Douglass P. Johnson in command...

. Reporting to Commander, Naval Air Force, United States Seventh Fleet

United States Seventh Fleet

The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...

, she was ordered on to Hollandia

Jayapura

Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....

, Dutch New Guinea, where she commenced operations with her first seaplane

Seaplane

A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...

 squadron on 26 May 1944.

Orcas squadrons carried out “Black Cat” night bombing and reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

 missions during the ensuing five months. These missions, in which black-painted Martin

Glenn L. Martin Company

The Glenn L. Martin Company was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company that was founded by the aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many important aircraft for the defense of the United States and its allies, especially during World War II and the Cold War...

 PBM Mariner

PBM Mariner

The Martin PBM Mariner was a patrol bomber flying boat of World War II and the early Cold War period. It was designed to complement the PBY Catalina in service. A total of 1,366 were built, with the first example flying on 18 February 1939 and the type entering service in September 1940.-Design and...

 flying boat

Flying boat

A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...

s conducted night bombing strikes against Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese shipping, proved to be tremendously destructive to the Japanese. For them, the squadrons were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation

Presidential Unit Citation

The Presidential Unit Citation is a senior unit award granted to military units which have performed an extremely meritorious or heroic act, usually in the face of an armed enemy...

 and Commander Fleming, Orcas captain and commanding officer of the task unit that included the ship and her squadrons, was awarded the Legion of Merit

Legion of Merit

The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...

. Orcas squadrons also carried out air-sea rescue

Air-sea rescue

Air-sea rescue is the coordinated search and rescue of the survivors of emergency water landings as well as people who have survived the loss of their sea-going vessel. ASR can involve a wide variety of resources including seaplanes, helicopters, submarines, rescue boats and ships...

 missions in support of the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

's 13th Air Force.

Philippines campaign

In early November 1944, Orca moved into the Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

 area in 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...

, as that campaign was reaching the critical stage. She sent her planes into Ormoc Bay

Ormoc Bay

Ormoc Bay is a bay on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. The bay is an inlet of the Camotes Sea. The city of Ormoc lies at the head of the bay and exports rice, copra and sugar. The World War II Battle of Ormoc Bay took place from November 11 until mid-December in Ormoc Bay during late 1944....

 right under the noses of the Japanese on 3 December 1944, and they taxied around the bay for nearly an hour picking up survivors of destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 USS Cooper (DD–695)

USS Cooper (DD-695)

USS Cooper , a , is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Elmer Glenn Cooper, a naval aviator who died in a seaplane accident in 1938. The Cooper was launched 9 February 1944 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, N.J.; sponsored by Mrs. Elmer G. Cooper; and...

, sunk the previous night. After the Japanese finally realized what was taking place, they threw up quite a fusillade. The pilots bore down on the throttles and headed for the open sea. Heavily loaded, the old Consolidated

Consolidated Aircraft

The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors. Consolidated became...

 PBY Catalina

PBY Catalina

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...

s finally heaved themselves into the air, after about a three-nautical-mile

Nautical mile

The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...

 (5.6 km) run. Making additional trips, they were able to rescue 167 Cooper survivors.

Orca was attacked by a lone plane on 27 August 1944, but her guns drove it off. That next night, the Japanese radio propagandist

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 Tokyo Rose

Tokyo Rose

Tokyo Rose was a generic name given by Allied forces in the South Pacific during World War II to any of approximately a dozen English-speaking female broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The intent of these broadcasts was to disrupt the morale of Allied forces listening to the broadcast...

 announced that “The volume of ack-ack which met the previous night’s raid indicated that a battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 of the Wisconsin class

Iowa class battleship

The Iowa-class battleships were a class of fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 1939 and 1940 to escort the Fast Carrier Task Forces which would operate in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Six were ordered during the course of World War II, but only four were completed in...

 had been sighted at Middleburg Island.”

Orca came under similar attack twice on 26 November 1944, and was credited with an assist on a plane which narrowly missed motor torpedo boat tender

Motor torpedo boat tender

Motor torpedo boat tender is a type of ship used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Motor torpedo boat tender's task was to act as a tender in remote areas for patrol boats and to provide the necessary fuel and provisions for the torpedo boats she was responsible for...

 USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6)

USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6)

USS Oyster Bay , originally and later AVP-28, was a United States Navy motor torpedo boat tender in commission from 1943 to 1946.-Construction, commissioning, and shakedown:...

.

On 2 January 1945, kamikaze

Kamikaze

The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

suicide planes attacked Orcas convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

 formation. In the attack, a minesweeper

Minesweeper (ship)

A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...

 was destroyed and Orca was slightly damaged as a plane crashed close alongside, showering her with wreckage and bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

 fragments and wounding six of her gun crew. Tokyo Rose overstated the attack's results by announcing that the kamikaze "special attack group" had sunk one battleship and one heavy cruiser

Heavy cruiser

The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...

 and seriously damaged three other cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

s in a large convoy moving north along the cost of Mindoro

Mindoro

Mindoro is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.-History:...

.

Orca continued to service air squadrons and carry out rescue missions until the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 on 15 August 1945.

Orca earned three battle stars for service in World War II. She also was commended, along with her squadrons, by General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 Walter Krueger

Walter Krueger

Walter Krueger was an American soldier of German descent and General in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his command of the Sixth United States Army in the South West Pacific Area during World War II...

, U. S. 6th Army commander, for landing scouts behind Japanese lines, carrying supplies to Philippine guerrilla forces, and evacuating wounded during the Philippines campaign.

Peacetime service 1945-1947

On 26 September 1945, Orca arrived at Okinawa to assist in the occupation of Japan. She was soon detached to proceed to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Orcas next big assignment was furnishing services for the Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll

Bikini Atoll is an atoll, listed as a World Heritage Site, in the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, part of Republic of the Marshall Islands....

 atomic bomb tests. Orca then decommissioned

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

 on 31 October 1947 and joined the reserve fleet in San Francisco

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...

, California.

Peacetime service 1951-1960

Orca re-commissioned on 15 December 1951 and operated out of San Diego through 1952, under the command of Commander A. K. Espenas. On 5 January 1953 she was underway for the Philippines.

On 2 August 1954, Orca relieved destroyer escort

Destroyer escort

A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...

 USS Walton (DE–361)

USS Walton (DE-361)

USS Walton was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy. It was named after Merrit Cecil Walton, a Marine Corps platoon sergeant with the U.S...

 at Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 as station ship. By 25 February 1955 she was back in San Diego for leave and upkeep.

Orca deployed to the Western Pacific on 11 July 1955 for another tour of duty in which she weathered two severe typhoons. She returned to the United States again on 1 December 1955 and was able to spend her first Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 in four years at home. Her leave period was extended to 15 January 1956.

Following extensive training during the early months of 1956, Orca deployed to the Western Pacific for a seven-month tour on 24 April 1956. During this deployment, she was awarded the Yellow "E" for excellence

Battle Effectiveness Award

The Battle Effectiveness Award , commonly known as the Battle "E", is awarded annually to the small number of U.S...

 in the Air Department for fiscal year 1956. She returned to San Diego on 19 November 1956.

Orca made a subsequent Western Pacific cruise beginning 22 August 1956 and continued to provide service to the United States 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...

 until she decommissioned again in March 1960 and went into reserve on the Columbia River

Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...

 in Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

.

Ethiopian Navy service

In January 1962, Orca was loaned to Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 under the Military Assistance Program. Sold outright to Ethiopia in March 1976, she served as the training ship Ethiopia (A–01)

Ethiopia (A–01)

Ethiopia was a training ship of the Ethiopian Navy in commission from 1962 to 1991. She was Ethiopia's largest naval ship throughout her time in service, which extended across the final 29 years of the Ethiopian Navys operational existence....

, the Ethiopian Navy

Ethiopian Navy

The Ethiopian Navy was a branch of the Ethiopian National Defense Force that existed from 1955 until 1991. It was disestablished after the independence of Eritrea, which left Ethiopia landlocked.-Founding of the navy:...

's largest ship, for almost 30 years.

In May 1991, at the end of Eritrean revolution, the independence of Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

 made Ethiopia a landlocked country, and Ethiopia was among ten Ethiopian Navy ships to escape to Yemen

Yemen

The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....

. Never again operational, Ethiopia survived as a hulk in Yemen until she was sold for scrapping in 1993.