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USS Cacapon, a 7470-ton Cimarron class oiler, was built under a Maritime Commission contract at Sparrows Point, Maryland. Acquired by the Navy and commissioned in September 1943, she carried fuel from the West Indies to Hawaii on her maiden voyage, then continued further into the Pacific to refuel ships participating in the Gilbert Islands operation. For the rest of the Second World War, Cacapon continued to support operations against Japan, carrying vital oil cargo to replenish ships of the 3rd, 5th and 7th fleets.
During the last months of 1945, Cacapon assisted with post-war occupation efforts in the Far East, and in 1946 was assigned to transport oil from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific. However, an accidental grounding cut short that job and sent her back to the U.S. for repairs. In 1947, the oiler participated in the Operation "Highjump" Antarctic operation. She continued her Pacific Fleet employment for the rest of the decade and made four deployments to Asian waters during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Cacapon's Pacific Fleet career lasted for two decades after the Korean Armistice. During this time, she freqently voyaged to the western Pacific to support the U.S. Seventh Fleet, including further combat operations during the Vietnam War from 1965 into the early 1970s. After almost thirty years' in commission, USS Cacapon was decommissioned in August 1973. She was simultaneously stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred to the Maritime Administration to be sold for scrapping.
Downloadable document of the USS Cacapon History to 1959.
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