From: Dictionary of American
Fighting Ships, Vol. A, 1991, Navy Department, Office of the Chief
of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, Washington, D.C.
ASKARI (ARL-30) was laid down on 8
December 1944 at Seneca, Ill., by the Chicago Bridge & Iron
Co.; launched on 2 March 1945; and sponsored by Mrs. Patricia
Ann Jacobsen as LST-1131. She was then ferried down the Mississippi
River to New Orleans, where the landing craft repair ship was
commissioned on 15 March 1945, Lt. Charles L. Haslup in command.
On 28 March, she got underway for Jacksonville, Fla., where she
was decommissioned on 9 April 1945 for outfitting for her role
by the Merrill-Stevens Drydock & Repair Co. The ship was recommissioned
as ASKARI on 23 July 1945.
Early in August, the ship voyaged from
Jacksonville to Norfolk where she remained until putting to sea
on the 20th, bound for the Pacific Ocean. After transiting the
Panama Canal and steaming north along the Pacific coast, she reached
San Diego on 21 September. At the beginning of October, ASKARI
shifted north to Seattle, and remained in the Puget Sound area-at
various locations-until the spring of 1946. Early in April 1946,
the ship headed south and arrived back at San Diego on the 10th.
She operated in that vicinity until sailing for the Marshall Islands
on 12 December 1947. Steaming by way of Hawaii, the repair ship
arrived at Eniwetok in the Marshalls on 11 January 1948 and spent
the next four months providing maintenance services to the landing
craft operating in support of Operation "Sandstone,"
nuclear bomb tests conducted there late in April and early in
May. After the experiments ended. ASKARI left Eniwetok on 29 May
and headed back-via Pearl Harbor-to San Diego. She reached that
port on 25 June and resumed local operations.
Her service at San Diego continued
through the outbreak of fighting in Korea late in June 1950. The
vessel sailed for the Far East on 10 August of that year, and
arrived in Kobe, Japan, on 6 September. Four days later, she was
underway to participate in the amphibious landing to be carried
out on the 15th at Inchon on South Korea's western coast. ASKARI
served at Inchon for slightly over a month before moving to Wonsan
on the eastern coast of North Korea late in October. Chinese communist
forces entered the conflict toward the end of November and sent
the United Nations forces reeling southward. A portion of those
troops converged on Hungnam, located due north of Wonsan about
40 miles distant, for evacuation. ASKARI shifted north from Wonsan
to Hungnam to support the ships and craft engaged in bringing
out the troops. During December, she fueled, repaired, and provided
other services to the amphibious craft and ships transporting
the troops. The evacuation ships embarked the last infantrymen
about mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, and ASKARI departed Hungnam
with them. Steaming via Pusan, she arrived in Yokosuka, Japan,
on the last day of 1950.
She remained in Japan until departing
Yokosuka on 9 February 1951 to return to Pusan. There, the ship
tended amphibious ships and craft until mid-April when she headed
home. She spent 10 days in Yokosuka before resuming her voyage
to the United States. ASKARI arrived in San Diego on 26 May and
remained there until she moved to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard
during the second week in July for overhaul. She completed repairs
in mid-September 1951 and returned to amphibious repair duties
at San Diego on the 20th. On 31 July 1952, she stood out to sea
and proceeded to the western Pacific. Except for a brief visit
to Kobe late in February 1953, ASKARI spent the entire deployment
at Yokosuka performing repair work in support of the amphibious
ships and craft attached to the 7th Fleet. The ship departed Yokosuka
on 6 April 1953 to return to the United States and reentered San
Diego Bay on 3 May. After an overhaul at Mare Island that occupied
most of the summer of 1953, ASKARI again took up repair duties
at San Diego at the beginning of the second week in September.
Just over a year later, on 20 September 1954, she headed back
toward the Far East.
This time, however, she charted a course
for a new trouble spot-the coast of southeast Asia. France's withdrawal
from Indochina fragmented the peninsula into Laos; Cambodia; and
two Vietnams: a communist state in the north, and a democratic
one in the south. The new political arrangement prompted a massive
migration of people in which the United States Navy was called
upon to carry out the seaborne portion of the movement. ASKARI
arrived at Henriette Passe in Along Bay near Haiphong in the north
on 29 October and began providing repair and other support services
for the transports, tank landing ships and landing craft that
would carry refugees from what would be communist North Vietnam
to democratic South Vietnam in Operation "Passage to Freedom."
The ship ended her service on the Vietnamese
coast on 18 November and promptly got underway, via Hong Kong,
for Japan. She arrived at Yokosuka on 4 December 1954, and four
days later, moved to Sasebo to conduct repair operations until
1 February 1955. ASKARI departed Sasebo on the latter date to
provide support services for the ships engaged in another humanitarian
effort, the evacuation of Nationalist Chinese from the Tachen
Islands. She returned from that mission to Sasebo on 14 February
and operated there for the remainder of the deployment. On 5 March
1955, she stood out of Sasebo on her way back to the United States.
