Pilot II AM-104

Pilot II
(AM-104: dp. 890; 1. 221'2"; b. 32'; dr. 10'9"; s. 18 k.; cpl.
105; a. 1 3", 2 40mm.; cl. Auk).

The second Pilot (AM-104) was laid down by the Pennsylvania Shipyards Ine., Beaumont, Tex., 27 October 1941; launched 5 July 1942; sponsored by Miss Jaequeline Perry and commissioned 3 February 1943, Lt. Comdr. S. W. Wetmore, USNR, in command.

After sea trials, Pilot sailed 10 February via New Orleans and Key West for Norfolk arriving 1 March. After training at the Naval Mine Warfare School, Yorktown, Va. and in the Chesapeake, Pilot sailed 1 April with Task Group 68.2, made rendezvous with a convoy and the next day, set course for Port Royal Bay, Bermuda, arriving on the 4th. On 14 April Pilot screened another convoy headed to French Moroceo arriving Casablanea 29 April

Piiot stood out a6ain the same day en route to Admiralty Harbor, Gibraltar where she arrived the next day. On 3 May she sailed for Bermuda and on 6 May made two attacks on possible submarines. She arrived Norfolk 20 May.

On 12 June Pilot stood out from New York with Task

Force 61 en route to the Mediterranean. When a French naval tanker of the convoy was torpedoed 22 June and sank stern first, Pilot rescued 111 survivors. The following day she transferred the passengers to Merrimac.

Pilot arrived off Casablanca harbor 3 July. On the 5th, she got underway for Gibraltar to fuel, and the following day departed, escorting a convoy toward the United States, arriving Norfolk 24 July.

On 5 August, Pilot stood out enroute to the Mediterranean again. She arrived at Casablanca, French Moroceo 23 August and Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria 29 August where several more vessels joined her convoy. She sailed again on 1 September for Salerno, Italy. On 8 September Pilot was detached from escort duty and assigned mine sweeping duties with 7 other minesweepers, sweeping a channel off the Salerno beachhead.

After the beachhead had been established, Pilot patrolled the area. On 18 September her alert gunners shot down a Messersehmitt 109 plane

Pilot continued escort and training duties in the Mediterranean until she sailed up the northwest ecast of Italy 21 January 1944, with 5 other 'deet type minesweepers conducting sweep operations under cover of darkness. On 25 January when a mine sank YMS-30, Pilot picked up several survivors and 4 bodies while other ships also recovered members of the crew. On 26 January when a British LST, carrying the 83rd U S. Army Chemienl Battalion, sank, Pilot again rescued survivors.

On 29 January Pilot swept a new fire support area, despite fire from the beach. On 3 February, Pilot sailed for Bizerte, Tunisia escorting Biscayne. She returned to Palermo on the 17th and sailed on for Naples the same day. The next day Pilot received orders to rendezvous with SS Samuel Ashe and escort her to Anzio, Italy in company with YMS-55. Unfortunately Samuel Ashe collided with Pilot and one man was killed. Later, Pilot was towed into port at Naples for repairs. She sailed 7 March for Palermo, Sicily, and, on 14 April, joined homebound convoy GUS 36 and arrived Norfolk 2 May.

After repairs and training at Little Creek, Va., until September, Pilot served for the remainder of the year as a mine sweeping school ship.

Pilot set course for the Panama Canal 20 June 1945, and proceeded via San Pedro, Calif. to Pearl Harbor. On 3 September Pilot got underway via Eniwetok, Saipan, and Okinawa, to Sasebo, Kyushu, Japan arriving on the 17th. On 26 October she set out en route to Kokuzan To, Japan escorting paM-26. On the next day she was detached from escort duties to sweep an area at Me Shima until arriving at Kiirun, Formosa 25 November. She set out again on the 27th for Takso, Formosa to sweep more mines. On 21 December Pilot sailed for Shanghai, China.

In January 1946 Pilot returned to the United States and was placed out of commission in reserve 15 January 1947. On 5 March 1952 she recommissioned for service on the west coast. She decommissioned and reentered the Reserve Fleet in October 1954. She was redesignated MSF-104 on 7 Feb~ wary 1955.

Pilot received three battle stars for World War II service.