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USS Grasp (ARS-24) 

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Grasp (ARS-24) 

USS Grasp (ARS-24) was laid down on 27 April 1943 by the Basalt Rock Co., Napa, Calif.; launched on 31 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. McDonough, wife of Lt. Cdr. John B. McDonough, Assistant Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Basalt Rock Co.; and commissioned at Southern Pacific Docks, Vallejo, Calif., on 22 August 1944, Lt. Comdr. Jacob F. Lawson, in command.

After fitting out at San Francisco and shakedown out of San Diego, USS Grasp (ARS-24) reported for duty with Commander, Service Force, 7th Fleet on 16 October 1944, and sailed for the Hawaii that same day, reaching Hilo on 27 October. As part of Task Force 77.1, USS Grasp (ARS-24) sailed with the landing force on 1 January 1945, arrived in Lingayen Gulf on the 9th and immediately set to work.

Departing the Philippines on 27 April 1946, USS Grasp (ARS-24) sailed east and reached San Pedro, Calif., via Pearl Harbor and Astoria, Oreg., on 5 June. The salvage ship decommissioned there on 12 December 1946 and was placed in reserve that same day.

When the Korean war broke out on 20 June 1950, salvage and repair ships were again in short supply. USS Grasp (ARS-24) was quickly refurbished and recommissioned at San Diego on 10 October 1950. After a short workup period, the salvage ship sailed for Japan in January 1951, reaching Sasebo, via Pearl Harbor on 12 February. USS Grasp (ARS-24) at once proceeded on to Wonsan, Korea, for salvage and patrol work there and off Songjin. The two communist-controlled ports As USS Grasp (ARS-24) patrolled the coast between were under seige by 7th Fleet units, primarily through daily shore bombardment missions against local transportation networks and against shore batteries.

After two more cruises off the Korean coast, interspersed with repair work in Japan, USS Grasp (ARS-24) returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 October and remained there until sailing for home on 29 January 1952. Following quick repairs at San Diego, USS Grasp (ARS-24) returned to Pearl Harbor on 12 March and from there steamed to Subic Bay, Philippines, for three months of salvage operations. Despite the termination of open warfare in Korea on 27 July 1953, the area remained an important port of call for Grasp as the salvage ship settled into a pattern of yearly Western Pacific cruises out of Pearl Harbor intermixed with local operations and salvage work out of that Hawaiian port. After salvage operations on merchant vessel Pacific Islander in Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, between 15-19 April, USS Grasp (ARS-24) then visited atolls in the Marianas and delivered Red Cross supplies there. Later in the month she helped backload Navy supplies at Chichi Jima in preparation for the island's return to Japanese government control.

USS Grasp (ARS-24) decommissioned at Pearl Harbor on 31 March 1978 and was both struck from the Navy list and transferred as part of the Security Assistance Program (SAP) to South Korea that same day. The salvage ship served in the South Korean Navy as Chang Won (ARS-25) until 1998.

For a complete history of USS Grasp (ARS-24) please see its DANFS page.