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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo #  NH 97926:  USS Suisun in 1952.

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Suisun (AVP-53), 1944-1966

USS Suisun, a 1,766-ton Barnegat class small seaplane tender built at Houghton, Washington, was commissioned in September 1944. After shakedown training at San Diego, she sailed for Eniwetok in December 1944. Between January and April 1945 she tended various PB2Y and PBM seaplane squadrons in the Caroline and Marianas Islands. She moved to Kerama Retto, Ryukyu Islands, with the Okinawa invasion force in April and remained there until the end of the war except for one trip to Saipan for supplies. She was the eighth ship to enter Tokyo Bay in August 1945 and remained there until leaving for the United States in November 1945.

Assigned to the postwar Atlantic Fleet, Suisun arrived at Norfolk in January 1946 and, after overhaul, conducted operations along the east coast and in the Caribbean. In October 1946 her home port was shifted to Coco Solo, Canal Zone. She returned to the Pacific in April 1947 and began a series of deployments throughout the Pacific basin, including the China, Japan, the Central Pacific islands, Alaska, Mexico, and the Western Pacific. During several of these deployments she supported seaplanes from Whidbey Island, Washington. Between July and October 1950, during the early months of the Korean War, the tender and her seaplanes operated in the vicinity of the Pescadores Islands and monitored mainland Chinese military activity. USS Suisun was decommissioned in August 1955 and sunk as a target in October 1966.

This page features, or provides links to, all our views of USS Suisun.

For additional views relating to USS Suisun, see:

  • USS Suisun (AVP-53) -- Miscellaneous Views.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: 19-N-74567

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Off Houghton, Washington, on 17 September 1944, a few days after commissioning.
    She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5"/38 gun and one quadruple 40mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 620 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-74568

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Off Houghton, Washington, on 17 September 1944, a few days after commissioning.
    She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5"/38 gun and one quadruple 40mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 620 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-74569

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Off Houghton, Washington, on 17 September 1944, a few days after commissioning.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-72541

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Off the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 5 October 1944.
    She was the first of her class completed with the late war standard main armament of one 5"/38 gun and one quadruple 40mm mount, both forward. Her camouflage scheme is Measure 32 Design 2Ax.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 545 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-72544

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Off the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 5 October 1944.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 595 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-72545

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Off the Puget Sound Navy Yard on 5 October 1944.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 595 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-K-16189 (Color)

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)

    Passing a line to USS Castle Rock (AVP-35), off Javapog, Saipan, in April 1945.
    Photographed by Ensign Thomas Binford, USNR, from one of Castle Rock's 40mm gun tubs.
    Note Suisun's Measure 32 Design 2Ax camoflage.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 595 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 67897

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    At New York on 17 August 1946.

    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 44KB; 740 x 480 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97926

    USS Suisun (AVP-53)


    Underway in a photograph dated 1952.
    The quadruple 40mm gun mount on her fantail was added in around 1948. Note the small aviation insignia just forward of her small bow number.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     

    For additional views relating to USS Suisun, see:

  • USS Suisun (AVP-53) -- Miscellaneous Views.


    In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Suisun (AVP-53). The following list features some of these images:

    The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
    DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: 80-G-356179
    Near-overhead aerial view of USS Suisun (AVP-53) at anchor in Puget Sound on 16 October 1944. Photographed by an aircraft from Naval Air Station, Whidbey Island, Washington.

  • Photo #: 80-G-343675
    Starboard broadside view of the camouflaged USS Suisun (AVP-53) at anchor at Kerama Retto, Ryukyu Islands, on 6 June 1945.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1042961
    Port bow view of USS Suisun (AVP-53) in a photo dated 1949.

  • Photo #: 80-G-415882
    USS Suisun (AVP-53) alongside USS Pine Island (AV-12) conducting simulated rescue operations on 11 July 1949. The ships are underway and Suisun is maneuvering alongside the larger ship with transfer lines rigged between them. Photographed from Pine Island.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1042962
    Starboard quarter aerial oblique view of USS Suisun (AVP-53) in a photo dated 1953.

  • Photo #: 80-G-1042964
    Starboard bow view of USS Suisun (AVP-53) in a photo dated 1955.

    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 23 April 2002