Annoy (AM-84)
1942-1944
A general word classification.
(AM-84: displacement 330; length 173'8"; beam 23'0"; draft 6'6"; speed 16.8 knots; complement 65; armament 1 3-inch, 4 20 millimeter, 2 depth charge tracks, 2 depth charge projectors; class Adroit)
Annoy (AM-84) was laid down on 30 December 1941 at Portland, Oregon, by the Commercial Iron Works; launched on 6 April 1942; and commissioned on 2 September 1942, Lt. John A. Parrish, D-V(S), USNR, in command.
The newly commissioned minesweeper’s first assignment took her to the Aleutian Islands to carry out antisubmarine patrols and escort assignments protecting various vessels as they moved between Unalaska, Adak, and Atka. On 16 September 1943, Annoy departed Dutch Harbor to escort the fleet tug (ex-minesweeper) Oriole (AT-136) and her tow, the destroyer Abner Read (DD-526) (damaged by a mine off Kiska on 18 August), to Seattle, Wash., where the convoy arrived on 5 October. The next day, Annoy entered the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., for upkeep.
The vessel left the yard on 9 November 1943, bound for San Pedro, Calif. Upon her arrival there, Annoy began a month of minesweeping and antisubmarine exercises. On 11 December, she began escort duty out of San Francisco to various points in the Pacific, ranging from Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, to Majuro Atoll, in the Marshall Islands; and from Funafuti, Ellice Islands to Tarawa, in the Gilberts. Annoy entered the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, on 16 April 1944 for upkeep, and upon the conclusion of that work, she commenced operations with Submarine Squadron 4 based at Pearl Harbor. The ship served as a screening and escort vessel and acted as a target ship for submarines during their training.
The name Annoy was cancelled on 1 June 1944 and the ship's classification was changed to that of a submarine chaser, PC-1588. Relieved of her training duties on 23 July, she got underway for San Francisco. She entered a shipyard at Alameda, Calif., on 3 August, for availability. The ship emerged on 18 November and, the next day, began the return voyage to the Territory of Hawaii. PC-1588 reached Pearl Harbor on 28 November 1944 and was assigned patrol and antisubmarine screening duties for various transport groups training in Hawaiian waters. On 24 January 1945, she sailed from Pearl Harbor in the screen of Task Group 51.5, bound, via Eniwetok and Guam, for the Volcano Islands. PC-1588 arrived off Iwo Jima on 20 February. During the next three months, the vessel acted as a control ship for various beaches on Iwo Jima, served as an air-sea rescue ship, operated in antisubmarine screens, and took enemy aircraft under fire on three separate occasions.
The ship left Iwo Jima on 28 May 1945 to escort a convoy to Saipan. She returned to Iwo Jima on 16 June and resumed her antisubmarine and air-sea rescue duties which she carried out through the end of the war. PC-1588 escorted two more convoys between Saipan and Iwo Jima—one in September and one in mid-October. On the latter trip, she continued on from Saipan and proceeded via Eniwetok and Pearl Harbor to San Francisco. The ship reached San Francisco Bay on 13 November and immediately began preparations for inactivation.
On 29 January 1946, PC-1588 left San Francisco in tow en route to Richmond, Calif., and arrived there on 3 February. Decommissioned on 8 February 1946, PC-1588 was stricken from the Navy Register on 12 March 1946, and she was transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal on 6 May 1948.
PC-1588 received one battle star for her World War II service for her part in the assault and occupation of Iwo Jima (20 February—16 March 1945).
Luann Parsons
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
30 August 2022
