Invade (AM-254)
1944-1962
A general word classification.
(AM-254: displacement 530; length 184'6"; beam 33'0"; draft 9'9"; speed 15.0 knots, complement 104; armament 1 3-inch, 2 40 millimeter, 6 20 millimeter, 1 depth charge projector (Hedgehog), 4 depth charge projectors, 2 depth charge tracks; class Admirable)
Invade (AM-254) was laid down on 19 January 1944 at Savannah, Georgia, by Savannah Machine & Foundry Co.; launched on 6 February 1944; sponsored by Miss Thayer C. Allen; and commissioned on 18 September 1944, Lt. Henry H. Silliman, D-V(S), USNR, in command.
After shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Invade steamed to Casco Bay, Maine, for training, on 24 November 1944. Following these operations and additional drills out of Norfolk, Va., the minecraft assumed duties there towing aircraft targets and as an experimental minesweeper. She remained on this important duty through the end of the war and reported on 21 September 1945 to the Mine Warfare School at Yorktown, Va., as a training ship.
Invade was decommissioned on 7 August 1946 and joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange, Texas. She was reclassified as a fleet minesweeper (steel hull) MSF-254, on 7 February 1955, stricken from the Navy List on 1 May 1962, and sold to Mexico on 30 August 1962, being renamed DM-18.
DM-18 was subsequently renamed General Ignacio Zaragoza (C-60) in 1994, classified as a corvette, and was ultimately stricken on 16 July 2001. Secondary sources are silent as to her ultimate fate.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
8 April 2024
