Muskogee (PF-49)
1944-1972
A city in the state of Oklahoma.
(PF‑49: displacement 1,430; length 303'11"; beam 37'6"; draft 13'9"; speed 20.0 knots; complement 190; armament 3 3-inch, 4 40-millimeter, 9 20-millimeter, 1 depth charge projector (Hedgehog), 8 depth charge projectors, 2 depth charge tracks; class Tacoma; type S2‑S2‑AQ1)
Muskogee (PF‑49)—originally projected as a gunboat, PG-157—was laid down on 18 September 1943 at Wilmington, Calif. by Consolidated Steel Corp., Ltd., under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 1460); launched on 18 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. S. B. Hudson, wife of the mayor of Muskogee; and commissioned on 16 March 1944, Cmdr. Rufus E. Mroczkowski, USCG, in command.
After training and exercises off the California coast, Muskogee departed San Pedro, Calif., on 18 June 1944 for Nouméa, where she arrived on 18 July for patrol and escort duty from Nouméa and, after its capture, Humboldt Bay, New Guinea. Antisubmarine patrol and screening for ships operating around New Guinea were her primary duties into October.
On 18 October 1944 she got underway screening the second reinforcement group bound for newly-invaded Leyte, arriving in San Pedro Bay on 24 October to screen transports and supply ships under numerous enemy air attacks while waiting for a group of empty tank landing ships [LSTs] to form up for the return passage. As her convoy retired on the 26th, it was again attacked, and Muskogee joined in downing several enemy aircraft. A second escort voyage to Leyte in early November proved less eventful.
Concluding her New Guinea patrols, Muskogee arrived in Pearl Harbor on 15 December 1944, then reported at Dutch Harbor on 12 January 1945 for similar duty in the Aleutians.
On 6 July 1945 she cleared Adak for repairs at Seattle, returning to Alaska to be decommissioned at Cold Bay on 26 August 1945 and transferred to the Russian Government, being commissioned into the Soviet Navy as an escort vessel [storozhevoi korabl] EK-19. She served under the Hammer and Sickle until returned to U.S. custody at Yokosuka, Japan, on 1 November 1949, where she was placed in reserve.
Loaned to the government of South Korea on 23 October 1950 and commissioned as Dumon (PF‑61). Muskogee was stricken from the (U.S.) Naval Vessel Register on 15 September 1972, and transferred outright under the Security Assistance Program to South Korea a little over a year later, on 1 October 1973.
Muskogee received one battle star for her World War II service, for her participation in the Leyte landings (18 October—22 November 1944).
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
11 August 2022
