USS Caliente (AO-53) was a built during World War II for the U.S. Navy. During her career in the Pacific Ocean, Caliente participated in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. She was highly decorated for fulfilling her dangerous mission of carrying fuel into battle areas. She received ten battle stars for World War II, four for the Korean War and eight campaign stars for the Vietnam War.
Construction and commissioning The auxiliary oiler was built by Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard as a type T3-S2-A1 fast petroleum carrier (Maritime Commission contract MC hull 719), and was laid down at Sparrows Point, Maryland, on 2 January 1943. She was launched on 25 August 1943, sponsored by Helen Essary, widow of noted American journalist, J. Frederick Essary. The ship was commissioned on 22 October 1943.
World War II Pacific Theatre operations After steaming to Norfolk, Virginia, on 25 October, Caliente spent the next month practiced refueling operations in the Chesapeake Bay, including one high-speed simulation with , and conducted standard training exercises. Her crew also worked up her fuel delivery systems and struggled to repair chronic engine trouble. On 11 December, after degaussing, calibrating her Radar-Directional-Finder and compass, and two changes of command, she got underway for Port Arthur, Texas. Escorted by , in case any German U-boats were lurking about, she moored at the Texas Oil Co. dock on 16 December. After loading fuel oil she got underway for Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, and transited the Panama Canal on 22 December.
She arrived at Pearl Harbor, the logistical nexus of the entire Pacific effort, on 7 January 1944. Attached to Service Squadron Eight, U.S. Pacific Fleet, the oiler conducted fueling exercises for the next two weeks. After a fueling stop at Lahaina Roads Caliente sailed on 25 January to support the Marshall Islands invasion. Attached to Task Group (TG) 50.17, a three oiler replenishment group, she berthed at Majuro atoll on 2 February (D+3). Fueling operations commenced immediately and she shifted berth to Funafuti Atoll, Ellice Islands. When her tanks emptied she took on fuel oil from and returned to Majuro on 12 February. She remained in and around the atoll for two months, taking fuel from civilian tankers, and refueling Navy vessels. These included the aircraft carriers , , and , their numerous escorts, as well as the battleships and .
Although most of the scheduled fueling at sea had been canceled, Majuro lagoon being large enough to accommodate the entire tanker fleet, the oiler got underway with TG 50.17 on 12 April for her first at sea replenishment mission. She fueled and on 19 April, part of Admiral Albert E. Montgomery's Task Force 58.2 that struck the Wakde and Hollandia airfields on 21 April, and distributed fuel to the many short-legged escorts in both task forces. After filling her tanks from at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, the oiler supplied the returning carrier forces with avgas and fuel oil. Underway 28 April she steamed east and, despite multiple submarine contacts, arrived safely at Pearl Harbor on 9 May.
Supporting ships of the Invasion of Saipan After a brief period of repair she loaded up on cargo oil and avgas and departed for station at Majuro atoll. Arriving 3 June Caliente fueled dozens of ships in the lagoon and, in mid-June, supported the task forces during the Saipan landings. On 7 July, despite numerous submarine contacts, the oiler refueled the U.S. 5th Fleet carriers on their return from the Philippine Sea battles. For the remainder of the month, as part of Operation Forager, she carried logistical supplies, mostly diesel and black oil, from Enewetak to ships off Saipan. Caliente even made a run to Pearl Harbor, arriving 12 August, to assist the civilian tankers in the unending task of transporting oil and avgas to the fuel-guzzling carriers off the Marianas.
In September she fueled ships of the Palau invasion, including the carriers on 23 September, and sailed for Manus to receive fuel oil from . Underway 10 October she carried fuel to the seventeen carriers of Admiral Halsey's U.S. 3rd Fleet, on their return from raids on Luzon and Formosa, before returning to Ulithi. Following a mission to shuttle fuel to the fast carriers, operating west of the Marianas on 11 November, she returned to that atoll for reassignment.
Sinking of Mississinewa On 20 November, after loading 97,975 barrels of black oil from , as well as a full load of avgas, diesel, and cargo oil, Caliente lay at anchor awaiting a destination. Ulithi, a regulating station of the Logistics Division, Pacific Fleet, had been deemed safe from enemy interference yet close enough to serve as a transshipment point for the forward operating areas. But on 20 November the Japanese struck at this logistical lifeline. At 0547 hours the oiler , a sister ship of Caliente, was hit by a kaiten, a Japanese manned torpedo, and burst into flames. Mississinewa was occupying a berth originally meant for Caliente. Caliente and the other oilers, to protect their volatile cargo, steamed out of the harbor. While at least three of the attackers were sunk, Mississinewa, having just loaded 107,000 barrels of fuel in her hold, exploded and sank, killing 60 of her crew.
Supporting Philippine invasion forces For the remainder of the year Caliente refueled task forces operating off the Philippines, easily weathering a tropical cyclone on 18 December, and even entered Leyte Gulf to fuel New Jersey and on 17 January 1945. In February she departed Ulithi atoll, remembered only for "movies on the cargo deck and beer parties at Mogmog island", for the long voyage to San Francisco, California. Her first overhaul, after 13 months of continuous operations, began on 7 March when she entered the graving dock in San Pedro harbor. On 25 April, with repairs complete, she got underway for Pearl Harbor. She took on passengers and fuel, departed for Ulithi 9 May, and arrived at the familiar flat atoll to await assignment on 20 May.
