Caelum (AK-106)
1943-1946
A southern constellation.
(AK-106: displacement 4,356; length 441'6"; beam 56'11"; draft 28'4" (limiting); speed 12.5 knots; complement 198; armament 1 5-inch, 1 3-inch; class Crater)
Caelum (AK-106) was launched 25 July 1943 as Wyatt Earp by California Shipbuilding Corp., Wilmington, Calif., under a Maritime Commission contract (MCE Hull No.1860) ; sponsored by Mrs. H. N. MacKusick; transferred to the Navy on 10 August 1943; commissioned on 22 October 1943, Lt. Cmdr. E. Johnson in command; and reported to the Pacific Fleet.
Assigned to the Pacific Fleet, Caelum carried cargo between Pearl Harbor and Tarawa, Majuro, Eniwetok, Kwajalein, and Ulithi in her first year of service. Her tireless operations included participation in the occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro in February 1944, and from June through October 1944 she was assigned to Service Squadron 10.
A San Francisco overhaul late in 1944 was followed by Caelum's assignment from 20 January 1945 as station ship at Ulithi, and from 8 May, at Guam. At these bases she controlled and issued cargo and provisions to the ships which carried out the massive operations in the Palaus, Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and the task forces that pounded Japanese bases from the air.
Returning to the States for overhaul in June and July 1945, Caelum towed YF-741 to Ulithi in August, and sailed on to support the occupation of Korea in September, and to provide logistic services to ships at Shanghai in early October. From 9 November, when she arrived at Samar, P.I., the cargo ship sailed from this and various Chinese ports until clearing for the United States on 15 April 1946. Decommissioned at Seattle on 30 July 1946, Caelum was returned to the Maritime Commission the next day.
Caelum received one battle star for her World War II service.