The ship reached San Diego again on
4 April and worked at that port for about six months. Late in
October 1955, she moved north to Astoria, Oreg., and began preparations
for inactivation. ASKARI was decommissioned there on 21 March
1956 and was berthed with the Columbia River Group, Pacific Reserve
Fleet.
ASKARI remained in reserve for slightly
more than a decade. During her repose, she was berthed first at
Astoria; later moved to Stockton, Calif., and ended up at Mare
Island. In 1964, the United States began to intensify its involvement
in the war between the South Vietnamese Government and communist
insurgents Operations in the swampy Mekong delta called for the
use of a large number of river assault craft and their attendant
support ships. Accordingly, ASKARI was taken to the Willamette
Iron & Steel Co. at Richmond, Calif., late in November 1965
to prepare for service in South Vietnam. She was recommissioned
at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 13 August 1966, Lt. Comdr.
John F. Campbell in command.
The ship spent the next four months
fitting out, conducting shakedown training, and preparing to deploy
to the Far East. She stood out of San Diego on 12 December 1966,
bound for the western Pacific. However, an engineering casualty
to her main propulsion plant caused her to remain in Pearl Harbor
longer than anticipated. She finally pulled into Subic Bay in
the Philippines on 6 February 1967. There, ASKARI loaded provisions,
stores, and spare parts for five days before heading on to her
permanent assignment in South Vietnam. She steamed into Vung Tau
harbor on 15 February and reported for duty with River Assault
Flotilla (RivFlot) 1.
ASKARI spent the remainder of her Navy
career providing repair and other support services for the river
monitors, motorboats, and amphibious craft attached to Allied
riverine forces in the Mekong delta. She stayed at Vung Tau until
the second week in June when she moved into the delta proper.
The repair ship arrived at Nha Be on the Soi Rap River about five
miles south of Saigon on 13 June. The mobility of the riverine
forces was greatly enhanced by the fact that their base consisted
of ships like ASKARI that could move with them throughout the
delta and be close at hand to provide support services. A permanent
base ashore would not have afforded such immediacy. During 1967
and most of 1968, ASKARI moved from location to location in the
delta as the Mobile Riverine Force's zone of operations changed.
On 1 November 1968, WESTCHESTER COUNTY (LST-1167), one of the
ships that comprised the riverine force's mobile base, suffered
severe damage and lost a number of crewmen as a result of the
explosion of two mines attached to her hull by enemy swimmer-sappers.
While continuing with her responsibilities to the rest of the
riverine force, ASKARI put forth most of the effort required to
salvage and to repair the tank landing ship.
At the end of 1968, the Mobile Riverine
Force began to focus its attention on communist logistic routes
coming into the delta from Cambodia. During the second week in
December, ASKARI moved to the vicinity of the Song Vam Co, Song
Vam Co Dong and Song Vam Co Tay Rivers to support friendly vessels
in their prosecution of Operation "Giant Slingshot."
Her labors in behalf of the interdiction effort continued through
the first eight months of 1969. At the beginning of September,
the ship departed Vietnamese waters to undergo repairs at Sasebo,
Japan.
When she returned to Vietnam at the
end of October 1969, ASKARI resumed repair duties, this time at
Chau Doc, south of her previous base of operations. She remained
there until 9 November when the base ships relocated to Long Xuyen-their
station for the remainder of 1969 and most of the first quarter
of 1970. Late in March 1970, she and the other support ships moved
to Dong Tam and provided repair services at that point until early
May. On 9 May, she returned to the upper reaches of the Mekong
near the Cambodian border to resume support for efforts to stop
the flow of communist supplies. Early in June, the ship arrived
back at Dong Tam to serve as the primary support ship for RivRon
13 and RivRon 15 until those squadrons turned over their responsibilities
to South Vietnamese forces later that month. Between 25 June and
31 August, she operated successively in the upper Mekong, at Binh
Thuy on the lower Mekong and then back at Dong Tam again. Except
for a round-trip mission to deliver boat engines to Song Bo De
between 31 August and 8 September, ASKARI performed her support
functions at Dong Tam until the middle of December.
Thereafter, the ship continued to serve
at various locations in the Mekong delta for nine more months.
In mid-August 1971, she proceeded from Vietnam to the Marianas
on her last voyage for the United States Navy. On 1 September
1971, ASKARI was decommissioned at Guam and turned over to the
Indonesian Government under the terms of the Military Assistance
Program. The Indonesian Navy recommissioned her that same day
as RI DJAJA WIDJAJA. Because of her status as a loan, ASKARI remained
on the Navy list until February 1979. At that time, her name was
struck from the Navy list; and she was permanently transferred
to the Indonesian Navy by sale.
ASKARI earned four battle stars during
the Korean conflict and received 12 battle stars and two Presidential
Unit Citations for service in Vietnam.
Apparently the ship lives on today. Col. Bambano Susanto, the military attaché at the Indonesian embassy in Washington, D.C., advised that the ship proceeded to the Naval Base at Surabaja on the eastern end of the island of Java and began repair duties. Col. Susanto actually served on the ship from 1975 to 1978. She is said to still be on active duty there.
Top of Page