USS BRAZOS

Auxiliary Ship Construction at the Navy Yard

At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States Navy undertook operations on a global scale. Modern fleets could not sustain themselves, and so required auxiliary vessels to transport supplies. Initially, older warships and merchant ships were converted to serve this task, but due to the pressing need for the vessels, Congress funded the wholesale creation of dedicated support ships in 1905. The Charlestown Navy Yard began to produce such vessels, with the 1916 Naval Expansion Act vastly increasing the scope of the program.^[1]

In 1917, Congress awarded the Charlestown Navy Yard with funds for the construction of three fuel ships. The actual construction of these vessels, however, proceeded slowly, as the Yard's employees had their hands full with more pressing demands during World War I. The first of three, initially designated Fuel Ship No. 16, was laid down in June 1917, but took nearly two years to launch. No. 16, a twin-screw, iron-hulled tanker, was christened USS Brazos, named for the Brazos River in Texas. Miss Catherine Rush, the daughter of Captain William R. Rush, then commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard, sponsored the vessel when it launched on May 1, 1919. Brazos' counterparts, USS Neches and USS Pecos, followed in 1920 and 1921, respectively. On October 1, 1919, Brazos had its commissioning ceremony at the Navy Yard, under the command of Commander Richard Werner, US Naval Reserve Force.

Brazos Sets Sail

The Kanawha-class fleet oiler USS Brazos (AO-4) was first assigned to the Scouting Fleet, a new, post-World War I component of the Navy tasked with reconnaissance. Initially, the ship carried fuel oil and freight along the east coast and in the Caribbean. In 1922, Brazos was reassigned to the US Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters, and afterwards served as transport for military personnel. In this role, Brazos carried the remains of World War I soldiers killed in action from Marseille, France, back to the United States. In 1924, Brazos continued its supply duties with Squadron 1, Fleet Base Force, and took part in that fleet's 1925 cruise through the Pacific, sailing to Hawaii, Samoa, and Australia.

USS Brazos spent the next 16 years carrying out these same duties, with only a few breaks in service for overhaul and repair.

World War II — Brazos in the Pacific

By the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, USS Brazos was engaged in ferrying fuel and supplies from the West Coast to the Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska. At the time, the Aleutians were a vital strategic region, controlling transportation routes in the north Pacific. Japanese forces occupied the islands of Kiska and Attu in June 1942, and a year-long land and naval battle ensued. By August 1943, United States and Canadian forces had recaptured both islands from the Japanese.

Throughout this campaign, except for a brief period serving in Hawaii and Samoa in June 1942, Brazos and its crew continued its important duties, servicing the ships needed to win the war. In 1944, Brazos was among some 25 ships to receive newly transferred Black sailors, part of the United States Navy's initial attempts at limited racial integration.^[2] Brazos remained in the Aleutians until January 27, 1945, when it received a new assignment.

From Seattle, Washington, USS Brazos sailed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and from there reached Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands in February 1945. Brazos joined a naval convoy en route to Okinawa, where United States forces were about to commence a massive land and sea assault on the island, the first of the Japanese Home Islands to be invaded by Allied forces. Reaching Kerama Rhetto on March 29, 1945, Brazos carried on with its usual task of supplying fuel to combat vessels throughout the campaign. A Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, newspaper described Brazos' part in the Battle of Okinawa.

The Brazos was the first tanker on the scene, arriving as the first waves of assault troops swept onto the Okinawa beaches, and was the last one to leave, after refueling 575 ships in 86 days. Despite attacks by [Japanese] suicide planes, the Brazos escaped without damage, although three of her crewmen were struck by wild shots from the little island of Tokashiki, where American troops were mopping up the last [Japanese] defenders.^[3]

For their service at Okinawa, Rear Admiral Ingolf N. Kiland commended the crew of Brazos, expressing his "appreciation for excellent services performed [...] under trying and difficult circumstances. [...] The results of your efforts contributed materially to the success of the operations" on Okinawa.^[4]

Though USS Brazos had survived the war, its two fellow fleet oilers from the Charlestown Navy Yard, USS Neches (AO-5) and USS Pecos (AO-6), did not. Neches was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Pacific in January 1942, and Pecos was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Java in March 1942.

Brazos remained on active duty in the Ryukyu Islands after Japan’s surrender, supporting Allied occupation forces. In October 1945, it served for a brief period at Leyte in the Philippines before serving off the coast of Japan itself until November 9, 1945.

The End of Brazos

Brazos returned to San Francisco, California, on November 26, 1945, and remained there until the Navy decommissioned the ship on February 8, 1946. Stricken from the Navy Register and declared surplus to the needs of the service on February 28, Brazos was transferred to the Reserve Fleet Suisun Bay, California, on June 30. The Navy tried to sell the ship, but initially rejected all bids. Eventually, the Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland, purchased Brazos on behalf of Kaiser Steel. On January 6, 1947, Brazos was scrapped.

The story of USS Brazos shows that warships cannot move and fight on their own, requiring support infrastructure in the form of auxiliary ships to complete their task. Built at the Charlestown Navy Yard at the tail end of World War I, Brazos was over twenty years old by the time the United States entered World War II. Nonetheless, it served with distinction, helping United States forces to win two of the most consequential campaigns of the Pacific Theater.

Contributed by: Raphael Pierson-Sante, Digital Content Support Volunteer.

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Footnotes

[1] Stephen P. Carlson, Charlestown Navy Yard Historic Resource Study, Vol 1 (Boston, MA: Division of Cultural Resources, Boston National Historical Park, National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior, 2010), 82.

[2] Dennis Denmark Nelson, The Integration of the Negro into the United States Navy, 1776-1947 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1948), 48.

[3] "G. Weldon Plank in Okinawa Operations," The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania), September 13, 1945, p. 1.

[4] "History of USS Brazos (AO-4)" Division of Naval History, Ships' Histories Section, Navy Department., 75.

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Sources

Carlson, Stephen P. Charlestown Navy Yard Historic Resource Study, Vol 1-3. Boston, MA: Division of Cultural Resources, Boston National Historical Park, National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior, 2010.

Cressman, Robert J. "Brazos (Fuel Ship No. 16) 1919-1946," Naval History and Heritage Command, May 6, 2021. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/b/brazos-i.html.

"History of USS Brazos (AO-4)" Division of Naval History, Ships’ Histories Section, Navy Department.

Nelson, Dennis Denmark. The Integration of the Negro into the United States Navy, 1776-1947. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1948.