Menkar (AK-123)
1944-1946
The brightest star in the Constellation Ceti.
(AK‑123; displacement 12,350; length 441'6"; beam 56'11"; draft 24'6"; speed 12.8 knots; complement 282: armament 1 5-inch, 4 40-millimeter, 12 20-millimeter; class Crater; type EC-2‑S‑C1)
John White was laid down on 17 November 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C.E. Hull 1218) at Jacksonville, Fla., by the St. John’s River Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 31 December 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Cora E. Owens; acquired as Menkar by the Navy from the War Shipping Administration (WSA) under a bareboat charter on 17 January 1944; commissioned the next day [18 January 1944], Lt. Cmdr. Edward G. Gummer, D-M, USNR, in command, to be ferried to Miami, Fla., where she was decommissioned on 22 January 1944 for conversion to a troop transport by the Dade Dry Dock Company.
Commissioned at Miami on 2 June 1944, Lt. Cmdr. Ural V. Martin, D-M, USNR, in command, Menkar cleared Pier 3, Miami, on 7 June and conducted trial runs before returning to her berth later the same day. She sailed for Norfolk on 20 June and, following shakedown, was temporarily assigned to the Naval Transportation Service [NTS]. After loading supplies at Norfolk, she got underway for the Canal Zone on 30 July. She cleared Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on 7 August, then transited the Panama Canal, departing Balboa on 12 August and reporting for duty with the Pacific Fleet. She proceeded to Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, then sailed on 9 September to return to the west coast.
On 27 September 1944, Menkar was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard for Loran [Long Range Navigation] work. Construction of stations for that navigational system for ships and planes based on the transmission of radio wave pulses, had only begun in the Pacific a year before; and a cargo ship was needed to transport material and equipment. Lt. Cmdr. Niels P. Thomsen, USCG, in command, Menkar sailed from San Francisco on 4 October 1944. She reached Saipan, Marianas, on 31 October 1944, to unload cargo for the first Loran station in the Marianas chain. On 11 November, she anchored in Apra Harbor and unloaded supplies for the Guam station. She then continued on to Ulithi, in the Western Carolines, arriving on 13 December. The Marianas stations proved invaluable in the amphibious assault on Iwo Jima in February 1945 and in the bombing attacks on Japan begun in March of that year.
On 5 March 1945, Menkar lay off Angaur, Palaus, with materials to set up a fixed station. Four days later, she was anchored off Pulo Anna, Palaus, unloading her cargo. By the end of March she had supplied the other two stations of the Palau‑Morotai chain.
The cargo ship next helped tighten the Loran network around Japan with the construction of the Iwo Jima-Tokyo‑Okinawa chain. Menkar reached Kangoku Iwa off Iwo Jima on 20 April, just two months after the marines had first fought their way ashore. Three days later, she departed for Ike Shima, arriving on 10 May. In the next four days, she fought off intermittent Japanese air raids while discharging supplies at Okinawa. She continued on to Katchin Wan Harbor, Okinawa, where she again was harassed by enemy planes. On 18 May, Menkar shot down a Nakajima Ki.43 [Japanese] Army fighter [Oscar] diving directly at the ship.
Before construction of the third station at O Shima began, Menkar steamed for the west coast, via Pearl Harbor, arriving at Seattle, Wash., on 5 August 1945. She remained there through the Japanese surrender (V-J Day) in mid-August. On 14 September, she departed Seattle for Pearl Harbor, embarking 307 passengers on arrival the 24th. She again embarked Loran units and got underway on 9 October for the Marianas, pausing in the Gilberts and Marshalls before anchoring at Guam on 26 October.
With the construction of a China Sea Loran chain planned soon after the cessation of hostilities, she continued on to the North China Sea for Loran duty into the next year. When the project was abandoned, however, Menkar returned to San Francisco on 3 March 1946 and was decommissioned on 15 April 1946, resuming her previous name, John White. She entered the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, Calif., at noon on 15 April 1946. Menkar was stricken from the Navy Register on 1 May 1946.
Offered by the Maritime Administration (the former Maritime Commission) for sale on 12 April 1962, bids opened on 3 May 1962. She was sold to Union Minerals & Alloys Corp. on 8 May 1962 for $48,789.99 and removed from Suisun Bay by her purchaser at 8:40 a.m. on 22 May 1962 to be broken up for scrap.
Menkar received one battle star for her World War II service, for her participation in the.assault and occupation of Okinawa Guntō (10-19 May 1945).
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
16 November 2023
