(ACM-6: dp. 1,320 (f.); l. 188'2"; b. 37'0"; dr. 12'6" (mean) (f.); s. 12.5 k. (tl.); cpl. 69; a. 1 40mm., mines; cl. Chimo)
A structure that projects outward from the main enclosure of fort; a stronghold.
Colonel Henry J. Hunt, a mine planter built in 1942 at Point Pleasant, W.V., by the Marietta Manufacturing Co., was acquired by the Navy from the Army on 4 January 1945; renamed Bastion; converted to an auxiliary minelayer; and commissioned at Charleston, S.C., on 9 April 1945, Lt. Earl D. Fatkin, USNR, in command.
Bastion departed Charleston on 17 June 1945 bound for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 23 June and arrived in San Diego on 7 July. In August, she sailed to Pearl Harbor and then continued on to the Mariana Islands where she arrived on 22 August. Though classified as a minelayer, the ship served as a minesweeper and repair ship in the Marianas during the remainder of August and all of September and in the Ryukyus from October to mid December. On the 17 December, she got underway for Japan, arrived there on the 21st, and resumed minesweeping duties. She also provided seaborne support for the occupation forces. On 11 March 1946, Bastion headed home. She was decommissioned on 18 June 1946 at San Francisco, Calif., and was simultaneously transferred to the Coast Guard. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 19 July 1946.
Raymond A. Mann
27 February 2006
