Sliding through
80 years ago today, aboard the 14,000-ton Mount McKinley-class amphibious force command ship USS Teton (AGC-14).
Official period caption: “The little net tender sits by as we slide through the submarine net at Buckner Bay, Okinawa Island. 22 August, 1945.” As the Japanese had produced upwards of 400 Kaiten human torpedoes, the net was probably a good idea.
SC 364348 Photographer: T/4 A.C. Simmons. Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.
Originally laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1363) as SS Water Witch on 9 November 1943, Teton was acquired by the Navy while still under construction and, post AGC conversion, commissioned 18 October 1944. She carried extensive radio equipment, two single 5″/38 DP mounts, four twin 40mm Bofors, and 10 twin 20mm Oerlikons as well as accommodations for as many as 400 embarked staff.
Following shake downs, she headed to the Pacific as the flagship for the famed “Viking of the Sea,” RADM John L. Hall, Commander, Amphibious Group 12.
USS Teton (AGC-14), flagship of Rear Admiral John L. Hall during the Okinawa operation. Probably photographed at an anchorage in the Ryukyu Islands, circa spring 1945. NH 99932
On hand off Okinawa by 1 April 1945, she remained there for 72 days, controlling the landing operations on the Hagushi beaches and then providing standby control of offensive and defensive air operations.
As noted by her War History, those ten weeks saw: “183 alerts, during which a total of 223 hours, 56 minutes was spent on general quarters, or an average of 1 hour 13 minutes for each alert. One or more enemy planes appeared over the transport area in each of 66 of the alerts and were the targets of 84 rounds of 5″/38, 1,059 rounds of 40mm, and 1,222 rounds of 20mm fired by the ship’s guns.”
Teton, after swapping out RADM Hall’s staff on 17 August for the Waterborne Echelon and Special Mission Group for the U.S. Army Southwest Pacific (32 officers and 255 men under Stanford geology professor-turned MacArthur Section Chief, Lt. Col. Hubert Gregory Schenck), the ship received word to head for Tokyo Bay and was only the fifth American warship to enter it on 29 August 1945.
“USS Teton (AGC-14), Tokyo bound. A seaplane soars overhead as GIs watch the last rays of the afternoon sun shine upon the Iowa (foremost) & the Missouri (beyond). 26 August, 1945.” SC 364350. Photographer: T/4 A.C. Simmons. Photo Source: U.S. National Archives. Digitized by Signal Corps Archive.
For the first two weeks of September, Teton’s Marine radiomen established the first direct radio communication from Japan to the U.S. One of three AGCs present for the surrender ceremony, on 16 September, she became the first large allied ship to enter Tokyo’s inner harbor.
Following Magic Carpet runs that brought troops back to the states, Teton was decommissioned at San Diego on 30 August 1946. After 15 years in mothballs, she was sold for scrap.