Underway 30 May, despite the breakdown of her port engine circulating pump, she refueled light carriers and cruisers after weathering her second typhoon on 4 June. After receiving fuel oil from she fueled escorts, and the occasional carrier, off the Bonin Islands and Honshū throughout July and August. Arriving Ulithi on 18 August the oiler, despite the Japanese surrender, did not slow her tempo and quickly refilled her tanks with black oil.
End-of-war activity In the following month she supplied ships assigned to occupation duty, anchoring in Tokyo Bay on 10 September, before returning to Ulithi for more fuel. Returning to Tokyo Bay on 17 October she received more oil, from and , before sailing to China to support ships on occupation duty. The oiler refueled ships in Qingdao, and off the Shandong coast, before returning to Tokyo on 27 November. After receiving another cargo of oil she steamed to Kure Ko, Honshū, Japan on 2 December. She spent the remainder of the year in port, fueling small craft, conducting steam line repairs, and supplying oil to former Imperial Japanese navy vessels engaged in the repatriation of Japanese nationals from mainland Asia.
These post-war operations were to become normal for Caliente, especially as the huge American presence in Japan, China, and Korea, promised to continue into the indefinite future. During 1946 the oiler distributed fuel throughout the western Pacific, mainly Yokosuka, Singapore, and Manila, making two trips of her own to Bahrain to load fuel from the newly developed Persian Gulf oil fields. It was not until 14 November that the oiler finally steamed into San Pedro, California, harbor and home.
Cold War activity As the Navy reacted to the burgeoning "Cold War", in Asia as well as Europe, Caliente conducted two long cruises into 1948. The first, starting on 4 March 1947, took the oiler from west coast operations to the southern Pacific, Japan, the British base at Columbo, and Bahrain. After a shuttle run to Singapore and Yokosuka in July the oiler sailed for Norfolk via the Suez Canal in September. On 30 November she returned to Singapore, via the Suez Canal and Ras Tamira, before reaching San Pedro on 30 December. In 1948 she was assigned to shuttle runs between Western Pacific bases and Chinese ports. These Far East tours, centered around Japanese ports, continued into 1950 with Caliente attached to Service Squadron Three.
Korean War operations Upon the outbreak of war in Korea in June 1950, Caliente returned to wartime operations, supplying fuel oil and avgas to the Formosa Patrol Force and U.S. 7th Fleet in the Far East. After her third logistical support tour ended on 9 January 1952 she was homeported at Long Beach, California. The worn down oiler, in dire need of maintenance after delivering over 750,000 barrels of fuel to United Nations ships during the war, began her third yard overhaul later that month.
The following year Caliente continued deployments to the Far East, supplying mid-Pacific ports and the Japanese ports of Yokosuka, Sasebo, Yokohama, and Kobe. Caliente also served as station oiler at Kaohsiung, Formosa, in 1953, during which she helped upgrade harbor charts.
Supporting Vietnam Evacuation and Atomic Testing In August 1954, the oiler joined Operation Passage to Freedom, the sea lift of anti-communist Vietnamese out of communist-held territory following the Geneva peace agreements in 1954. Caliente operated out of Touraine Bay, refueling some of the 74 amphibious and 39 transports involved in the evacuation of some 300,000 refugees and military personnel from Haiphong to Saigon. The oiler also participated in Operation Redwing, a series of five atmospheric nuclear tests off Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls in the Marshall Islands between 3–27 July 1956. She then returned to more mundane cargo runs in the western Pacific, including the ironic task of providing replenishment for Japanese Self-Defense Force warships.
The new decade began with Caliente conducting WestPac Ops with U.S. 7th Fleet units, including underway replenishment of and , in the western Pacific. After another repair period in Todd Shipyard, San Pedro, California, and tender availability at Long Beach, the oiler sailed for another WestPac tour in 1961. After avoiding a typhoon off Hong Kong, on 14 July, she finished replenishment operations out of Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, before sailing for Alaska. For ten days she steamed above the Arctic Circle, encountering intermittent fog and numerous whales, to refuel the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ship , before departing for the warmer waters of California. On 15 August the oiler began her seventh yard overhaul at Long Beach.
Vietnam War operations After winning the Battle Efficiency "E", and the green "C" for Communications Excellence, Caliente entered Willamette Iron and Steel Works shipyard at Portland, Oregon, on 6 January 1964. The oiler received new communications equipment, modernized tension rigs, and new cargo pumps. On 27 July, after refresher training off San Diego, she departed for the Pearl Harbor. Following the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in early August 1964 was ordered to the South China Sea. On 16 August Caliente refueled Task Group 77.4, including the carrier, as she steamed towards Vietnamese waters. The oiler, however, was plagued by erratic generator failures and spent the following three months under restricted availability at Subic Bay, Philippines before returning to Long Beach.