laststandonzombieisland

Named for a North Florida/South Georgia Creek tribe, the 205-foot Abnaki (Apache)-class fleet tug USS Hitchiti (ATF-103) was built at the Charleston Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. over nine months from August 1943 to May 1944.

Her first of 21 U.S. Navy skippers was LT Harry Alonzo Guthrie, a regular who had volunteered in 1927 and worked his way up through the ranks.

After shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay area, Hitchiti sailed for the Pacific, reaching Pearl Harbor with four tows (AFDL-32, YO-94, YO-95, and YTB-376) on 26 August 1944. She then took part in the Leyte Gulf landings, followed by towing and rescue operations during the hard-fought Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns as the Pacific war drew near to the Japanese home islands in the spring of 1945, earning two battle stars (Luzon operation and Okinawa Gunto operation).

Among other notable missions was shepherding the bomb-damaged USS Blessman (DE-69/APD-48) from Iwo Jima, which had been hit by a Japanese Betty while carrying the men of UDT-15, to safety in Saipan. Hitchiti also escorted USS Hazelwood from Okinawa to Ulithi after a kamikaze had stripped most of her superstructure.

Following occupation service, our tug was sent to the West Coast to be laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, San Francisco Group, in 1948.

Reactivated for Korea, she earned three battle stars there (Communist China Spring Offensive 1951, UN Summer Fall Offensive 1951, and Korean Defense Summer-Fall 1952).

Her third war earned her the Vietnam Service Medal with three campaign stars between August 1964 and August 1967. Hitchiti notably pulled LCU–1494 from a beach near Danang and salvaged a Marine Corps LVT at Phu Thuin in December 1965, picked up the mined Coconino County (LST 603) inside the mouth of the Cua Viet River and delivered her to Danang, and towed Summit County (LST 1146) off the beach after patching her and pumping out the engine room.

Besides the above, she had seven back-to-back Westpac cruises which saw her clocking in for roles as diverse as helping with U.S. nuclear testing at Johnston Island in 1958 (Hardtack I) and 1962 (Fishbowl) and conducting a two-month birdlife study on South Pacific islands for the Smithsonian Institute– the latter cataloged in Folders 7-8 SIC 7 and assorted field books in Record Unit 245 National Museum of Natural History, Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program. She also rescued the USS Diodon (SS 349) after the submarine suffered a fire and lost propulsion, and towed the sub to Yokosuka.

Decommissioned a second time, she was transferred to Mexico by cash sale under the Security Assistance Program in September 1979, renamed ARM Chac (R-55), and served the Armada for another 42 years, though with far fewer wars, retiring in June 2021 as ARM Cora (ARE 04).

The mighty Hitchiti/Chac/Cora completed her last mission earlier this month, sinking off Manzanillo as part of the Sistema Arrecifal Artificial de Colima program so her stripped, cleaned hulk can help develop a sanctuary for local marine flora and fauna.

The steel that served for over 70 years under two flags is now an “opportunity to boost biodiversity, strengthen sustainable tourism, and preserve naval history and culture.”

Notably, her first skipper, LT Guthrie, retired in 1955 as an LCDR, ending a 28-year naval career. He went on to work for the Post Office in Santa Cruz, California, and died in 1988 at age 79.